WSPA | Give Whales A Voice
http://www.givewhalesavoice.com.au/

WHALES UNDER THREAT!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/whales_under_threat/

The Whaleman Foundation

http://www.savethewhalesagain.org

IFAW  WHALES
http://www.mywhaleweb.com/?page_id=3545

Walk for Whales 2010
http://www2.wdcs.org/hych/getactive/marathons/walkforwhales/aboutthewalks.php

Whales Revenge
http://www.whalesrevenge.com/

GREENPEACE WHALE TRIALS
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/whaling/ending-japanese-whaling/whaletrial/

The talks’ sponsor, the US, admitted yesterday that an impasse had been reached, despite 30 rounds of meetings over the past two days.

A key negotiator, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, of New Zealand, said they had failed to end Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling, which was still expected to resume next summer.

Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett said it was time to close the door on the deal and move forward to reform the International Whaling Commission.

The IWC’s chairman, Anthony Liverpool, told the 74 nations at its annual meeting that more discussion was needed.

But on the deal-breaking dispute of Southern Ocean whaling, Japan and Australia remain poles apart.

Tokyo floated possible cuts from its self-awarded Antarctic scientific quota of 935 minke whales and 10 fins.

Mr Garrett said Australia was holding to its demand for a phase down to zero “in a reasonable period”.

“If there isn’t going to be an agreement on the discussions so far … we should close the door on it,” Mr Garrett said of the deal.

Instead he said the government wanted to turn attention to the IWC itself, which was under a cloud, with further allegations of Japanese vote-buying, and a need to introduce whale conservation programs

“We should continue to work on those things where we can find agreement and where we can deliver good practices for the commission to take forward,” Mr Garrett said.

Japanese Fisheries Vice Minister Yasue Funayama warned the meeting that insisting on a cut to zero by Japan was unscientific and would mean the impasse would continue.

Ms Funayama said that despite the failure to reach consensus, talks should continue. Sir Geoffrey suggested talks be suspended for a year or so to enable time for reflection.

The talks began three years ago followed a long-standing diplomatic deadlock over the pursuit of a return to commercial whaling by Japan and Iceland, and a continued self-regulated Norwegian hunt.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society backed Mr Garrett’s calls for the deal to be abandoned, not “frozen” and revived in a year’s time as some Japanese sources suggested.

“A turkey that is frozen and thawed is still a turkey,” said AMCS director Darren Kindleysides.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s global whales program director, Patrick Ramage, said the effort was misguided from the start.

“It sought to define terms under which whaling would be allowed to continue rather than the terms in which it would end.

“Had it been done here this deal would have lived in infamy,” Mr Ramage said.

The German parliament has declared that in order to be granted EU membership, Iceland must stop whaling, mbl.is reports.

“The German congress has with its decree on April 22nd 2010, declared full support of formal negotiation with Iceland, which aims to make Iceland a full member of the EU. At the same time, the Parliament has declared that Iceland must make amends in regards to whale preservation in accordance with international and EU law.”

The above is an excerpt from a memo presented by a representative of the German Ambassador to Iceland at a meeting with Icelandic officials today.

According to the Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Jón Bjarnason, the Icelandic government is willing to participate in a group working towards reaching a compromise regarding whaling.

The International Whaling Committee will meet in Morocco later this month and the Icelandic government cannot be influenced by EU demands during that process.
http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=40764&ew_0_a_id=363870

Conservationists want Australia to lead the anti-whaling charge at a major summit next week, as dramatic footage is released of a whale being hit by an exploding harpoon.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) captured the footage, which shows a minke whale swimming off Norway in May.

A ship fires a harpoon at the whale, which appears to be hit by an explosion.

The ship then attempts for more than 20 minutes to locate the whale, which WSPA says was injured but still alive.

A second harpoon is fired later which kills a minke whale.

Emily Reeves, spokeswoman for WSPA Australia, said the footage shows why Australia should campaign against whaling at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) summit in Morocco next week.

Japan used exploding harpoons to kill whales in the Southern Ocean, she said.

“Whaling is inherently cruel … there’s no way to prevent a whale from suffering,” Ms Reeves told AAP.

Exploding harpoons aimed to detonate inside the whale’s body and cause death. Sometimes whales were injured, sometimes they died instantly.

The IWC is to consider a proposal that would lift the current ban on commercial whaling.

Australia opposes the proposal and WSPA wants Australia to fight hard at the IWC summit.

The Norwegian Society for the Protection of Animals and NOAH assisted in capturing the footage.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/whale-watch/whale-shown-in-dramatic-harpoon-footage-20100615-ycio.html

The undercover investigation found officials from six countries were willing to consider selling their votes on the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The revelations come as Japan seeks to break the 24-year moratorium on commercial whaling. An IWC meeting that will decide the fate of thousands of whales, including endangered species, begins this month in Morocco.

Japan denies buying the votes of IWC members. However, The Sunday Times filmed officials from pro-whaling governments admitting:

- They voted with the whalers because of the large amounts of aid from Japan. One said he was not sure if his country had any whales in its territorial waters. Others are landlocked.

— They receive cash payments in envelopes at IWC meetings from Japanese officials who pay their travel and hotel bills.

- One disclosed that call girls were offered when fisheries ministers and civil servants visited Japan for meetings.

Barry Gardiner, an MP and former Labour biodiversity minister, said the investigation revealed “disgraceful, shady practice”, which is “effectively buying votes”.

