In a recent press release posted by JiJi Press, the Japanese Whaling fleet returned back from the Southern Atlantic Ocean with a total of 267 dead whales. Of those caught and killed, 172 whales were pregnant.

When you think of it, it is at best an outrage. Japan’s press release was that it was a “successful catch,” when in truth, whale meat is being stockpiled for people who eat it only as a luxury. The fact is, less than 2% of the Japan’s population eat whale meat.

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Justice is really blind, now that a U.S. Federal Court Judge, Richard A. Jones, is willing to listen to a frivilous lawsuit filed by the Japanese to stop the Sea Shepherd from its activities to hinder the Japanese from their so called "scientific research".

In a recent Associated Press release, The Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean (Whale) Research along with a few other countries are seeking to get a U.S. federal court to order the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to cease disrupting its whaling activities in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.

What is amazing to me that a U.S. federal judge is willing to hear Japan’s whaling argument or even allow it into the federal court system. Why? Consider the fact that our own President was supposed to take the side of anti-whaling, based on his initial campaign promises.

But, as we have seen, no sanctions – other than a letter – have been written and authorized by the President – and sent to the Faroe Islands, which somehow is supposed to tell them to “stop whaling”.

It is kind of like the recent spy plane recovery. A several trillion dollar spy plane is downed in Iran. Instead of destroying or recovering it, Obama felt that we could just get it back by asking for it. Well, it will be returned – in pieces!

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The onslaught of endangered whales continues, while Japan ignores the real truth

It is time once again for Paul Watson and his group of merry men (and women) to brave the Antarctic seas in an attempt to disrupt and delay the extinction of a race.

I am talking about whales.

The Japanese to date have fabricated the need for whale meat, when giant frozen stores lie untouched in Japan. Why? Because less than two per cent of the Japanese population eat whale meat. Some don’t even know it is still being sold.

So why are whales being hunted by the Japanese and being killed? Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent blog from the New York Times, a “cushioned warning” has been recorded about whales,

made by President Obama against Iceland.

The warning is tantamount to saying how much the budget was cut, when in reality nothing was really “cut”.

This is a portion of the blog regarding whaling is what I want to focus on:

In a move hailed by conservation activists, President Barack Obama initiated potential diplomatic sanctions against Iceland this week for its commercial whaling activity. The sanctions include six measures ranging from possibly limiting cabinet-level visits to Iceland to limiting cooperation with Iceland in the Arctic region. Read the rest of this entry »

A friend of you and I asks your help.

Many of you who have read my ongoing blogs, know how I feel about the taking of life from sentient animals, especially whales.

My main concern has been endangered whales, but I do include dolphins, simply because I have had many wonderful opportunities to know and be with dolphins.

What I have come to realize is not the death of these animals I want to focus on – as far as Taiji is concerned – but it is only the rebirth of man’s awareness regarding his responsibility to his own environ.

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With the life of whales in the balance, is the Obama administration really capable of making a decision to save them?

The Obama Administration could save whales or end their life in our seas

“A few days ago, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the U.S. Department of Commerce formally declared that Iceland is undermining the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by hunting whales in defiance of the IWC’s global ban on commercial whaling. As a result of this declaration, President Obama now has 60 days to decide whether to impose economic penalties and/or trade sanctions against Iceland pursuant to legislation known as the ‘Pelly Amendment’. Diplomatic negotiations and disapproval of other countries have so far failed to stop this practice.” Read the rest of this entry »

What can be considered a bold move by the Obama administration, could be considered a blade with two sharp edges.

Recently and According to the Associated Foreign Press, environmentalists convinced Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to enact the Pelly Amendment to the Fisherman’s Protective Act that could impose a whole variety of sanctions on Iceland.

A frrustrated IWC board member

In an en-masse walkout orchestrated by Japan, the attempt to create a southern whale sanctuary has been put off another year.

That means more whales to be hunted and killed. It also means that the small band of recalcitrants, Watson and his band of merry men (and women), must once again single-handedly battle the Japanese.

At the meeting, one of the top Japanese officials commented that this could herald a return to the fractious days of the past, and walked out in an attempt to bring the meeting below the quorum needed for votes to count.

“We fear that the fact of voting will probably damage the very good atmosphere we have established, and might trigger a landslide of many votes for next year which might disrupt the progress we have made,” said Japan’s alternate (or deputy) commissioner Joji Morishita.

