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US Government Refuses to Act against Japan on Whaling
The U.S. Whaling Commissioner, Bill Hogarth, has denounced Sea Shepherd's clash with Japanese Whalers. Hogarth is the current chairman of the IWC and the director of NOAA’s Fisheries Service, the agency charged with researching and protecting whale species in U.S. waters. He did not outline any plan for the International Whaling Commission to stop the Commercial Whaling activities by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
“I’m disappointed Sea Shepherd took an action that risked lives,” said U.S. IWC Commissioner, Bill Hogarth. “We passed a resolution last year to discourage this type of rogue activity. The United States is extremely concerned that encounters like this could escalate into more violent interactions between the vessels. We still oppose Japan’s research whale hunts, but the way to resolve this is through the IWC process. These dangerous confrontations in the Southern Ocean must stop before someone gets seriously hurt or killed.”
“The safety of vessels and life at sea is the highest priority for the United States and the nations that respect the rule of law on the high seas,” said Hogarth. “I ask all parties to respect the Commission’s wishes and immediately refrain from any acts that risk human life or safety at sea.” he said in a statement.
A global moratorium on commercial whaling has existed since 1986 under the auspices of the IWC, but Japan runs a "scientific whaling program" conducted within a loophole of the commission's rules, allowing it to slaughter hundreds of whales each year and sell the meat for consumption to pay the costs of the research. Last year The Japanese Whaling Fleet was restructured to transfer it from private ownership (susceptible to consumer led boycotts) to Government control through the Japanese Government funded Institute for Cetecean Research.
Japan has invited all 72 member nations of the IWC to attend a conference in Tokyo, Japan from 13 to 15 February, to reform the International Whaling Commission, but in reality to provide a better framework for commercial whaling according to critics.
"Australia is deeply concerned about this meeting by pro-whaling interests," said Richard Wilson, a spokesman for the Australian Department of the Environment and Water Resources. "The clear intention of the meeting is to limit the agenda of the International Whaling Commission to consumptive use,"
Most of the anti-whaling nations such as the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are boycotting the meeting. Japan is expecting about half the members of the IWC to attend, which amounts to the supporters of Japan in IWC meetings.
Source: NOAA Press Release 9 Feb 2007 - U.S. WHALING COMMISSIONER DENOUNCES SEA SHEPHERD'S CLASH WITH JAPANESE WHALERS
http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2007/feb07/noaa07-r-iwc.html
Mainichi Daily News - 9 Feb 2007 - Japan set to push for commercial whaling amid growing divide in global body
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070209p2a00m0na029000c.html
SF Bay Area IMC - 9 Feb 2007 - Antarctic Direct Action: Japanese Claims of Injuries are Bogus says Sea Shepherd
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/09/18360001.php
IWC Whale Sanctuaries
http://www.iwcoffice.org/conservation/sanctuaries.htm
“The safety of vessels and life at sea is the highest priority for the United States and the nations that respect the rule of law on the high seas,” said Hogarth. “I ask all parties to respect the Commission’s wishes and immediately refrain from any acts that risk human life or safety at sea.” he said in a statement.
A global moratorium on commercial whaling has existed since 1986 under the auspices of the IWC, but Japan runs a "scientific whaling program" conducted within a loophole of the commission's rules, allowing it to slaughter hundreds of whales each year and sell the meat for consumption to pay the costs of the research. Last year The Japanese Whaling Fleet was restructured to transfer it from private ownership (susceptible to consumer led boycotts) to Government control through the Japanese Government funded Institute for Cetecean Research.
Japan has invited all 72 member nations of the IWC to attend a conference in Tokyo, Japan from 13 to 15 February, to reform the International Whaling Commission, but in reality to provide a better framework for commercial whaling according to critics.
"Australia is deeply concerned about this meeting by pro-whaling interests," said Richard Wilson, a spokesman for the Australian Department of the Environment and Water Resources. "The clear intention of the meeting is to limit the agenda of the International Whaling Commission to consumptive use,"
Most of the anti-whaling nations such as the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are boycotting the meeting. Japan is expecting about half the members of the IWC to attend, which amounts to the supporters of Japan in IWC meetings.
Source: NOAA Press Release 9 Feb 2007 - U.S. WHALING COMMISSIONER DENOUNCES SEA SHEPHERD'S CLASH WITH JAPANESE WHALERS
http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2007/feb07/noaa07-r-iwc.html
Mainichi Daily News - 9 Feb 2007 - Japan set to push for commercial whaling amid growing divide in global body
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070209p2a00m0na029000c.html
SF Bay Area IMC - 9 Feb 2007 - Antarctic Direct Action: Japanese Claims of Injuries are Bogus says Sea Shepherd
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/09/18360001.php
IWC Whale Sanctuaries
http://www.iwcoffice.org/conservation/sanctuaries.htm
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At a time when the Japanese whaling advocates have thumbed their nose to the bulk of the World community, bought off smaller nations and lied and deceived under the "scientific research" ploy it ill behoves Bill Hogarth to denounce Sea Shepherd!
