Oh No! Humpbacks on the Block Again!
Volume LXI · No. 3 · Madeira, Portugal · Wednesday June 24, 2009
Acrobat .pdf of issue
Japan, whch has refrained for two years from its threat to kill 50 humpbacks annually as part of its illegal and immoral “scientific” research slaughter in the Southern Ocean, is now using the humpbacks again to threaten the IWC.
Chairman William Hogarth claimed in 2007 that his efforts to work a deal with Japan resulted in Japan “showing good faith” by dropping plans to kill humpbacks. However, since Japan had not begun killing humpbacks, the gesture was hardly any strain on their part. Japan continued to kill minke and fin whales in the Southern Ocean, and even renewed importing whale products from Norway and Iceland during negotiations.
Japan refuses to say if they will target humpbacks or not, awaiting the outcome of the Madeira IWC meeting. But Japan and the world know that humpback whales form the basis of a multi-million dollar whale watching industry in Australia and New Zealand, as well as several South Pacific island countries, such as Tonga.
Killing 50 humpbacks annually in the Southern Ocean would not only deplete the humpback population, but would likely make the humpback whales that survive the chase far more wary of contact with whale watching boats.