SEAFOOD GIANT ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN LARGEST FIN WHALE HUNT SINCE COMMERCIAL WHALING BAN

LONDON: Iceland’s controversial fin whale hunt has now ended with a catch of 155 endangered fin whales, the largest slaughter since the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

 

New evidence obtained on the ground by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) reveals the ongoing involvement of international seafood giant HB Grandi in the whaling business, despite its claims to the contrary.

 

The two organisations also confirmed that major international shipping firm Eimskip continues to be closely involved in transporting whale products. 

 

In gathering evidence, EIA and AWI documented a truck belonging to Norðanfiskur – a seafood company wholly owned by HB Grandi since 2014 – transporting crates of whale meat and blubber from the whaling station at Hvalfjörður to Hvalur’s freezer facility in Hafnarfjörður.

 

HB Grandi is Iceland’s largest seafood company and its CEO, Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, has repeatedly insisted that the company “is not involved in whaling and never has been.” This claim ignores the fact that multi-millionaire Icelandic whaler Kristján Loftsson is chairman of HB Grandi’s board of directors and his whaling company, Hvalur, remains its single largest shareholder (via holding company Vogun).

 

“It is deeply disappointing, but no surprise, that HB Grandi’s repeated assurances that it has nothing to do with whaling have yet again been exposed as nothing but a worthless sop to shareholders and customers who are rightly concerned about its association with the internationally condemned hunting of endangered fin whales,” said Clare Perry, Team Leader of EIA’s Oceans Campaign.

 

Another major player in the transportation of whale meat and blubber around Iceland is Eimskip, a company 25 per cent owned by Yucaipa, a private equity company based in the US. Eimskip’s central involvement in Icelandic whaling includes hauling Hvalur whale products within Iceland and shipping them overseas.

 

In January 2014, Eimskip-chartered vessel the Westerkade was used to transport fin whale meat from Iceland to Halifax, Canada. The shipment was then sent by rail to Vancouver, where it was loaded onto another vessel that sailed to Seattle before departing for Yokohama, Japan.

 

Susan Millward, executive director of Washington DC-based AWI; stated: “It’s disgraceful that a US firm is being tainted by the blood of fin whales. We implore Yucaipa, as Eimskip’s largest shareholder, to exert its influence to end Eimskip’s supporting role in Iceland’s fin whale hunt.”

 

Iceland has continued exporting whale products in defiance of an international ban on such trade; more than 7,200 tonnes of blubber and meat have been sent to Japan since Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006. The most recent shipment of 1,800 tonnes arrived in Osaka in late August, following passage through Russia’s Northern Sea Route.

 

EIA and AWI are calling on International Whaling Commission member states in Europe and the US to increase diplomatic pressure on Iceland to compel it to abide by the moratorium on commercial whaling and the ban on international trade in whale products under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). 

NEW ANALYSIS OF TOXIC WHALE & DOLPHIN MEAT SHOWS JAPAN STILL GAMBLING WITH HUMAN HEALTH

LONDON: As Japan’s annual coastal whale and dolphin hunting season began today with the aim of killing more than 15,000 marine mammals, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released new evidence that the Government of Japan continues to recklessly expose its citizens to heavily polluted whale and dolphin products.

The new EIA report Dangerous Diet outlines the significant risks to human health posed by eating and the frequent mislabelling of cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) products contaminated with excessive levels of mercury and other marine pollutants such as carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Independent EIA analysis in 2015 found all of the 20 products tested were above the Government’s recommended safe limit for mercury in marine food of 0.4 parts per million (ppm). One sample of long-finned pilot whale contained 19ppm total mercury – 47 times the safe limit. Of the 341 cetacean products tested by EIA between 2001-15, 56 per cent contained mercury levels in excess of recommended limits.

Clare Perry, Team Leader of EIA’s Oceans Campaign, said: ”Every government has a basic duty of care to its people, a duty the Government of Japan shamefully abdicates each time it permits a citizen to buy toxic whale and dolphin meat in ignorance of the serious health risks and, in many cases, of the species they are buying.

“EIA has documented mercury- and PCB-contaminated cetacean products in Japan for 15 years, always making our findings public, yet the Government has still to act meaningfully.

