Whales are people, too
A declaration of the rights of cetaceans
Feb 25th 2012 | VANCOUVER | from the print edition
A pod of persons
THE “Declaration of the Rights of Man” was a crucial step in the French revolution. The document, drafted by the Marquis de Lafayette, marked a break with the political past by proposing that everyone, however humble his birth, had certain inalienable civil rights. These were liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. Merely being a man conferred them.
These days, such rights extend to women as well. But what if you are not human? Read More
APNewsBreak: US mulls sanctions against Iceland
By DAVID Mac DOUGALL, Associated Press – 4 hours ago
HELSINKI (AP) — The United States is set to announce possible trade and diplomatic sanctions against Iceland for ramping up its whale hunts despite an international moratorium on commercial whaling.
The Obama administration on Wednesday will cite Iceland under a domestic law that allows the president to
act Read More
A new movement of consciousness amongst Icelanders is gaining momentum. From meetings with the prominent and politically connected, to students from the universities, a small movement of pro whale watching and anti whaling advocates has been formed. This movement will focus on a powerful pro whale watching campaign which challenges the whaling and fishing industry’s false statements that promote the killing of whales. Just as the financial sectors of Iceland and U.S. claimed they should be trusted with financial investments prior to and throughout this worldwide economic collapse, the whaling and fisheries industry of Iceland claim they should be trusted with the international whale population. The scientific advisors to the Fisheries and Whaling industries of Iceland are submissive to the Chairman and other Executives of the Fisheries, which also happens to be the owners of the largest whaling company in Iceland. The scientists for the Marine Research Institute of Iceland (MRI) are incentivized by the Ministry of Fisheries, The Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners (LIU), and The Confederation of Icelandic Employers (SA) to produce scientific study results that support whaling. Just like the incentives that caused the global economic crisis, these incentives for the MRI scientist will contribute to the collapse of worldwide whale species.
This new group of pro whale watching and anti whaling advocates are fully aware that the whaling industry is controlled by a few wealthy individuals and can be toppled with a strategic attack. The movement is gaining momentum alongside the whale watching industry. Whaling will fall in Iceland and it’s only a matter of months before the owners of the whaling companies and their supporters in the Parliament and Fisheries will succumb to the same slow, painful end that they have given time and again to the whales of our world.
If you would like to join the movement, please email us at tim@keepingwhalesalive.org
Japan’s whaling fleet on the run
January 22, 2011
Hunted … the anti-whaling vessel Steve Irwin pursues the Japanese whaling fleet earlier this month. The future of Japan’s Antarctic industry hangs in the balance, writes Andrew Darby.
IN THE shadows of intent, somewhere between harmless fireworks and deadly force, lies the whaling conflict in the Antarctic. At one end of this spectrum are the stink bombs thrown against water jets. At the other is the near fatal collision involving the Ady Gil. Among all this piratical colour
A report from fisheries newspaper Minato Shinbun on Monday, January 24, 2011 discussed a press conference held on January 20 by Kyodo Senpaku, the Japan Whaling Association, and the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), where the three bodies outlined the many serious problems facing the whaling industry. Kazuo Murayama, the CEO of Kyodo Senpaku and the head of the Japan Whaling Association said “annual sales have decreased 30% during the first half of [2010] (fiscal year)” and mentioned that the JWA’s activities may be decreased as a result. The ICR announced that it has reduced the number of its executive directors to one. Yoshihiro Fujise, who was appointed as the first “proper” (he is a scientist promoted from within the ICR, not a retired FAJ executive) Executive Director of ICR since Nov 30 2010, also explained that the financial model of covering the research costs by selling whale meat as a “byproduct” of the research no longer worked.
Lloyd’s Seaweb lists the status of the Hiyo Maru, the ship used to refuel the fleet and offload whale meat at sea, as “broken up” as of 2 September 2010. A document given to the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee (SC/62/O17) lists the Yushin-Maru 3 as being dedicated to the sightings survey. Another document (SC/62/O3) reported that in the 2009-10 season, the Yushin-Maru 3 was used only for sightings and did not hunt. The 2009-10 season was the first in which only two catchers were used since the programme began in 1987.
Whale meat storage figures:
2010: http://www.market.jafic.or.jp/suisan/
2009 & earlier:
http://www.maff.go.jp/j/tokei/kouhyou/suisan_ryutu/reizou_ryutu/index.html#m
Nineteen conservation and animal welfare groups, representing tens of millions of U.S. citizens, today called on the US Secretaries of Commerce and Interior to impose trade sanctions against Iceland for its escalating defiance of international conservation agreements on commercial whaling.
A petition filed by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) on behalf of the ‘Whales Need US’ coalition and Species Survival Network, urges Secretaries Locke and Salazar to invoke U.S. conservation legislation known as the Pelly Amendment against Iceland, a move that could deal a death blow to Iceland’s out of control whaling industry.
The Pelly Amendment authorizes Read More
I had the amazing experience to travel to Patagonia with a good friend, John Atkinson, to assist him in conducting the Ocean Alliance’s 35th annual aerial photographic survey of the endangered southern right whales that gather each year in the waters surrounding Peninsula Valdes to mate and give birth to their calves.
To do the survey, we would fly in a turbo-jet Porter Pilatus flown by the Argentine Navy. John was securely strapped into a seat mounted next to a six-foot wide cargo door on the side of the plane. With the door wide open, we spent the day constantly banking hard to near perpendicular to the ocean below. John was essentially hanging out the door and over the ocean to get the best possible shots of the whales.
And as if hanging out of the airplane is not enough, the plane flies low and slow, near stall speed, to extend the time over the whales.
In fact, a couple of years ago, they did stall and if not for the lightening fast reflexes of the military pilot slamming the throttle to the wall and powering the airplane up and away, they quite possibly could have ditched into the sea.
We spent three days patrolling three hundred miles of the rugged and barren coastline of PeninsulaValdez, which was one of the most surreal landscapes I have ever seen. Needless-to-say, the view from John’s ‘office’ window was spectacular, to say the least!
I leave you here with a couple of John’s stunning photos!
What has long been known; however, recently making headlines, is the dangers of eating whale and dolphin meat due to the ever increasing level of toxins. Read More
WTF?! 
Recently, the company Hrefnuveiðimenn ehf., a group of Icelandic whalers that have been hunting Minke whales over the last 45 years, decided to pursue maritime licensing to turn their whale killing ships into a whale watching ships. Their desperate marketing concept is to chase down whales in the region, fire their harpoon guns, display the internal organs of whales, then feed their customers whale meat. Read More