Campaign Whale

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has just released final proposals for the future of the organisation on its website.  They can only be described as little more than surrender terms to the whalers and a disaster for whales.

The proposals suspend the current ban on commercial whaling for ten years and legitimise ongoing whaling by Norway, Iceland and Japan in defiance of the IWC’s 24 year old ban during which, incredibly, over 30,000 whales have been slaughtered! The proposals do not even impose a phase-out of their whaling operations within that time.  It means that around 1,500 whales will still be killed each year and Japan can even continue killing hundreds of whales in the IWC’s Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  In return, a totally meaningless whale sanctuary will be created in the South Atlantic, for ten years, where no whaling currently takes place anyway.

This sleazy deal proposes to limit whaling to those countries that are already killing whales despite the IWC ban, so rewarding their intransigence.  Countries that have actually abided by the ban get nothing. However, there is nothing in the proposals to stop countries interested in starting or resuming commercial whaling from killing whales for so-called ‘scientific research’, or by simply lodging an objection to all or any part of the deal and so exempting themselves from it. This is of serious concern given recent reports from Iceland that the Fisheries Minister plans to continue issuing whaling permits for so-called ‘research’, and disturbing reports from South Korea that it intends to restart whaling.  Other former whaling countries such as Russia and China are yet to reveal their intentions, but it is not inconceivable that they will see this deal as unfair and a green light to restart commercial whaling operations of their own.

The plan even bypasses agreed scientific procedures for calculating supposedly ‘safe’ catch-quotas and some of the most threatened whale populations in coastal waters will be targeted.  Finally, if all this was not bad enough, YOU will be expected to pay for renewed whaling because the whalers have demanded that IWC Member States must fund the costs of whaling whether they support it or not!

Please help us get to Morocco and save the whales, not whaling!

The new deal will be tabled at the IWC’s annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco during the week 21-25th June where it will be put to a vote.  If it is accepted, and there are worrying signs that it will be, then the whaling ban will be irrevocably lost and the cruel slaughter of whales for profit will be legitimised for the foreseeable future.  Make no mistake about it; if commercial whaling is sanctioned again by the IWC there will be no going back. The battle for the whales will be lost once and for all.

If you would like to make a donation to help us get to the IWC in Agadir then please click the donate button to the right of this news story, or send a donation to the address at the bottom of the page – Thank you!

Europe divided over whaling deal

The stakes could not be higher and Campaign Whale is sending a campaign team to Agadir to do everything we possibly can to stop this deal from being agreed.  It will not be easy because the European Union has recently adopted a common position at IWC meetings. This means all 25 EU Member States, including the UK, must vote the same way or not vote at all.  If they vote in favour of the deal, or have to abstain, it will go through.

It’s a deeply worrying situation, but not a hopeless one.  Campaign Whale is pressing the EU to vote against any whaling deal. You can help by contacting European Commission President José Barosso, and your MEP, calling for EU Member States to vote against any whaling deal.
Ask the president and your MEP to ensure that the EU Member States:

• Vote against any proposal that would lift or suspend the IWC’s whaling ban
• Reaffirm the EU’s total opposition to commercial whaling
• Reject Iceland’s application to join the EU unless whaling is stopped
• Use the EU’s political and economic strength to negotiate an end to commercial whaling
• Press for the modernisation of the IWC into an organisation for the global protection of whales

Please write to or send an e-message to the EU President and your MEP today, preferably both.  We don’t have much time.  Please also ask friends, family and workmates to do the same.  His contact details are:

José Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission
1049 Brussels, Belgium
Send him an e-message at: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/president/contact/mail/index_en.htm

or email him directly at: jose-manuel.barroso@ec.europa.eu

(If email link does not work please copy or cut and paste  email address above)

Please also write to your MEP and ask them to press for the EU not to support the whaling deal. You can find out your MEP’s name, contact details and send him or her a message at: www.writetothem.com

The Cove won the ‘best documentary’ category at the 82nd Academy Awards held at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre yesterday Sunday, March 7th. The film exposes the secret slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins in Japan every year and the public health threat posed to people from eating the meat, which is heavily contaminated with mercury and other toxins at levels that hugely exceed health safety limits.

The Cove also reveals that dolphins spared slaughter are sold to aquaria and ‘swim with dolphins’ programmes around the world.

Campaign Whale is the sole UK member of the Save Japan’s Dolphins coalition campaign featured in the film. We are working directly with former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry in Japan to end the dolphin slaughter. Ric trained dolphins for the 1960s TV series ‘Flipper’ that was also made into a film in 1996. Campaign Whale Director Andy Ottaway also worked with captive dolphins and is convinced that it is cruel to keep these intelligent social animals in captivity. Andy also led a nationwide campaign that saw the closure of all UK dolphinaria in the early 1990’s.

