Greenpeace vow to disrupt Japanese whaling
Source >
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051118/sc_nm/environment_greenpeace_dc
Fri Nov 18, 9:33 AM ET
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Greenpeace activists will put
their lives on the line to disrupt this year's
Japanese whaling hunt as part of a 14-month campaign
to save the world's oceans, the group said on Friday.
"Greenpeace will get out there and put ourselves
between the whale and the harpoon to defend our
oceans," Shane Rattenbury, head of the group's Ocean
Campaign, told reporters in Cape Town's harbor.
The activist group will leave South Africa in two
ships within the next few days to search the vast
Southern Ocean to confront the whalers and stop the
hunt, he said.
The 6-ship Japanese fleet left for the Antarctic last
week and plan to double its target catch, spearing
more than 900 minke whales, and 10 fin whales -- an
endangered species second in size only to the blue
whale.
Tokyo maintains that whale meat is an important part
of its culinary tradition, but anti-whaling nations
and environmental groups condemn as cruel and
unnecessary the practice of hunting the giant marine
mammals.
Rattenbury said uncontrolled commercial whaling over
the past century had wiped out 90 percent of the
planet's whales, and has brought many species to the
brink of extinction.
"We are facing a growing wave of ocean extinction, our
seas have reached a tipping point with scores of
species of fish, birds and mammals edging toward
extinction," he said.
The planned confrontation with the whalers is the
first phase of a campaign that will see Greenpeace
vessels sail the world to gather research and drum up
support for a campaign to declare 40 percent of the
world's oceans protected areas.
Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 in line
with an international moratorium and began what it
calls a research program the following year, but meat
still ends up on plates in gourmet restaurants.
The
International Whaling Commission passed a non-binding
resolution at a meeting in June that urged Japan to
scrap research whaling altogether, while Japan lobbied
for commercial whaling to be allowed again.
It threatened to withdraw from the commission and form
a new regulatory body with other whaling nations such
as Norway.
Sara Holden, Greenpeace spokeswoman, told Reuters the
group was confident of finding the whalers despite the
massive search area -- an estimated 32 million square
kilometers, or twice the size of the United States.
"We found them before and we fully intend to find them
again," she said.
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