Greens meet with Japanese over whaling    


Greens leader Bob Brown says he has met with Japan's ambassador and told him that whaling is doing his country "great damage".

He says he told Shigekazu Sato that whatever victory Japan thinks it has in killing whales is "a pyrrhic victory".

"I did describe this bloody business of whaling in very direct terms to the ambassador.


"I was able to ask him if he, as a Christmas gesture, might not give me the co-ordinates of the whaling fleet and update them every other day. He declined to be so generous."

Senator Brown also called on the federal government to release the most recent whaling photographs, which he said are being kept hidden "in the minister for the environment's drawer".

"That sort of cowardly approach to Tokyo is not representing what the Australian people think about the cowardly business of whaling," Senator Brown told reporters.  

"If they want to go down there and slaughter whales in our oceans or the oceans south of New Zealand, let the rest of the world see what they're doing."

He described Japan's proposal to double the area in which its whalers can operate as a ruse.

Japan has informed the International Whaling Commission that it intends to increase the area in which it will hunt for whales south of Australia and New Zealand.    

Senator Brown says the move is designed to make it easier to evade Sea Shepherd protest ships in the Southern Ocean.

He described the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as "unshakeable".  

"I think they'll be right onto them and their harpooning. And I think that the Japanese whaling fleet's just going to bring trouble for the Japanese image around the world."

The federal government should send a ship to patrol the Southern Ocean or undertake aerial surveillance of the whaling area.

"But failing that we should have aerial surveillance, which the New Zealanders are contemplating I understand," he said.

"It's really important that the Australian government seriously consider that option - not only for the safety of the whales, but for the safety of the campaigners who are down there."

dream on.

Interesting FD,

According to the latest IWC proposal, it looks like almost all of the Southern Hemisphere will be a Sanctuary...

Do you agree with my reading of the areas??

"48. South Atlantic Sanctuary. In accordance with Article V(1)(c) of the Convention, whaling, whether by pelagic operations or from land stations, is prohibited in a region designated as the South Atlantic Sanctuary from 1 November 2010 through 31 March 2020. This Sanctuary comprises the waters of the South Atlantic Ocean enclosed by the following line: starting from the Equator, then generally south following the eastern coastline of South America to the coast of Tierra del Fuego and, starting from a point situated at Lat 55°07,3'S Long 066°25,0'W; thence to the point Lat 55°11,0'S Long 066°04,7'W; thence to the point Lat 55°22,9'S Long 065°43,6'W; thence due South to Parallel 56°22,8'S; thence to the point Lat 56°22,8'S Long 067°16,0'W; thence due South, along the Cape Horn Meridian, to 60°S, where it reaches the boundary of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary; thence due east following the boundaries of this Sanctuary to the point where it reaches the boundary of the Indian Ocean Sanctuary at 40°S; thence due north following the boundary of this Sanctuary until it reaches the coast of South Africa; thence it follows the coastline of Africa to the west and north until it reaches the Equator; thence due west to the coast of Brazil, closing the perimeter at the starting point. With the exception of Argentina, Brazil and South Africa, this provision does not apply to waters under the national jurisdiction of coastal States within the area described above, unless those States notify the Secretariat to the contrary and this information is transmitted to the Contracting Governments"

http://iwcoffice.org/_documents/commission/IWC62docs/62-7.pdf

Hey Japs where are the results of the scientific studies ?? LOL

aussiefree2ride wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2010 at 8:59am:


and the filthy libbos are making a big difference aren't they LOL

freediver wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2010 at 8:14pm:



The Greens will have to put a stop to eating them then.  The greens - a pack of unwashed liars.

Paul Watson is a criminal.

I don't believe the whales are killed humanely.
They fire an exposive harpoon into them.
I am sure they suffer terribly before dying.

It should be stopped.