Campaign Director Andy Ottaway said ‘This award is thrilling because the Oscars are the most watched TV programme in Japan. Now 130 million Japanese, as well as a further billion people worldwide, will be made aware of the secret dolphin slaughter taking place in Japan and will hopefully want to stop it.’

Please help the dolphins by donating to or joining Campaign Whale today!

Japanese scientists have published new findings that show mercury levels in citizens of the notorious dolphin-hunting town of Taiji up to ten times higher than in the rest of the country*. Taiji is the town made infamous by the multi-award winning documentary The Cove. The film features former ‘flipper ‘ trainer Ric O’Barry and the Save Japan Dolphin Coalition’s (SJDC) campaign to stop the slaughter of up to 20,000 dolphins each year by Japanese fishermen by exposing the high levels of toxic pollutants such as mercury in the meat.  Campaign Whale is the only UK member of the SJDC, working with Ric O’Barry to end the cruel slaughter of dolphins in Japan.

Last November, a joint letter signed by Japanese consumer and food safety groups and international anti-whaling organisations, including Campaign Whale, called on Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Minister of Consumer Affairs and Food Safety to ban the sale of toxic whale and dolphin meat.

In January this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held a meeting of experts to discuss the considerable health risks from eating fish and other seafood that is increasingly contaminated by toxic pollutants such as mercury. Thanks to the work of a coalition of organisations, including Campaign Whale, the risk of eating contaminated meat and blubber from whales, dolphins and porpoises was also discussed at this meeting for the first time.

Many scientific studies have now revealed extremely high levels of mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxic substances in whale and dolphin products on sale for human consumption in Japan. Scientists have also found strong links between eating whale and dolphin meat and a number of human diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis, immune subsystem suppression, and hypertension. In children, that are served this meat in school lunches, these threats include autism, Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of autism) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Up to 20,000 smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises are slaughtered in Japan each year along with over 1,200 large baleen whales also cruelly harpooned and killed. Unlike baleen whales such as minke whales, toothed cetaceans such as pilot whales, dolphins and porpoises feed at the top of the marine food chain and so accumulate very high levels of toxic substances in their bodies. However, even minkes can carry PCB and mercury levels above public safety limits set by the Japanese Government and world health authorities.

*Endo, T. and Haraguchi, K. 2010. High mercury levels in hair samples from residents of Taiji, a Japanese whaling town. Marine Pollution Bulletin in press

The Cove to be screened in Japan

At last a deal to distribute The Cove in Japan has finally been agreed giving the Japanese public an opportunity to see a film that exposes the secret slaughter of dolphins and the public health threat from eating polluted whale and dolphin meat.
Campaign Whale Director Andy Ottaway says ‘At long, long last the Japanese public will have the chance to see this secret slaughter for the first time and learn what a tragedy it is both for animals and people. They will be horrified. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for these appalling hunts.

The Cove nominated for Oscars

News is just in that The Cove has just been nominated for an academy award at next month’s Oscars in the US on March 7th. The Oscars are watched by a global audience of one billion people, so this is truly a huge opportunity to draw worldwide attention, including in Japan, to the film and the issues it raises.

Around 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and other whales are cruelly slaughtered in Japanese waters every year. Now, we have a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to stop the appalling suffering inflicted upon these beautiful, intelligent creatures.  A new Japanese Government has been swept to power and with it comes a chance to stop the slaughter once and for all.

Campaign Whale is the only UK member organisation of the ‘Save Japan Dolphins’ coalition which is fighting to end the slaughter of dolphins and porpoises in Japan. Within our ranks is Ric O’Barry, former trainer of ‘Flipper’ the dolphin (a hugely popular 1960s TV series and later Hollywood film) who is determined to expose the shocking link between these appalling hunts and the captive dolphin industry worldwide.

Exposed!  Japan’s secret dolphin hunts coming to a cinema near you*

Campaign Whale and the ‘Save Japan Dolphins’ coalition are key partners behind an award-winning film ‘The Cove’ that has received rave reviews at film festivals around the world and is due to be released in the UK on October 23rd. This feature length docu-drama focuses on Taiji, a Japanese coastal town where over 2,000 dolphins are speared to death every year for their meat. While each dead dolphin sells for about US $600, those few captured alive are worth as much as US $200,000 when sold to aquariums and ‘swim with dolphins‘ parks around the world. 

Deadly diet

‘The Cove’ also highlights the serious health threat posed to the people that eat dolphin and porpoise meat as it is dangerously contaminated with toxic pollutants, such as mercury, at levels that exceed public health safety limits. The shocking reality is that the people eating dolphin meat don’t know they are slowly poisoning themselves as well as their children, because dolphin meat is even included in school lunches!

Take Action!

To find out how you can help our campaign to protect dolphins,  please click here to be re-directed to the campaign section on our website. 