“Having suffered the world’s worst outbreak of mass mercury poisoning in Minamata in the 1950s and being one of the initial signatories to 2013’s Minamata Convention, it is incomprehensible that the Japanese Government continues to fail to protect its citizens from mercury in foodstuffs.”

Dangerous Diet strongly urges the Government of Japan to permanently ban toxic cetacean products for human consumption and to phase out all whale, dolphin and porpoise hunts, working with hunters to find alternative livelihoods.

In the interim, it should update its advice on safe intake levels, ensure wider public awareness of them, enforce the law to ensure products are labelled with the correct species information, legally require warnings of high pollutant levels on products and conduct new medical studies of the health status of the coastal communities most at risk.

FISH BUYERS URGED TO REJECT SEAFOOD CAUGHT BY ICELANDIC WHALERS

Ad campaign aligned with Seafood Expo Global to educate public about whaling-linked products

 

BRUSSELS: A coalition of animal welfare and conservation groups has launched a new online ad campaign to coincide with the 2015 Seafood Exposition Global and Seafood Processing Global convention in Brussels this week, advising consumers and major seafood buyers to be aware of fish “tainted by the blood of whales”.

 

Among exhibitors at the Seafood Expo Global are several companies that process and/or sell whale meat, or are tied by shareholdings to whaling companies, including Icelandic seafood giant HB Grandi.

 

“Opinion polls in Europe have shown that more than 80 per cent of the public do not wish to buy seafood from companies associated with whaling,” said Susan Millward, Executive Director of the Animal Welfare Institute.

 

Jennifer Lonsdale, Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency, added: “Kristján Loftsson, CEO of the Hvalur whaling company, is the driving force behind Iceland’s fin whaling industry which has killed 551 endangered fin whales since 2006.

 

“It is disappointing that HB Grandi shareholders missed an opportunity earlier this month to distance the company from whaling when they re-elected Loftsson as Chairman of the Board.”

 

Sigrid Lueber, Founder and President of OceanCare, urged seafood buyers at the Expo who have not yet joined the dozens of companies which have already pledged not to buy from whalers to “keep in mind that by putting money into the pockets of whalers you are helping to keep alive an industry that is both cruel and unnecessary.”

 

Vanessa Williams-Grey, Whaling Campaigner at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said: “We ask those companies or consumers reluctant to look for an alternative to HB Grandi products to remember the suffering of the whales. They have no choice – you do.”

 

Seafood Expo Global runs from April 21-23, 2015 and is expected to attract 30,000 participants from 140 countries.

 

The coalition is encouraging retailers to conduct an audit of their seafood supply chains to ensure the public they do not source seafood from individuals, vessels or companies linked to whaling – including fish from third party agents and/or processors.

 

Visit http://dontbuyfromicelandicwhalers.com/europe.html for more information on the campaign.

WHALE & DOLPHIN MEAT SAMPLES TESTED IN JAPAN EXCEED SAFE MERCURY LIMITS

LONDON: The Government of Japan and the country’s largest online marketplace for whale and dolphin meat have been urged to stop turning a blind eye to consumer health after the latest analysis revealed unsafe mercury contamination in 100 per cent of samples tested.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) tested 13 products purchased from Yahoo! Japan – the only major online retailer to continue to profit from sales of whale and dolphin meat – and an additional seven products from Japanese supermarkets.

Every sample showed mercury contamination exceeding the Japanese Government’s own recommended safe level of 0.4 parts per million (ppm).

In one instance of dried pilot whale meat purchased from Yahoo! Japan, the mercury level was found to be 19ppm – a shocking 47.5 times the safe limit.

Releasing the results today, EIA Oceans Campaign head Clare Perry said: “Time and again, our analysis of cetacean products on sale in Japan has shown them to be riddled with mercury and other pollutants which pose serious threats to human health.

“By continuing to allow Japanese consumers to buy and eat these toxic products in ignorance of the very real risks they pose, the Government and Yahoo! Japan are utterly failing in their duty of care.

“EIA calls on both – and on all retailers of whale and dolphin products in Japan – to stop gambling with consumers’ health and to take swift and decisive action to remove them from the market.”

