Japanese whaling fleet sets sail – For the last time?
20/11/2009 00:04:43
One of the Japanese whaling ships prepares to leave port.
Will budget cuts signal the end of Japanese whaling?
November 2009. Following a week of potentially crippling budgetary reviews and a high-profile visit from US President Barack Obama to Japan, the so-called ‘scientific' whaling fleet crept out of port in Japan, as Greenpeace called for this departure to be the programme's last.
Greenpeace unveiled a ‘Yes We Can' banner in front of the whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru, calling on new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the visiting US President Barack Obama to work together to end whaling.
Waste of taxpayer money
In their election campaigns, both leaders signalled that there is no future in whaling. The Obama administration is publicly opposed to ‘scientific' whaling, while Hatoyama promised to wipe out bureaucratic corruption and the waste of taxpayer money, of which the whaling industry is a prime example.
US $8.8 million subsidy
This year the fleet's Antarctic hunt will be subsidised by 795 million yen ($8.8 million US dollars) of taxpayer money. However, the programme already operates at a loss due to lack of demand for whale meat - the wholesale price of whale meat has just been lowered for the second time this year in an effort to stimulate the low demand - and programme costs are set to increase.
|
The whaling industry is costing Japanese
taxpayers some $8 million per year. |
"Japanese taxpayers' money is being squandered on life-support for a whaling programme that produces virtually nothing of value," said Jun Hoshikawa, Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan. "The government should switch off the industry's respirator."
Tokyo Two
Elimination of subsidies to the programme could also prove to be vindication for Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, who were arrested in 2008 and put on trial for intercepting a box of whale meat and exposing an embezzlement ring within the whaling programme. While the resulting scandal made international headlines, the official investigation was suspiciously dropped, and Sato and Suzuki were arrested and put on trial.
"With well over 9,000 Minke whales killed in 22 years and no useful data produced, Japan's so-called ‘research' in the Antarctic is an international embarrassment," concluded Hoshikawa.
Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment
OOPS I MEANT "STEVE IRWIN"....it's too early and cold..
Posted by: Audrey A Bews | 19 Dec 2009 07:20:19
I agree with brightthings IF this is the end of whaling by the Japanese then it's the courage and dedication of Capt. Paul Watson and the crew of the Sea Shepherd we shoud be thanking - actions speak louder than words.
Posted by: Audrey A Bews | 19 Dec 2009 07:19:23
Fighting words from Greenpeace, but I am very disappointed that it has backed down from meeting the Japanese on the front line out in ocean. Sea Shepherd is the only one doing that. It's easy to unfurl banners and send out press releases from an office desk. Greenpeace needs do what Sea Shepherd does, and back up its words with real action. Is Greenpeace sending a boat down to the Southern Ocean this year?
Posted by: brightthings | 21 Nov 2009 00:03:57