The Japanese insist they have done nothing wrong, although they have twisted language to make themselves right. And then the very countries that walk out are the very countries Japan has given financial aid to or bought whale meat from. Many if these countries have been turned recently to the side of pro-whaling, date coincident with Japanese financial support.

Yet, the Japanese state they have “done nothing wrong”.

The truth is that the Japanese government  never is willing to hold themselves accountable. For over fifteen years, the government battled their own countrymen in denying that their toxic incinerators had harmed anything. Incinerators that are probabaly the largest refuse burning facilities in the world, and burn 24/7. Yet people were dying and children deformed.

Additionally Japanese officials denying they bribe and take bribes for their over- fishing. Yet this very past year they were caught bribing Russian inspectors to look the other way when fishing counts were far above agreed upon quotas.

It doesn’t stop there. The Japanese government, when alerted to the fact that officials had been bribed in a recent whale meat scandal,  jailed the people that blew the whistle on their underhanded dealings. Publicly only two Japanese governmental employees were chastised, when it was known more than just two government employees participated. The solution was to have the two men bow there heads on Japan National Television and say they were sorry. Nothing else was done to these people. Moving to the usage of the word “research”, well the truth is that Japanese officials sought out a loophole in wording ( a twist and misuse of the English language) as a means to then catch whales that are then sold into the public market.

It is the same for the recent Toyota debacle, where many Americans lost their lives to faulty automotive Japanese equipment. Japanese automakers have cried “foul” and went to the extent of paying hush money to the key witnesses. In all of that, Japanese officials claim no wrong doing!

But no Japanese official claims or is willing to take any responsibility for their actions. “Gods” can’t be responsible for anything and can do anything they please, anywhere!

Why do I say “Gods”? Remember that the emperors of Japan were considered Gods (although they bleed and were completely human, frail to all human traits and avarice), but they could do no wrong, no matter who they killed or laws they imposed on the people. And the people to this day don’t dare to speak out, simply because the contagion of aberration has been impressed on them for so long, that they have forgotten their own freedoms.

And those self same officials have certified their own “official” documents saying that minke whales, for example can be hunted because their numbers are sustainable. Well, after you have read the above, how much do you really trust those documents? I don’t!

So when the pro-whaling group of Japanese, Iceland and African nations walked out of the meetings, they can say that they have done nothing wrong by paying and buying off those countries, I can actually understand why they feel they have and never will,  done anything wrong.

After all, they are “gods” and accountable to no one.

And when the seas are finally laid bare, mark my words. Japan will only stand up on television (after years of denial) and then say “we so sorry”. And that will be that. The whales and all other sea life will be pillaged.

Is that the planet you wish to live in?

This coming week the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in the Channel Islands off the coast of France. Australia and South America will be there in force to fight against whaling.

But where does the U.S. stand with regards to whaling?

In my last post I submitted to you an article, published in Buenos Aires about the U.S. now backing indigenous Alaskans in their lobbying to hunt whales. The shifting of the U.S. position is contrary to its past anti-whaling stance.

Could this be an indicator of what is to come for whales? President Obama, prior to his winning his presidential race, made a promise to protect whales. But then, he made many promises he has not kept.

First of all, I am surprised that there is such emotion tied to the killing of whales for the sake of cultural tradition, when in fact the alaskan culture has already shifted its paradigm in their modern housing, communication and living habits. To then “revert” back to the old ways is a bit suspicious, when it appears none of the modern conveniences are being given up.

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I usually excerpt articles I find throughout the internet on saving whales. But this article is hard-hitting and has all the facts. Facts that should be made public.

Our own U.S. government is now pushing to legitimize whaling. It is sickening at best.

This is what the current administration is doing to these magnificent creatures. Read it for yourself and tell me what you think:

U.S. Replaces Japan in Role of Villain on Whales

By Marcela Valente*

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 1, 2011 (Tierramérica) – The United States has taken over the pro-whaling stance traditionally championed by Japan, but instead of supporting the capture of whales for scientific research purposes, it is doing so under the guise of aboriginal subsistence quotas.

This is one of the conclusions reached by Latin American conservationist organisations as they prepare for the upcoming annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), to be held Jul. 3-5 on the Channel Island of Jersey.

