INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION TO JAPAN’S WHALE HUNT GROWING

30 August 2000

AMSTERDAM -- Today 19 Greenpeace offices around the world are sending a clear message to Japan condemning its expanded 'scientific' whale hunt in the North Pacific. Greenpeace is calling on Japan to immediately halt this whaling programme, to withdraw the permit that has been issued and to recall the fleet to port.

Twenty seven whales including one sperm whale and four Brydes whales have already been killed during this hunt. This is the first year since the moratorium on whaling came into force in 1986, that these species of whale have been targeted. Both sperm and Brydes whales were heavily exploited in the past.

"The International community has already shown opposition to this expanded 'scientific' whale hunt," said John Frizell Greenpeace International whales campaigner. "How much longer will Japan continue to defy international opinion and undermine international conservation measures?"

In Tokyo last week representatives of fifteen governments urged Japan to end this scientific whaling programme. Governments represented included Austria, Brazil, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Personal appeals to end the 'scientific' hunt have been made by the U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The plans for this hunt were met with opposition at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting held in Adelaide in July. A strongly worded resolution noting that its scientific committee had not endorsed the proposal and urging Japan not to proceed with the hunt was passed with an overwhelming majority by the IWC (1).

"This hunt is not about science but about feeding the lucrative demand for whale meat," said Frizell.

Meat from the whales caught during this hunt will be sold as a delicacy on the open market in Japan. By exploiting a loophole in the IWC's rules Japan kills over five hundred whales per year. Japan claims that the purpose of the extended hunt in the North Pacific is to gather information about the interaction between whales and their prey species but the IWC has concluded that this does not justify the killing of whales for research purposes.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Sarah Duthie, Greenpeace International Communications +31 6 25 03 10 05

Stills available: contact John Novis +31 6 56 81 91 21

(1) IWC resolution IWC/52/36, that condemned Japan’s plans to extend its hunt, was passed by the IWC at its most recent meeting in Adelaide by a vote of 19 to 12. The last paragraph and the operating paragraphs are given below:

NOTING, in particular that the Scientific Committee did not endorse the JARPN II proposal (Japanese Research Programme in the North Pacific) NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION:

AFFIRMS that gathering information on interactions between whales and prey species is not a critically important issue which justifies the killing of whales for research purposes;

PROPOSES that information on stock structure, which may be relevant to management, be obtained by non-lethal means;

STRONGLY URGES the Government of Japan to refrain from issuing special permits for whaling under JARPN II.