oceans

Greenpeace campaigners try to block whaling vessels from harpooning whales on Christmas da

As the Japanese foreign minister, Mr. Yohei Kono arrives in London to discuss Japan - UK economic relations, Japan is continuing to hunt whales illegally in the protected Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Mr Kono is due to meet Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as part of a brief European tour.

Greenpeace's ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which has now been tracking Japan's illegal whaling activities for 23 days, witnessed seven minke whales being harpooned by Japanese whalers.

Greenpeace today condemned the Japanese government for allowing the restart of its bogus 'scientific' whaling operations in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica. Japan's whaling fleet consisting of the whaling factory ship Nishin Maru, three catcher ships and a spotter vessel left the Japanese port of Shimonoseki to hunt whales in Antarctica today.

1999-09-01

Following the re-establishment of a parliament on the island of St Kilda last month, two of its founder members have fulfilled the participant's pledge to give everyone a say in the debate about the future of the islands. Donna Brown and Norman Chalmers, two descendants of St Kilda's original population, today started the first-ever public consultation on the new oil developments threatening the islands, by casting the first votes in the referendum.