whaling

We've been out and about this morning at the Japanese embassy in London to show our support for the Tokyo Two. Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki are two brave whaling campaigners who are facing prison terms for exposing a major embezzlement scandal at the heart of the Japanese whaling industry.

This blog was originally posted by Lisa on our Making Waves weblog.

Toru Suzuki is one of our activists in Japan, now facing a maximum of 10 years in prison for exposing a crime at the heart of Japan's whaling industry.

The so-called 'scientific' whaling fleet has now returned to port from the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary for what we hope will be the last time, and it is almost one year since Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki exposed the embezzlement of whale meat by the fleet's crew.

Junichi and Toru are still on trial for their efforts to expose this crime, however, recently their bail conditions were relaxed slightly, enabling them to come back to work – just not with each other.

This article by Lisa first appeared on our Making Waves weblog on 10th April.

Junichi on his first day back in the Greenpeace Japan office

After nine months of disconnection from their colleagues and workplace, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki walked back into the Greenpeace Japan office last week like long-missed adventurers finally home.

Of course they did not come in on the same day, as while the bail conditions binding them have been relaxed enough for them to speak to their colleagues and come back to work, there are still a lot of kilometres left on their road, and they still cannot communicate directly with one another or be in the same place at the same time.

Whaling on Trial from Greenpeace on Vimeo.

My colleague Maarten over at Greenpeace International has just released this video telling the story of Junichi Satu and Toru Suzuki (the Tokyo Two), the anti-whaling activists soon to be tried in Japan for the supposedly heinous crime of informing their government that crew members on the whaling ships were stealing meat and selling it on the black market.

Following a tip-off from an an informant working in the whaling industry, they obtained a box of stolen whale meat, held a press conference and asked for an investigation. The result? Amazingly the government exonerated the whalers after little or no investigation, and put Junichi and Toru on trial instead. Hmmm, sounds like some people in high places over there are willing to go to extreme lengths to stop the Japanese public hearing the truth about what the government insists is a purely 'scientific' programme.

Not With Our Taxes! from Greenpeace on Vimeo

Despite the worst recession in a generation, Japanese government officials arrived at the intersessional meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Rome this week still determined to defend a multi-billion yen whaling programme that is reviled by the international community and unwanted by taxpayers at home.

What with the effective collapse of their economy, you might be forgiven for thinking that people in Iceland have more pressing things to worry about than whaling, and undoubtedly you'd be right. Yet, in the midst of economic and political turmoil, whaling has been thrust back up the agenda by the outgoing fisheries minister's parting shot - granting a commercial whaling quota for up to 100 minke and 150 endangered fin whales per year, supposedly for export to Japan.

He did so knowing that he wouldn't be around to have to deal with the aftermath. It's scandalous that the Icelandic government are even considering exporting whale meat. Lest we forget, fin whales are still listed as endangered, meaning that trade in products from the species would generally be illegal. Unfortunately, such is the weakness of international agreements on conservation that a simple ‘objection' or ‘reservation' to the listing seems to let Japan and Iceland off the legal hook.

Japanese whalers at work in the Southern Ocean Whale Sactuary

There have been a number of confusing reports recently about whaling, so I thought it was only right to try and make sense of some of them for you.

Since the last International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Chile, there have been inter-sessional international meetings to try and agree a way forward for the IWC, and break the impasse of recent years. Conservationists fear that the truth is pro-whalers are not willing to compromise, and are seeking acceptance of commercial whaling, which is still conducted despite an international ban on the practice. To make matters worse, commercial whaling, under the guise of 'scientific research' is conducted by the Government of Japan in the Southern Ocean, a globally-recognised whale sanctuary, every year.

Damaged? Whaling fleet catcher boat Yushin Maru II in Surabaya harbour for repair

According to intelligence received by our investigators in Surabaya, East Java, the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru II, which has been forced into a port in Indonesia for repairs, may be returning to Japan, and not the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.