Among the products from Yahoo! Japan tested by EIA were pilot whale rib cut (18ppm), Baird's beaked whale jerky (3.7ppm) and stew (7.2ppm), pilot whale spare ribs (13ppm) and roasted whale (10ppm).

Products obtained from supermarkets and identified as deriving from the notorious Taiji drive hunts included dolphin meat (11ppm), dolphin stomach meat (2.8ppm) and whale intestines (10ppm).

Some 50 per cent of the products were not labelled with the name of the cetacean species, in contravention of Japan’s labeling laws.

The full table of toxicity test results is available to view and download here.

Studies of populations that consume cetacean meat and blubber have shown that mercury and other contaminants adversely affect fetal development, including infant immune function, neural development and memory, as well as increasing the risk of developing Parkinson’s, hypertension and arteriosclerosis in adults.

National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Navy testing in the Pacfic Ocean

VICTORY: A new court ruling finds that the National Marine Fisheries Service acted illegally in approving U.S. Navy testing and training activities in the Pacific Ocean ejus.tc/1G5hjXc
The Navy and Fisheries Service had concluded that, over the plan’s five-year period, the Navy’s use of explosives and sonar could result in thousands of animals suffering death, permanent hearing loss or lung injuries. Millions of others could be left with temporary injuries and disruptions to feeding, breeding, communicating, resting and other essential behaviors. The Navy can both fulfill its training missions and avoid the most severe harm to whales, dolphins, and countless other marine animals by limiting training and testing in biologically sensitive areas.
Image by Eric Gautier

NORWEGIAN WHALE PRODUCTS TRIGGER PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS

WASHINGTON, DC (March 10, 2015): Whale meat shipped from Norway to Japan contains levels of harmful pesticides – including aldrin, dieldrin and chlordane – that violate human health standards established by the Japanese Government, according to tests conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

 

Over the past two years, Norway has increased exports of minke whale products, shipping more than 137 tonnes of whale meat and blubber to Japan for human consumption.

 

However, according to documents recently obtained by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Japanese health officials raised concerns about shipments from two Norwegian exporters, Brødrene Astrup Andreassen A/S and Myklebust Hvalprodukter, and recommended the products be returned or abandoned.

 

“Norway is entirely too focused on making whaling profitable,” said Susan Millward, Executive Director of AWI, “and, as a result, is ignoring the potential harm the whale products pose to its own citizens and those in other countries.”

 

“Japan is right to take action to prevent the import of toxic Norwegian whale meat,” said Clare Perry, head of EIA’s Oceans Campaign. “However, it should also look to its own cetacean hunts, which provide thousands of tonnes of toxic whale and dolphin products for unsuspecting Japanese consumers, putting them at increased risk of serious diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis and diabetes.”

 

This is not the first time Norwegian whale meat has been the focus of health concerns in Japan. In 2009, whale meat exported by Olavsen A /S and Myklebust Hvalprodukter was rejected for sale in Japan because it contained levels of live bacteria in excess of that permitted.

 

Problems with contaminated Norwegian whale products are not confined to exported goods. Recent studies by the Norwegian National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research also found unacceptably high levels of organic contaminants – especially dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyl – in whale oil capsules produced for domestic consumption.

 

Norwegian demand for whale meat has fallen in recent years. To boost domestic sales, and with an eye on new export markets, both the Norwegian Government and its whaling industry are subsidising research, development and marketing of new whale-derived products.

 

AWI and EIA call on the Government of Norway to stop supporting research into alternative uses for whale meat and blubber and to immediately accept the international bans on commercial whaling and trade in whale products.

 

Students visit the Baie-Sainte-Catherine, Quebec, Canada

Students from St-Laurent Academy School in Ottawa visited the famous Baie-Sainte-Catherine region of Quebec to see the magnificent whales and wildlife.

A very popular spot for tourists- even in October!

 You never know where the whales will surface!

 Humpback!

 Harbour seal

 Gulls

 Beluga whale

Minke whale

35 GOVERNMENTS CALL ON ICELAND TO STOP WHALING AND END TRADE IN FIN & MINKE WHALES

LONDON: A formal diplomatic protest, known as a démarche, was today delivered to the Icelandic Government in Reykjavik.