I say bravo to Sea Shepherd and the strength of public opinion I have tested endorses that my view is widely shared. My findings have been done on the strength of a lifetime of public service at the proverbial coal face.
Go back to your Ivory Towers Bill Hogarth and get some meaningful redress on the whaling nations who are determined to ignore how the wider World community feels about this matter.
The last thing the World wants is a bureaucrat sniping at people prepared to act on matters of vital importance to future generations and our delicate eco systems!
I say bravo to Sea Shepherd and the strength of public opinion I have tested endorses that my view is widely shared. My findings have been done on the strength of a lifetime of public service at the proverbial coal face.
Go back to your Ivory Towers Bill Hogarth and get some meaningful redress on the whaling nations who are determined to ignore how the wider World community feels about this matter.
The last thing the World wants is a bureaucrat sniping at people prepared to act on matters of vital importance to future generations and our delicate eco systems!
"the way to resolve this is through the IWC process."
This way goes for decades, meanwhile more and more whales are being killed every year. It is obvious that this way does not work:
"He did not outline any plan for the International Whaling Commission to stop the Commercial Whaling activities by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary."
To resolve like this?!
"These dangerous confrontations in the Southern Ocean must stop before someone gets seriously hurt or killed."
Someone IS being seriously hurt and killed right now - the whales. But of course, human lives are the only lives that important for an agency charged with protecting whale species.
This way goes for decades, meanwhile more and more whales are being killed every year. It is obvious that this way does not work:
"He did not outline any plan for the International Whaling Commission to stop the Commercial Whaling activities by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary."
To resolve like this?!
"These dangerous confrontations in the Southern Ocean must stop before someone gets seriously hurt or killed."
Someone IS being seriously hurt and killed right now - the whales. But of course, human lives are the only lives that important for an agency charged with protecting whale species.
For more information:
http://www.DolphinWave.org
Can you get this idiot? and his job is to protect the whales? or just his salary? what is the point of having a whale sanctuary if it is not one? Good on you, Sea Shepherd! At least SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING! not just blah,blah.
Keep sinking them whalers!
Keep sinking them whalers!
The U.S. IWC chairman should get his facts straight. It is the Japanese whalers that are the aggressors in the ramming of the Robert Hunter not the Sea sheppard ships. It is the Japanese whalers that are illegally invading the southern ocean whale sanctuary and terrorizing endangered species of whales. The blame for the aggression lays with the aggressor who is following illegal practices by violating international law and causing damage to the ships involved in the liberation of the whale pods from the harpooner Haiku Maru and its unjust violence done against the whales and the whale defenders that are upholding the United Nations Charter of the defense of endangered species. It is incredible to me that the U.S. IWC whaling chairman whose task is to uphold the IWC laws forbidding whaling in the southern whale sanctuary would turn a blind eye to the actual aggressors in this incident and blame the conservation workers who are upholding and defending IWC rules and laws forbidding Japans killing of whales commercially and in the whale sanctuary for any reason.
The U.S. Imperialists are now currently trying to get the right wing Japanese Imperialists to change article nine of Japans constitution so they can use the Japanese soldiers for aggressive purposes again throughout the Far East. It is phoney indeed that the navies of Australia, and New Zealand headed by the U.S. are sitting on their hands and risking the lives of the whales and the whale defenders. All the while their government is supporting Japans rearmament and leading the stop orders of its navy allies to not assist the whale conservation workers. With such a phoney IWC commisioner the whales have little chance of living through this illegal criminal offensive of the Japanese Imperialists. Shame on American and Japan. We ought to remember that fifty-percent of the Japanese military during the thirties and forties was supplied with its materials for the fascist war machine by the U.S. Imperialists, and neither one of whom were fighting for ecological green balance but for conquest and pollution for money. This kind of non-intervention policy was practiced against the Spanish peoples democracy during the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) and is not nuetral but actively assists the fascist side to defeat the worlds democracy as collective agree.
Victory to the whales and their ecological liberators. The real anti-fascist fighters of the modern era.
The U.S. Imperialists are now currently trying to get the right wing Japanese Imperialists to change article nine of Japans constitution so they can use the Japanese soldiers for aggressive purposes again throughout the Far East. It is phoney indeed that the navies of Australia, and New Zealand headed by the U.S. are sitting on their hands and risking the lives of the whales and the whale defenders. All the while their government is supporting Japans rearmament and leading the stop orders of its navy allies to not assist the whale conservation workers. With such a phoney IWC commisioner the whales have little chance of living through this illegal criminal offensive of the Japanese Imperialists. Shame on American and Japan. We ought to remember that fifty-percent of the Japanese military during the thirties and forties was supplied with its materials for the fascist war machine by the U.S. Imperialists, and neither one of whom were fighting for ecological green balance but for conquest and pollution for money. This kind of non-intervention policy was practiced against the Spanish peoples democracy during the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) and is not nuetral but actively assists the fascist side to defeat the worlds democracy as collective agree.
Victory to the whales and their ecological liberators. The real anti-fascist fighters of the modern era.
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