The reporters, posing as representatives of a billionaire conservationist, approached officials from pro-whaling countries and offered them an aid package to change their vote.

The governments of St Kitts and Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Republic of Guinea and Ivory Coast all entered negotiations to sell their votes in return for aid.

The top fisheries official for Guinea said Japan usually gave his minister a “minimum” of $1,000 a day spending money in cash during IWC and other fisheries meetings.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7149091.ece

The Obama administration is leading an effort within the International Whaling Commission to lift a 24-year international ban on commercial whaling for Japan, Norway and Iceland, the remaining three countries in the 88-member commission that still hunt whales.

The administration argues that the new deal will save thousands of whales over the next decade by stopping the three countries from illegally exploiting loopholes in the moratorium.

But environmentalists aren’t buying it.

“That moratorium on commercial whaling was the greatest conservation victory of the 20th century. And in 2010 to be waving the white flag or bowing to the stubbornness of the last three countries engaged in the practice is a mind-numbingly dumb idea,” Patrick Ramage, the whaling director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, told FoxNews.com.

Several environmental groups have joined forces to pressure Obama to withdraw his support for the deal before the whaling commission votes June 20 in Morocco on whether to lift the ban that was championed by President Reagan.

The groups have run ads in major newspapers highlighting Obama’s campaign promise in 2008 to “strengthen the moratorium on commercial whaling,” adding that “allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable.”

“We ask you to honor your promise, stop the sellout, and save the whales,” the ad reads.

The White House did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Under Obama’s deal, the three whaling countries would be allowed to keep hunting whales for a 10-year period in reduced numbers. The whaling countries in return would agree to tighter oversight of their operations, including participation in a whale DNA registry.

“We recognize that these measures do not meet the needs of those who want a complete end to whaling now, but neither can it be characterized as a whalers’ charter,” the whaling commission said in a press release announcing the proposal. “We believe that it is undeniably better than the status quo.”

Meanwhile a colleague of Peter Bethune, the Animal Planet star awaiting trial in Tokyo after a collision between his anti-whaling boat and a Japanese ship, says the environmental activist is doing what the international community refuses to do — save the whales.

The 1986 moratorium unquestionably reduced the number of whales killed each year. But it’s not as clear by how much. Some estimate that an average of 38,000 whales were killed each year before the moratorium reduced it to an average of 1,240.

Ramage said as many as 60,000 whales were killed before the moratorium — a figure that he says has been cut to about 1,700 per year.

“To say that the moratorium doesn’t work, that is a conscious effort to mislead or a complete misreading of the facts,” Ramage said, adding that “throwing it overboard in the name of good feeling and cooperation and conciliation with Japan is jaw dropping.”

Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s marine mammal protection program, added that the deal is “a step backward, to a time when it was acceptable to kill whales for profit.”

“The moratorium has done more to save whales than the revival of commercial whaling ever could,” he said in a written statement. “We will do everything we can to stop it – and to persuade the Obama administration that it should too.”

The whaling commission says it developed the proposal to improve its performance on whale conservation and the management of whaling.

“Given the wide range of views of our members, it had to be a compromise proposal,” said Cristian Maquieira, head of the IWC. “And that inevitably means that no one gets everything they want.

“Given the criticism we have received from all sides, we are probably not far off the correct balance. If we did not believe that this proposal was good for whales and considerably better than the present situation then we would not have put our names to it.”

Guests

Chris Palmer Author of “Shooting in the Wild,” Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University’s School of Communications and a wildlife filmmaker.

Karsten Klepsvik the Norwegian Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission

Fred O’Regan President & CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)

Monica Medina U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission, Commerce Department Principal Deputy Under Secretary at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.)

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-05-24/future-commercial-whaling

Interview with International Whaling Commission Chair Christian Maquieira on Costa Rica’s Tele Noticias 7

The IWC meets in Agadir, Morocco to consider a controversial “peace plan” proposed on April 22 by Cristian Maquieira, the chairman of the 88-nation commission, to

legitimize but reduce whaling.

Under the draft proposal Japan, Iceland and Norway would reduce their whale kills over the next decade, subject to tight monitoring, with Japan eventually cutting its Antarctic whale culls by three quarters.

Maquieira, a native of Chile, will address the 11 anti-whaling countries from Latin America that form the so-called Group of Buenos Aires, organizers said.

“Our country maintains a solid conservationist position against the hunting of whales,” said Costa Rica’s representative to the IWC, Javier Rodriguez.

Latin American environmental groups began a meeting also in San Jose on Monday to define their position ahead of the June meeting.

Elsa Cabrera of the Cetacean Conservation Center in Chile said there is “great concern” over the IWC proposal “because it lifts a de facto moratorium on commercial whale hunting, destroying the largest advance in the history of international environmental rights.”

Argentina, Brazil, Chile Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay make up the Buenos Aires group.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jtyWHTZwGCjUcvf3ihi2C4dbEk8g

TOKYO: Japan cautiously welcomed an International Whaling Commission proposal that would effectively allow commercial whaling for the first time in 25 years, though under strict quotas that the commission argues will reduce the global catch.

The proposal, to be debated at the IWC’s meeting in June, seeks a compromise by allowing whaling nations to hunt without specifying commercial or otherwise – but in lower numbers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/iwc-meeting/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501022&objectid=10640684