Please also help our campaign by:

• Making a donation
• Become a Campaign Whale member
• Raising funds simply by searching the internet 

“I was horrified to learn of the cruel slaughter of thousands of dolphins and porpoises in Japan every year. I totally support Campaign Whale’s vital work to give these wonderful animals the protection they deserve and so desperately need. Please support their campaign to save Japan’s dolphins and porpoises before it is too late!”

 Zoë Wanamaker, actress in Harry Potter films, and the hit BBC comedy ‘My Family’.   
 

 “Campaign Whale does a great job in helping to protect whales, dolphins, and porpoises worldwide. They should be supported and encouraged to keep up their fantastic work.”

Sir David Jason, OBE, Renowned actor from BBC hit comedy ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and the ITV drama ‘Frost’.

Campaign Whale is grateful for their support.

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Yesterday, as Icelandic whalers headed to sea to begin this year’s hugely controversial whale hunt targeting 250 whales, Campaign Whale led a protest outside of the Icelandic Embassy in London demanding an end to the slaughter.

Campaign Whale was joined by representatives from other leading conservation and animal welfare organisations including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). 

The protestors unfurled a banner reading ‘Iceland be a nice land – stop killing whales!’ in front of the Embassy and displayed a life-sized replica of a harpooned minke whale, the first of which was killed today. The protest has made headline news in Iceland.

Director Andy Ottaway of Campaign Whale met with the Icelandic Ambassador Sverrir Haukur Gunnlaugsson and handed him a letter calling on the Icelandic Government to call off the whaling.

“The cruel slaughter of whales will not help Iceland out of its financial crisis at all, in fact it promises to make things worse,” said Andy Ottaway, “Iceland needs friends right now and the cruel slaughter of whales makes you enemies, not friends. We are calling on the Icelandic government to call off the whaling immediately.”   
 
The Ambassador was also handed evidence of the British Public’s strong disapproval of Iceland’s resumption of whaling. An opinion poll, commissioned by Campaign Whale and conducted by YouGov, has revealed that 82% of the British public are strongly opposed to Iceland’s whaling, and two-thirds of those polled (64%) were prepared to avoid purchasing Icelandic products such as fish, prawns in protest at the country’s resumption of commercial whaling.
 
Iceland’s decision to resume whaling was taken by outgoing Minister Einar Gudfinnsson, who announced in January that 100 minke whales and 150 endangered fin whales could be hunted each year until 2013. However, since then a new government has been formed and with it a significant shift in the whaling policy.
 
The new government recently issued a statement saying that whaling, ‘will be totally reassessed with regard to sustainability and importance for national economy as a whole as well as Iceland’s international obligations and Iceland’s image’ but in the meantime a quota for this year remains in place.
 
Campaign Whale is calling on the Icelandic government to stop the killing of whales and to switch exclusively to whale-watching instead. In 2008, more than 100,000 tourists went whale-watching in Iceland, demonstrating that in Iceland whales are worth far more alive than dead.
 
To find out how you can help our campaign to protect whales, please click here to be re-directed to the campaign section on our website. 

Please also help our campaign by:

• Making a donation
• Become a Campaign Whale member
• Raising funds simply by searching the internet 

In the past few years the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has been engaged in a process to try and determine the organisation’s future. The IWC, established over sixty years ago to regulate the whaling industry, is deadlocked in an increasingly acrimonious dispute over its future direction, with the pro-whaling nations: Japan, Norway and Iceland, demanding an end to the 23 year old moratorium (ban) on commercial whaling, while anti-whaling nations and animal welfare, environmental and conservation groups want a permanent end to all commercial whaling.

During the ban, around 25,000 whales have been slaughtered by the defiant whaling nations and this year Japan, Norway and Iceland will kill over 2,500 whales between them, exploiting loopholes in the IWC Convention that allow whaling ‘under objection’ to the whaling moratorium (Norway and Iceland), or for so-called ‘scientific research’ (Japan).

However, under the Chairmanship of the United States, the IWC has entered in to a process of negotiations that could see an end to the whaling ban, not whaling. However, under the Chairmanship of the United States, the IWC has entered in to a process of negotiations that could see an end to the whaling ban, not whaling. A compromise “package” has emerged that would remove the whaling ban and allow the last three whaling nations – Japan, Iceland and Norway,  to resume commercial whaling.

The compromise package favoured by the US will be discussed again at a special IWC intercessional meeting in Rome in early March before being presented to the IWC’s annual meeting in Madeira this June. It  proposes to allow Japan to resume coastal whaling operations in exchange for a reduction in the hundreds of whales the country slaughters every year for alleged ‘research’ in Antarctic and north-Pacific waters. Antarctic waters were designated a whale sanctuary by the IWC in 1994.

