whale blubber

April 2000: As the Japanese whaling fleet today offloaded its cargo of 440 minke whales hunted illegally in the protected Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, Greenpeace called on Japan and Norway to withdraw their proposals to resume international trade in whales.

Japan and Norway are aggressively lobbying other countries to support their proposals to overturn the international ban on trade in whale products at next week's meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in Nairobi, Kenya (1).

Greenpeace is urging the European Union to vote against lifting the current ban on the international trade in whale products at a meeting in Brussels tomorrow, Friday 14th January 2000.

EU representatives (1) are to decide whether or not to vote with Norway and Japan, in favour of lifting the current ban on the trade in whale products at the next meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), to be held in Nairobi, April 2000.

The Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru today rammed the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise while making an illegal overtaking manoeuvre in the remote Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

The incident follows Greenpeace's successful bid on Monday to block the illegal whale hunt, in which a Greenpeace activist twice jumped into the icy waters of the Antarctic to disrupt the activities of the whalers. The activist also climbed on to the back of the dead whale as it was being dragged up the ramp of the factory vessel. As catcher ships can only carry two harpooned whales at a time, this delayed the hunt.

Greenpeace volunteers today used inflatable boats to interfere with a Japanese whaling fleet illegally hunting Minke whales inside the internationally recognised whale sanctuary that surrounds Antarctica.

The inflatable boats were launched from the Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise at 08.00 local time (02.00GMT) and drove two hours across icy Antarctic waters to block the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru from loading a harpooned whale from a catcher ship. The Southern Ocean around Antarctica was formally designated a whale sanctuary in 1994 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), making the region permanently off limits to commercial whaling. However, despite repeated calls from the IWC to cancel its whaling programme, Japan began hunting in the Sanctuary last month, intending to kill 440 Minke whales (up from 389 last year) as part of a so-called 'scientific research' programme.

By ignoring the IWC request to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, Japan is in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which requires all countries to co-operate with the IWC in the conservation of whales.

Greenpeace has welcomed a move by Britain to become the latest government to join a growing list of nations calling on the Japanese government to cancel its illegal Antarctic whaling programme.

Just days before the Japanese whaling fleet is due to resume whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (an internationally recognised whale sanctuary surrounding Antarctica), Peter Hain, Foreign Office Minister advised Greenpeace that the Government had written to the Japanese State Secretary for Foreign Affairs asking for an immediate suspension of the whaling programme.