Blog: Oceans

While the IWC talks, the whalers are on their way back to the Southern Ocean © Greenpeace / Davison

This week, the International Whaling Commission is having an intersessional meeting in Cambridge to discuss its future. Whilst it's good news that these meetings are taking place (Greenpeace has been pushing for reform of the IWC into a body that works for the whales for many years), you have to ask yourself how much of this is just bluster.

At the same time as the international delegations are meeting, the Japanese whaling fleet is on its way to the Southern Ocean to kill whales for a bogus 'scientific' programme that is not endorsed by the IWC, and will take place in an area the IWC has designated a whale sanctuary. Despite measures to avoid confrontation at the last proper IWC meeting (which basically meant the pro-conservation countries not raising any issues that would be contentious with Japan and its allies), there has been no compromise from the whaling nations. Japan has not even officially reduced its own self-appointed quota.

Representatives of millions of Greenpeace supporters from around the world arrived at the doorstep of the Japanese Prime Minister in Tokyo today to demand an end to the political persecution of two Greenpeace anti-whaling activists, and an end to Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean. Embassy actions are scheduled around the world today and tomorrow.

Imagine you were in a car that was rolling quickly towards the edge of a cliff. The sensible thing to do would be to slam on the brakes as much as possible, knowing that it will take some time to stop, even with your best efforts and your foot to the floor. Another option would be just to take your feet off the pedals and hope it slows down in time. If it was an EU fisheries regulator who found themselves at the wheel, though, chances are they'd consult widely to ensure that they had the best advice possible on how to get out of the situation, and then totally ignore it...

All the available data shows that many fisheries around the world are in serious decline. Some face complete collapse (hence the 'falling off a cliff' analogy) unless drastic action is taken to end over-fishing and give threatened stocks time to recover. This can only happen by setting aside large areas of ocean as marine reserves, off-limits to all forms of fishing. But sadly the fishing industry itself still seems incapable of taking any meaningful steps to address the problem.

The whalers' factory ship Nisshin Maru leaving Innoshima on Monday

Japan's whaling fleet slunk out of port earlier this week under a cloud of financial crisis and scandal, with none of the elaborate parades and marching bands of previous years' departures. This time the Nisshin Maru left the port of Innoshima with no triumphant fanfare, after the cancellation of the usual traditional departure ceremony in its home port of Shimonoseki. Word has it that this time, only a small group of 30 or so saw the whalers off - along with a hardy bunch of activists who protested with banner saying "whaling on trial" and one highlighting the whaling operation’s multi-million dollar drain on Japan’s taxpayers.

The past few weeks have not been good ones for the whalers - first of all was the deflagging of the support ship Oriental Bluebird. Japanese newspapers reported that, for the first time since the nation began 'scientific' whaling in the 1980s, the self-appointed quota would be decreased. Then we heard of the announced closure of Yushin (Toyko's largest whale meat shop), and news that for the first time, the whaling ships wouldn't be 100 per cent crewed: many former crew members were reluctant to sail again, following the whale meat scandal uncovered by a Greenpeace undercover investigation.