 

The top-level protest registered countries’ “strong opposition” to Iceland’s continued whaling, particularly of endangered fin whales.

 

The démarche also objects to Iceland's international trade in whale products, stating: “Fin whales and minke whales are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix I … and we remain extremely concerned with Iceland’s reservation, entered in 2000, for these and other cetacean species.”

 

The démarche was signed by the 28 EU Member States, the USA, Australia, Brazil, Israel, Mexico and New Zealand. In addition, Monaco associated with the statement.

 

The 35 countries called on Iceland to “respect the IWC’s global moratorium and end its commercial whaling and international trade in whale products”.

 

Clare Perry, Senior Campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “Since 2006, Iceland’s whaling company Hvalur has killed more than 500 endangered fin whales, purely to cash in on a limited demand in Japan. This démarche highlights Iceland’s flagrant disregard for international efforts to conserve whales. We congratulate those countries that have initiated this protest and urge them and other countries to take further diplomatic efforts to bring an end to Iceland’s commercial whale slaughter.”

 

Susan Millward, executive director of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), said: “We welcome the fact that so many governments have acted to put Iceland on notice that its whaling is unacceptable to the world community. AWI urges Iceland to respect the call made in this diplomatic protest and to bring an end to both its whale hunts and trade in whale products, to stem the damage already done to both its reputation and economy."

 

Chris Butler-Stroud, Chief Executive Officer of Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), said: “We join the signatories of the démarche in urging Iceland to come in from the cold and join the international community in creating a world where whales are safe from this outdated practice. At a time when Icelandic parliamentarians are questioning the negative effect that whaling is having on Iceland's international standing, we urge Iceland to abandon this unnecessary slaughter and instead support its profitable and growing whale watch industry which brings considerable economic and social benefits to the country.”

 

Last week, the three organisations jointly released Slayed in Iceland, a new report outlining the connections between Iceland’s fin whale hunt and Iceland’s leading seafood company, HB Grandi.

 

The report strongly urged the IWC, governments and businesses dealing with Icelandic companies linked to whaling to take action to compel Iceland to cease commercial whaling and trade. 

GOVERNMENTS AND RETAILERS MUST ACT TO HALT ICELAND’S SLAUGHTER OF ENDANGERED FIN WHALES

LONDON: A new report today calls for the international community and vested commercial interests to take tough action to end Iceland’s ongoing slaughter of endangered fin whales.

 

Slayed in Iceland: The commercial hunting and international trade in endangered fin whales has been jointly released by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) on the eve of the 65^th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Portorož, Slovenia.

Iceland’s fin whale hunt revolves around Kristján Loftsson, a multi-millionaire and the Executive Director of Hvalur hf. In his bid to create a viable market for fin whale products in Japan, he has used the resources of another company for which he serves as Chair of the Board – Icelandic fishing giant HB Grandi.

 

The report exposes the sheer scale of the hunt and overseas trade, as well as the financial and logistical links between the whalers and some of Iceland’s largest companies. It includes recommended actions for governments and corporations to take to ensure that they are not supporting Hvalur's whaling activities.

 

Fin whales – the second largest creature on the planet, after blue whales – were for decades the target of industrial-scale commercial whaling, an unbridled slaughter curtailed in 1986 by the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. Almost three decades later, fin whales remain endangered.

 

Iceland’s fin exports to date are worth an estimated US$50 million and clearly undermine both the IWC moratorium and the ban on international commercial trade in fin whale products imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

 

EIA Senior Campaigner Clare Perry said: “Since 2006, Hvalur has killed more than 500 fin whales, purely to cash in on a limited demand in Japan. It has exported more than 5,000 tonnes of fin whale products to Japan, including a record single shipment of 2,071 tonnes in 2014.

 

“This ongoing and escalating slaughter is not only a contemptuous slap in the face to international efforts to conserve whales, it’s a spreading bloodstain on Iceland’s international credibility and it needs to end now.”

 

AWI Executive Director Susan Millward said: “Iceland’s Hvalur company continues to whale with impunity and has managed to ship whale products to Japan via countries that have strong anti-whaling laws, such as the United States. Governments must work to ensure that their ports are permanently closed to the transit of whale products from protected species.”

