Activitists try to stop Japanese whaling fleet [1]
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - 11:34. Updated on Sunday, June 15, 2014 - 18:06.
The Japanese Whaling fleet left the port of Shimonoseki in Japan on Sunday the 18 November for the Antarctic to kill over 1000 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under the guise of 'scientific' whaling.
This kill includes 50 endangered fin whales, 50 endangered humpback whales and 935 minke whales. This is the biggest hunt since the moratorium on commercial whaling came into force more than 20 years ago and for the first time in almost three decades the Japanese want to include the humpbacks on their menu. These are the very whales that hundreds of thousands of people enjoy every year during their annual migration past our shores and one of the main species that supports our $300 million whale watching industry.
Fed-up with government inaction, whale conservation groups around the world are now are calling for consumers to boycott Japanese products and services.
American Jeff Pantukhoff, founder of the Save the Whales Again! Campaign just organised the Bondi human whale project on Friday the 16 November where over 1,500 people sat in the shape of a 300 foot humpback whale on Bondi Beach to highlight the dangers facing the whales and dolphins by the Japanese.
"We are calling upon Australian...s and citizens all around the world to NOT purchase any products made in the whaling nations of Japan, Norway and Iceland until they stop killing dolphins and whales! We've done it before, its time to Save the whales Again!," he said at the rally.
Filmmaker, whale activist and founder of Byron Whale Action Group, Dean Jefferys, sailed from the Gold Coast in Queensland, 700 kms, to Sydney on board the Pelican One catamaran as part of the Flight of the humpback project to highlight the plight of the whales. Jefferys was arrested last year trying to deliver a letter to Mitsubishi during a boycott Japanese products protest.
"One aim of the journey was to educate people about these whaling issues by streaming interactive internet video from the catamaran to my website and communicating with media along the way and publicising the various political parties positions on whaling. Currently Labor's position is far better for the 50 threatened Humpback whales than the Liberals. Labor said if elected they will take Japan to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and track Japan's activities in Australian Antarctic waters with a navy ship," Jeffreys said. Save the Whale Again, 19/11/07.