Greenpeace anti-whaling protesters arrested at IWC meeting

Greenpeace activists have been arrested by St Kitts (the Carribean island where the IWC has been meeting) police while conducting a peaceful protest. This from an ABC online news report:

The [ten] Greenpeace protesters had been placing about 1,000 cardboard whale tails on a beach outside the meeting.

The cut-outs represent the number of whales that will be killed under Japan's "scientific whaling program".

The police were armed with batons, some with M-16 automatic guns, and tear-gas grenade launchers! Talk about overkill!

Before he was arrested, [Greenpeace spokesperson] Mike Townsley pointed out to the police the IWC meeting had explicitly given its support to peaceful protests over whale hunts.

"What could be more peaceful than 1,000 cardboard whale tails?" he said.

There have also been calls from some environmental groups for a consumer boycott of products of whaling countries. Personally, I support a boycott of products by companies that profit from whaling, but I'm not sure about this tactic. I understand why some would call for a wider ban when you consider the big resources these countries' governments put in to winning their arguments in the IWC, so perhaps it is worth considering holding the governments and nations accountable.

However, we shouldn't just focus on Japan's products. Norway has defied the morotorium for many years, and Iceland is one of the big players in the pro-whaling bloc. So, no more Norwegian smoked salmon and sardines? Boycott Björk, anyone? This is where it could get ridiculous. Let's focus on targeted boycotts of companies or industries involved: fisheries, shipping, processed foods. I would welcome suggestions and links to resources for this.

You can listen to an mp3 of an ABC radio report about the call for a ban. Mp3 link.

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Japan's pro-whaling vote win on IWC

For those following the anti-whaling debate here (and elsewhere), I thought I'd post a quick follow up: Japan won some votes at the IWC conference in St Kitts and Nevis, including one declaring that the morotorium on whaling was no longer needed. Ouch! A bad day for whales! It made the headlines in Australia, including this ABC News online piece: Japan wins symbolic pro-whaling vote.

However, the whaling lobby also lost some key votes – including their move to introduce secret ballots at the Commission, which was seen as a move to enable Japan's small-nation allies to vote in its favour without being accountable to the rest of the conference.

The ABC News online article has excellent coverage of the IWC outcomes, (including audio-on-demand) so I suggest checking it out.

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Greenpeace anti-whaling advertisement

In the comments to a previous post on whaling and the IWC, Mike Bogle posted the link to the Greenpeace television advertisement against whaling. I'm not sure what the hoo-ha was, I didn't think it was that gruesome (though I agree, young kids shouldn't watch it, Mike). I thought the reference to whale watching clever though.

I thought I'd post the link here for all to see. Here is the link to the Greenpeace webpage – check out the video ad yourself.

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Now this is a whale of a branch stack

"For the first time since the 1970s, the IWC would be under the control of the whalers," says Vassily Papastavrou, a marine biologist with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The BBC News website reports that the pro-whaling nations are set for a majority on the International Whaling Commission when it meets this year. They report that:

A pro-whaling majority could lead to the scrapping of conservation and welfare programmes, though not a return to full-scale commercial whaling.

…a simple majority would be enough to end IWC work on issues which Japan believes to be outside its remit, such as welfare and killing methods, whale-watching and anything concerning small cetaceans such as dolphins.

Basically, whaling nations have been lobbying their 'mates' to join the IWC in order to get the numbers in their favour. Some countries, such as the Marshall Islands, Guatemala and Cambodia, joined at Japan's behest. Some of these are what can only be called 'client states'. There have been past reports that a number of South Pacific island nations have voted in favour of Japan's whaling stance on the IWC because they are heavily reliant on Japan's investment and aid money. This, however, is taking branch stacking a little too far...

This reminds me that whaling is an issue all year round, and not just at hunting season, and that the campaign should continue…

[Thanks to David for the tip.]

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