 

And WDC Chief Executive Officer Chris Butler-Stroud said: “Efforts by HB Grandi to distance itself from fin whaling activities are revealed as mere smoke and mirrors –our report demonstrates that the company remains hand-in-glove with the fin whalers.

 

“Given that a recent poll suggests massive public opposition to the notion of purchasing seafood linked with whaling, we hope that our report, combined with falling profits, persuades HB Grandi and companies purchasing from it to urgently re-examine their position.”

 

Slayed in Iceland strongly urges the IWC, governments and businesses dealing with Icelandic companies linked to whaling to take action to compel Iceland to cease commercial whaling and trade.

CONSERVATION GROUPS CONDEMN RESUMPTION OF ICELAND’S BRUTAL HUNT OF ENDANGERED WHALES

LONDON: Conservation groups are calling on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and its member governments to condemn Iceland’s commercial whale hunt following confirmation that the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf has killed yet another endangered fin whale.

 

The whale was killed off Iceland’s west coast and landed today at the company’s processing station in Hvalfjörður, less than an hour’s drive from the capital Reykjavik.

 

The kill, the first of the 2014 season, coincides with a working party meeting of the European Union Environment Council in preparation for the meeting of the IWC in September. NGOs are pushing for governments to take a strong stand against Icelandic whaling ahead of, and during, the IWC meeting.

 

Iceland rejoined the IWC in 2002 with a reservation to the global moratorium on commercial whaling adopted in 1982, and then resumed commercial whaling in 2006. Almost all the fin whale meat originating from the 2014 hunt is destined for Japan, despite a ban on international trade in fin whales under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

 

Since 2008, more than 5,540 tonnes of fin whale meat has been exported, with an unprecedented single shipment of 2,000 tonnes to Japan in March this year.

 

Clare Perry, Senior Campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “EU member states have to wake up to the fact that commercial whaling and trade, in defiance of the IWC and CITES, is taking place right on their doorstep. This hunt of endangered whales must no longer go unchallenged – we look to EU member countries to lead opposition to Iceland’s whaling at the IWC meeting in Slovenia.”

 

Susan Millward, Executive Director at the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), said: “Iceland is a remarkable country with friendly people, picturesque landscapes and a wealth of tourism opportunities, yet its international reputation is consistently eroded by promoting commercial whaling and trade in whale products in violation of international treaties.”

 

Chris Butler-Stroud, CEO of Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), said: “The world cannot stand by and allow Icelandic whalers to kill fin whales – the second largest creature on the planet – with impunity. WDC calls for urgent and concerted action by conservation-minded countries around the globe to oppose a hunt which is as unnecessary as it is brutal.”

 

HB Grandi, Iceland’s leading seafood company – whose chairman, Kristján Loftsson, is also the CEO of Hvalur – has played an active role in Iceland’s whaling industry, both promoting whaling and providing HB Grandi facilities in Arkranes, Iceland, for the processing of endangered fin whale meat for the export market. In addition to meat, the blubber and offal of the fin whale killed today will be rendered into oil.

EUROPEAN CAMPAIGN WARNS SEAFOOD EXPO: ‘DON’T SUPPORT WHALE SLAUGHTER’

LONDON: An alliance of 13 leading conservation groups is this week urging major buyers at Europe’s biggest seafood trade show not to do business with Icelandic seafood company HB Grandi because of its strong links to whaling.

 

HB Grandi is controlled by the whaling and investment company Hvalur hf, which plans to kill 770 endangered fin whales during the next five years and sell the resulting meat and blubber to Japan.

 

The opening of the 2014 Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global trade event in Brussels today coincides with the arrival in Japan of a shipment of more than 2,000 tonnes of Icelandic whale products, including fin whale meat – cut, packed and prepared for export at an HB Grandi facility in Akranes, Iceland.

 

Several businesses with links to Hvalur are exhibiting at Seafood Expo, including HB Grandi and a number of its subsidiaries.

 

The 13 organisations have written to major European wholesalers and retailers that source Icelandic seafood, urging them to audit their supply chains to reassure customers that they are not buying fish from companies linked to whaling, in particular HB Grandi.

