UPDATE - WORLDWIDE PROTEST URGES JAPANESE WHALING FLEET - "DON'T GO!"

5 November 2001

Protestors in 14 countries (1) today converged on Japanese embassies imploring the Japanese Prime Minister not to send his whaling fleet to Antarctica to kill minke whales. More countries are expected to follow.

In Sydney, Australia, a large pink whale was parked near to the Japanese Consulate and activists wearing giant eyeballs over their heads - denoting "the world is watching" - presented a message to the Deputy Consulate to be conveyed to the Prime Minister, Mr. Koizumi. The Japanese text, printed on a rice paper scroll, read "Don't go!" Outside, protestors unfurled banners and handed out leaflets to the public.

In Auckland, New Zealand the Senior Consul accepted the rice paper scroll from the hands of an "eyeball head" protester, saying he would communicate the message to the Foreign Ministry in Japan. In Fiji a letter was delivered to the First Secretary for Economic Affairs, while at the Greenpeace office banners - some in Japanese text - raised public curiosity.

More eyeball protestors delivered messages in the UK, Germany, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain … with others to follow. At the same time today people around the world have sent the same message to Prime Minister Koizumi via e-mail and faxes.

In Japan Greenpeace had already delivered petitions to the offices of the Prime Minister and to those of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Takana and the Minister of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries, Mr. Takebe, demanding that the whaling fleet not be allowed to leave Shimonoseki.

The Japanese whaling fleet is due to depart Shimonoseki, Southern Japan, on 7th November to hunt 440 minke whales in Antarctica. This is despite a plea from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that the Japanese government should "halt the lethal takes of whales" (2), and the fact that the IWC has designated the area a sanctuary for whales. The whales Japan hunts appear to be in decline and IWC scientists are unable to agree on an estimate for the number of whales or to rule out that this population may have suffered a precipitous decline over the past decade.

Today's protests serve as a warning that Japan is now perilously close to bringing about an end to the moratorium on commercial whaling. The Japanese Government has admitted using overseas aid to buy support from developing countries in the Caribbean and elsewhere (3), and, it is believed it will intensify its efforts to build a majority before the next meeting of the IWC. This will be held in the Japanese fleet's home port of Shimonoseki in May 2002.

"Japan wants a return to high seas whaling with factory ships," said Richard Page, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner. "If the global community doesn't stop Japan rigging the deck at the IWC we'll see again the sort of whaling that devastated whale populations all over the globe."

"Year after year the Japanese Government has ignored world opinion," said Motoji Nagasawa, Greenpeace Campaigner in Japan. "We have asked Prime Minister Koizumi to stop the fleet before it leaves port. We can only hope that he will listen."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Sue Cooper, Greenpeace International Media Officer,
Tel: +44 (0) 1759368286

Richard Page, Greenpeace International, Oceans Campaigner
Tel: +44 (0) 207 8658242
Mobile: +44 (0) 7801 212 966.

Stills available: Greenpeace International Photo Desk
Tel: +31 20 52 49 580

(1) Australia,Austria, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the UK. More protests are expected in the US, Chile and Mexico.

(2) TheResolution on southern hemisphere minke whales and special permit whaling passed by the IWC in July 2001, includes the following:

"CONCERNED that the Scientific Committee report cannot rule out that the Southern Hemisphere minke whale population may have suffered a precipitous decline over the past decade; NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION …

STRONGLY URGES the Government of Japan to halt the lethal takes of minke whales conducted under the JARPA programme, at least until the Scientific Committee has reported to the Commission on the impacts of the JARPA programme on the stocks of minke whales in Areas IV and V."

(3) In an interview broadcast on the Australian ABC TV in July 2001, a senior Japanese official, Mr Komatsu, described minke whales as "cockroaches of the sea", and admitted that Japan saw development aid as a "major tool" in ensuring that key developing countries voted in favour of whaling at the IWC.