The compromise deal is a response to Japan’s serial threat to leave the IWC if the whaling ban is not lifted, and it appears it is Japan that the US is most keen to placate. However, there seems no way that a deal could be struck with Japan alone, and that would open the door to renewed or expanding commercial whaling in other countries, including Iceland and Norway.

Campaign Whale has been fighting compromise proposals that would legitimise a resumption of commercial whaling for some fifteen years.
The deal, shamefully supported by some well known ‘anti-whaling’ groups, have sort to justify compromise by arguing that whaling is ‘out of control’ and that such a deal ‘would reduce the numbers of whales killed’. Campaign Whale does not accept this argument. Any deal that legitimises commercial whaling would see the rebirth of an industry we have fought over thirty years to end, would mean countless thousands more whales killed and no hope of ever ending this cruel, outdated and unnecessary industry.

 Please save the whales President Obama!

This is the most critical time for the whales since whaling was banned over twenty years ago. Please contact the US Embassy in your country, or President Obama directly, or preferably both, asking that the US reverses its current whaling policy and reaffirms its support for whale conservation by:

* Reaffirming the US’ opposition to commercial whaling
* Opposing any compromise packages, including creating any new category of whaling, that would lift or undermine the IWC’s whaling moratorium
* Using its considerable political and economic strength to take a lead in negotiating with the whaling nations to end commercial whaling
* To press for the reformation of the IWC, creating a modern conservation organisation dedicated to the global protection of whales.

Please do all you can, and invite friends, family and workmates to do the same. This really is the last stand for the whales! Please write, telephone, email or preferably all three!

The contact details are:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
White House public comment line: 001- 202-456-1111
To send an email message go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

The US Ambassador in London:
US Ambassador Robert Holmes Tuttle
24 Grosvenor Square
London, W1A 1AE
United Kingdom
Phone number: 020 7499 9000
Email: ESTLondon@state.gov

To find the US Embassy in your country, please visit: http://www.embassyworld.com

This really is the last stand for the whales, please help them! Thank you. 

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Medical experts in the Faroe Islands have said that pilot whales are now so contaminated with toxic pollutants that they should not be eaten at all.

The Faroe Islands, situated midway between Scotland and Iceland, is where whale hunts known as the ‘grind’ take place each year with entire pods of whales driven ashore and hacked to death in a bloody and cruel spectacle. The islanders kill hundreds of pilot whales each year, as well as dolphins and beaked whales.

Faroese medical officers have announced what anti-whaling campaigners have been saying for a long time – that pilot whale meat and blubber is so contaminated by mercury, PCBs and DDT pesticide pollutants that it is unsafe for human consumption.

 ”We have been arguing for many years that whale and dolphin meat is no longer safe for human consumption’ said Campaign Whale Director Andy Ottaway “In that time the Faroese alone have continued to slaughter whales in huge numbers in the most brutal and callous way imaginable. We hope this is the beginning of the end for this cruel hunt, but our pollution may yet drive these poor whales to extinction”.

Research on the impact of pollutants such as mercury on the Faroese themselves has revealed damage to foetal neural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson’s disease, circulatory problems and possibly infertility in adults.
“Around the world, particularly in Japan, hundreds of thousands of smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises are cruelly slaughtered for their meat. The tragic irony is that these animals are being slowly poisoned to death as are the people eating them,” said Andy Ottaway of Campaign Whale”, We have to stop killing these wonderful animals and stop polluting our planet. What this demonstrates is that what we do to our world and fellow creatures in it, so we ultimately are doing to ourselves.”

For further information about the Faroes whale hunts please click here to visit our campaigns section.

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Reports from Tokyo suggest that Japan will allow the import of 65 tonnes of whale meat sent from Iceland last June. The meat, which was impounded by customers on arrival, consists of around 60 tonnes of fin whale meat from Iceland’s whaling company Hvalur hf, and about five tonnes of minke meat exported by the Norwegian company Myklebust Trading.

International trade in whale products was banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)  to support the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) ban on commercial whaling in 1986. However, Iceland, Norway and Japan have lodged formal reservations to the ban and so can trade whale products perfectly legally amongst themselves.

Japan, Iceland and Norway are currently killing over 2,000 whales each year between them in defiance of the whaling ban. However, up until now the whalers have been wary of reopening international trade for fear of serious repercussions from the international community, and the United States in particular.

Meanwhile, IWC members are currently engaged in ongoing negotiations to try and find a compromise way forward for the organisation before its next annual meeting in Portugal in June (2009).

“The timing of this decision, is clearly intended to send a defiant message to the IWC that its business as usual for whalers and they are not interested in compromise’ said Campaign Whale’s Andy Ottaway, ‘the sad fact is that world governments are not doing enough to stop just three countries from killing whales for profit. Only economic and political sanctions can save the whales now.”

For further information on Japan’s whaling and how you can help stop it, please click here to be re-directed to our ‘campaigns’ section on our website.

Thank you for your support!

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