Whales and Marines Mammals

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
Press release n°11

Several species of large and small cetaceans frequent the coastal waters of eastern Japan and are in the area affected by the liquid and atmospheric radioactive effluent discharged by the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant.

In particular, this concerns sperm whales, Bryde’s whales, Minke whales, Dall’s porpoises and dolphins. Their lifespan, diet and position at the top of the marine food chain expose them all to the bioaccumulation of chemical and radioactive pollutants.

The Conference on Biodiversity taking place in Nagoya Japan ends today while, in November, the Japanese whaling fleet will leave for Antarctica to catch 1,000 whales. Since 1986, when the moratorium on commercial whaling entered into force Japan has killed, in the name of science, 13,210 whales of which close to 10,000 were caught in Antarctica, a whale sanctuary since 1994. Considering the state of the Japanese whaling fleet, the entire Antarctic ecosystem is threatened by an oil spill.

Robin des Bois remains very sceptical about the evolution of the compromise on research at the heart of the IWC. A number of delegations and NGOs have made it their priority and deplored that in the convention’s actual state Japan, Iceland and Norway remain out of its’ control. Robin des Bois prefers this situation to that of the International Whaling Commission being controlled by Japan, Iceland and Norway.

Robin des Bois hopes that France and other European Nations unite with Australia when they bring their claim to the International court of Justice in The Hague, aiming at banning scientific whaling carried out by Japan in the Austral Ocean. In this way the Japanese whaling fleets’ next campaign in the Antarctic will be increasingly contested.

Arriving confident and ready to fight, promoters of the so called “compromise” document are today taking a low profile. Two days of “private meetings between commissioners” safe from the eyes and ears of NGOs proved fruitless. Japan, Norway, Island and Korea were successively heard by groups of 5 countries during thirty odd sessions over two days. The process was compared by some delegates to “speed dating”.

Now some countries feel, that they should start anew, others believe that they should take into account the documents on the agenda as basis for future work. The European Union prefers the latter. Formalities on how to move the discussion forward during this “new period of reflection” will be taken before the end of the debates.

Subjet : BP Oil Spill

The cumulated amount of oil in the ocean is estimated to range between a low bracket of 300,000 and high a high bracket of 500,000 tons. The Gulf of Mexico has a surface area of 1,500,000 km²; on May 2nd fishing was prohibited within a closed area of 17,000 km². Today, the no take zone extends to 225,000 km². The sale of potentially contaminated seafood must be forbidden to avoid any risk of poisoning Americans.

An array of contradictory propositions is on the table of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Agadir.

The propositions are presumably to help the IWC to abscond the stagnation and the status quo that certain involved parties—NGO’s and member states—have criticized. “The implosion” of the commission is waved year after year as a scarecrow. What if it was the opposite! Outside the convention, Japan could no longer put forward article 8 authorizing hunting for scientific ends and would be clearly the only pirate in the Antarctic or other sanctuaries where their fleet dares to hunt whales.

The 62nd plenary session of the International Whaling Commission will be held in Agadir from June 21st to 25th. The fate of a surrealistic and double-dealing compromise will be decided there, that would confirm for 10 years Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whaling, from the Arctic to Antarctica. This document, a hybrid product of dialogue between a few IWC member states, includes target-species such as Fin whales, Minke whales, Humpback whales, Southern Right Whales, Bryde whales, Sei whales and Sperm whales. Of course, the return of hunting will be stamped and certified by the presence of observers aboard the whaling fleets. They will not work for charity. Their official salary is billed to the IWC and contributions made by European member states will grow from 800.000 to 1.500.000 euros per year altogether. Efforts will be made and financed too so as that whales be not exposed during capture and killing to unneeded pain. All is done to ensure the well-being of the whales while they are speared.

Only in French.

On Whales and their Usefulness (pdf 20 pages 1Mo)

Only in French.