Japanese whalers operating in Antarctic waters today blasted Greenpeace volunteers with powerful water cannons after a helicopter captured rare footage of a whale being harpooned.
A harpoon hit had not been captured on film for more than a decade.
The Greenpeace action is the opening move in a campaign leading up to a crucial governmental meeting next year at which the future of whaling will be decided.
The research vessel MV Arctic Sunrise - with 30 volunteers from 16 countries on board - tracked the Japanese fleet since it started an operation to take 440 minke whales 11 days ago.
"We watched the whalers chase the whale for more than forty minutes, repeatedly firing its harpoon and missing. Finally on the sixth attempt they hit it," said Phil Robinson, New Zealand helicopter pilot.
Two inflatable boats from the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise were dispatched to stop the dead whale being loaded on to the Japanese ship Nisshin Mauru. But the whalers turned their powerful water cannons onto the activists and trailed wooden blocks in the water, putting the Greenpeace crew at risk.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) - the intergovernmental forum in which global whaling policy is decided - met in a highly publicised meeting in Hammersmith in July. Especially concerned that their scientific committee could not rule out a decline in minke whale numbers in the southern hemisphere, the IWC passed a resolution stating that it "strongly urges the Government of Japan to halt the lethal takes of minke whales."
Despite being an IWC member, Japan has this week demonstrated its determination to ignore the resolution.
The IWC will next meet in May in Shiminoseki, the home port of the whaling fleet. There is a very genuine fear that Japan could have a majority of votes at the meeting following the Tokyo government's high-profile campaign to secure the support of states through the use of Overseas Development Aid - the so-called 'vote buying policy.'
Japan wants the IWC to allow the resumption of full-scale commercial whaling despite the fact that some species were hunted to the brink of extinction in the last century, before the IWC imposed a ban.
The Japanese Government claims it takes minke whales in the Antarctic for scientific research. But of an estimated 2000 metric tons of whale meat taken annually, only a few grams are used for science - the earplugs, sex organs and stomach parts.
Meanwhile, recent data suggest the minke population may be much lower than previously thought. Scientists working in the Antarctic have reported that schools of whales are smaller than usual, while the influential IWC Scientific Committee has said it cannot rule out a drastic decline of up to 50%.
Greenpeace whale campaigner Richard Page said: "There is nothing scientific about Japanese whaling. It's a commercial enterprise that's undertaken for profit. Governments like the UK need to speak up against Tokyo's vote buying whales will be hunted in their thousands every year."
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255
Photographs of the harpoon hit and the water cannon are available from Greenpeace
Editor's notes:
- The spotlight is certain to fall on Japanese whaling as the world descends upon the region for next summer's World Cup. Although the event is being co-hosted with South Korea, this month's draw ensured the England team will play its games in Japan. The international crew of the MV Arctic Sunrise includes nationals from Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Sweden, Turkey, Tunisia, Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, and USA.
- The Fisheries Institute of Japan claims to need earplugs to determine age, sex organs to examine reproduction rates, and stomachs to understand food consumption. In fact, none of this is necessary. For example, of the 5000 minke whales' stomachs so far 'sampled' in the Antarctic, every one has contained krill and only krill, a fact that was known long before the 'research' began.