 

This European campaign comes a little more than a month after a similar effort was launched in the US under the banner “Don’t buy from Icelandic whalers”. As a result of those efforts, High Liner Foods and other companies have committed not to enter into new contracts with HB Grandi, and have stated their opposition to commercial whaling.

 

Clare Perry, Senior Campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “HB Grandi seafood products are tainted with the blood of fin whales hunted by the whaling company Hvalur. We are calling on European seafood buyers to publicly state their opposition to whaling and demonstrate their commitment to the protection of whales through their purchasing decisions.”

Chris Butler-Stroud, Chief Executive of Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), stated: “As pressure mounts against commercial whaling, WDC calls upon European seafood purchasers to recognise widespread public revulsion at the links between HB Grandi and fin whaling in Iceland and to source their seafood elsewhere.”

 

Susan Millward, Executive Director of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), added:  “It’s time for Iceland to join with the modern world and stop the madness of commercial whaling – European seafood buyers and their customers can stop putting money into the pockets of whalers and help convince Iceland to end its whaling by making informed and compassionate seafood purchasing decisions.”

 

The 2014 Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global event in Brussels runs from May 6-8 and is expected to attract 25,000 participants from 145 countries.

 

INTERNET GIANT RAKUTEN PULLS THE PLUG ON WHALE MEAT BUT ELEPHANT IVORY SALES CONTINUE

LONDON: Internet retail giant Rakuten has announced it is terminating sales of whale products through its Japanese marketplace Rakuten Ichiba and has given merchants 30 days to remove them.

 

The move came after the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), in conjunction with Humane Society International (HSI), launched the report Blood e-Commerce on March 18 exposing Rakuten as the world’s biggest online marketplace for elephant ivory and whale meat products, and the day after UN International Court of Justice ruled against Japan’s fraudulent ‘scientific’ whaling in the Antarctic.

 

EIA Senior Campaigner Clare Perry said: “The removal of thousands of ads for whale products is a very welcome step and a clear recognition by Rakuten that selling the meat of endangered and protected whales and dolphins is seriously harmful to both its global reputation and customers’ health.”

 

But EIA President Allan Thornton added: “Japan is awash with illegal ivory trade and Rakuten's thousands of ivory ads help fuel the mass slaughter of elephants across Africa. We appeal to Rakuten to help protect elephants by immediately banning all ads for ivory products.”

 

As well as Rakuten Ichiba, the company owns Rakuten Shopping (formerly Buy.com) in the US, Play.com in the UK, PriceMinister in France, shopping sites in Germany, Austria, Brazil and other countries, Canadian e-book reader Kobu and popular chat app Viber, as well as being a major shareholder in Pinterest.

 

Rakuten’s statement, posted on its website, yesterday read: “In accordance with the March 31, 2014 ruling by the International Court of Justice, Rakuten Ichiba today asked merchants to cancel sales of whale meat products on the Rakuten Ichiba marketplace. Rakuten has also requested these merchants to remove all related items from their online shops within the next 30 days.

 

HSI Vice president Kitty Block said: “This is a good step for protecting whales and dolphins but Rakuten must take the next step and ban ivory ads to help protect Africa's elephants.”

 

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE RULES JAPAN’S SCIENTIFIC WHALING MUST END

LONDON: The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) today welcomed the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling against Japan’s whaling in the Antarctic.

 

Australia took Japan to the ICJ in 2010, alleging it was intentionally taking advantage of a loophole in the 1986 commercial whaling ban by claiming it was killing the whales for scientific research. The Court ruled overwhelmingly in favour of Australia.

 

Clare Perry, head of EIA’s Cetaceans Campaign, today said: “This is an historic decision which lays to rest, once and for all, the grim travesty of Japan’s so-called ‘scientific’ whaling and exposes it to the world as the blatant falsehood it clearly is.

 

“For a long time it has been evident that ‘science’ has been abused at a breath-taking scale to justify Japan’s continued commercial hunting of protected whales and despite a heavily subsidised and ever-dwindling market for whale meat in Japan.

 

“With this ruling, Japan must clearly cease its whaling activities in the Antarctic. Next, the world needs to focus its attention on Japan’s whaling in the North Pacific, where it continues to issue permits to kill up to 500 whales annually in hunts using the same ‘scientific’ clause that has now been condemned beyond dispute by the international court.”