Established in 1946 to regulate the hunting and trade of whales, the IWC is made up of 89 countries. While some of them are in favour of commercial whaling, others maintain a conservationist stance, including the Latin American bloc of members.

José Truda Palazzo, former Brazilian commissioner to the IWC and now the coordinator of the Southern Right Whale Project at the Cetacean Conservation Centre of Brazil, told Tierramérica that the latest threat is not posed by Japan but rather by the United States.

“There is considerable unease throughout the region because the U.S. delegation, which is aggressive and unwilling to negotiate, is going to try to retable an initiative in Jersey that would legitimise whaling,” he said.

There is a long history behind this stance. In the face of radical declines in the populations of many whale species and the danger of extinction, the IWC declared an international moratorium on commercial whaling that entered into force in 1986. Since then, Japan has used a loophole in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling that allows for the capture of whales for scientific research purposes in order to continue whaling.

Environmental organisations estimate that Japan captures around 400 whales a year, which is far more than would be necessary for conducting research, and even hunts in so-called “sanctuaries” or specially protected areas.

The United States was long viewed as a world leader in whale conservation, but defended the allocation of a quota for subsistence whaling by aboriginal peoples in the northwestern state of Alaska. In 2002, Japan used its majority of votes in the CBI to block this quota.

Following that defeat, considered by environmentalists as a Japanese reprisal against U.S. conservationist leadership, the United States remained neutral. But for the last three years, its delegates have become even more pro-whaling than Japan.

At the last IWC annual meeting, held in 2010 in Agadir, Morocco, the United States sought the adoption of a programme of reforms that maintained the moratorium in general but proposed quotas for whaling and legitimised Japan’s captures.

This proposal was rejected, among other reasons, because of the strong opposition of Latin American countries along with others like Australia.

In Jersey, the U.S. delegation, with the support of New Zealand, will attempt to push through its proposal once again.

“It is truly unfortunate, because (the United States) has a long tradition of conservationism and defence of non-lethal use, and now the U.S. delegation is pro-whaling,” commented Truda Palazzo.

He believes that the change in stance is due to the fact that “in the northern state of Alaska traditional communities have enormous political power and they send their delegates to the IWC meetings, but they are not authentic Eskimos who go out in boats made of animal hides and hunt with harpoons,” he said.

“They have technology and government subsidies and they don’t hunt out of a need for survival,” he added. In his opinion, this is a domestic political issue in the United States for which the rest of the members of the IWC are “taken hostage.”

The Buenos Aires Group, as the Latin American bloc in the IWC is known, has announced that it will continue to oppose this initiative. The group is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

Roxana Schteinbarg of the Whale Conservation Institute of Argentina agreed that the greatest cause for concern is no longer Japan but rather the United States.

“In 2012, aboriginal whaling quotas will be up for negotiation once again, and it is possible that the United States has made a bilateral deal with Japan to support it now in order to get its backing for those quotas next year,” Schteinbarg told Tierramérica.

But the United States is not alone in defending aboriginal subsistence quotas for Alaska. These quotas are also supported by Denmark, on behalf of Greenland, as well as Russia and even the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. “We agree that subsistence whaling should be allowed, but we don’t believe this to be the case in most of these countries,” Schteinbarg added.

In countries that defend an aboriginal subsistence quota, she said, explosives are used to capture the whales, and whale meat is sold in supermarkets in Greenland, for example, which clearly demonstrates that this is in fact a case of commercial whaling. Given this state of affairs, it is fortunate that the Buenos Aires Group has continued to work towards a common strategy that “could make all the difference” in negotiations, said Schteinbarg.

In Latin America, whale watching has become a popular tourism activity that has consistently grown over the last 40 years.

There are now 18 countries in the region that promote the activity, according to “The State of Whale Watching in Latin America”, a report published in 2008 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Global Ocean and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

The Latin American delegates at the meeting in Jersey will propose changes to the IWC regulations to foster greater civil society participation, and will once again table a proposal for the creation of the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary, an initiative that has still not gained a consensus.

Elsa Cabrera, executive director of the Cetacean Conservation Centre of Chile, told Tierramérica that in order to expand public participation and gain greater support for these initiatives before the meeting in Jersey, on online petition campaign has been launched at http://www.cerocazadeballenas.cl/.

*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank. (END)