freediver
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Whaling Commission 'must be reformed'
http://news.smh.com.au/whaling-commission-must-be-reformed/20080202-1poz.html
The International Whaling Commission has failed to resolve the increasingly heated debate over Japan's whaling program and needs to be thoroughly reformed, organisers of a conference on the dispute said.
The IWC - the world body regulating the hunting of many species of whales - has been paralysed by a clash between pro- and anti-whaling countries and both sides are dissatisfied with its performance, conference participants said on Friday.
Joshua Reichert, managing director of the US-based Pew Environment Group, which sponsored the conference, said the dispute threatened to spill over into other aspects of Japan's foreign relations.
Participants in the Pew conference - including government officials, scientists and environmentalists - agreed the current system for managing the world's whales is broken, but stopped short of recommending specific IWC reforms.
Environmentalists oppose the IWC-permitted scientific research program that enables Japan to kill about 1,000 whales a year.
Japan accuses the IWC of ignoring scientific evidence that certain species of whales are plentiful enough to be hunted without threat of extinction.
Symposium chairman Tuiloma Neroni Slade said a resolution could include a recognition of wider hunting rights by Japan's coastal whalers, suspension of research whaling, and a limit on the number of animals whaling natio
Symposium chairman Tuiloma Neroni Slade said a resolution could include a recognition of wider hunting rights by Japan's coastal whalers, suspension of research whaling, and a limit on the number of animals whaling nations can kill each year.
Japan said it would not back down.
"If some people are promoting the idea of whaling as totally evil and something that should be totally denied, I don't think that will create any kind of possibility of dialogue or discussion or possible solution," said Joji Morishita of the Fisheries Agency.
This is rediculous. Our government finally determined whether Japan really is whaling. They keep blustering on about this solid case but refuse to risk the embarassment of trying to get an international court to take them seriously.
Govt has 'shocking' evidence of whaling
http://news.smh.com.au/govt-has-shocking-evidence-of-whaling/20080207-1qpm.html
Australia has "shocking" evidence to back a legal bid to stop Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean, the federal government says.
But Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus says the government is still unsure who it could prosecute, when, and in what court.
The government's evidence is a pile of "shocking images" of the annual whale hunt taken by crew aboard the armed customs patrol vessel Oceanic Viking.
"We have got evidence of whaling being carried out in circumstances that we believe it should not be done," Mr Debus told reporters in Sydney.
According to Environment Minister Peter Garrett, the images of the slaughter mean any legal bid to stop whaling should be an open-and-shut case.
"It is explicitly clear from these images that this is the indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way," he told reporters in Sydney.
Japanese whaling pictures 'sick': Australian minister
http://news.smh.com.au/japanese-whaling-pictures-sick-australian-minister/20080207-1qs9.html
Photographs of a mother whale and her calf being dragged on board a Japanese ship after being harpooned in Antarctic waters have been described as sickening by Australia's environment minister.
"I guess when I saw the photos I just felt a bit of a sick feeling as well as a sense of sadness," Environment Minister Peter Garrett told Nine Network television.
Canberra was determined to pursue its campaign against whaling and would appoint a special envoy to talk with the Japanese on the issue while considering international legal action, Garrett said.
"We have to consider the options on legal action because it's a big step to be taken. But we're going to look at that very closely and some of the images that have been captured will inform that decision," he said.
Customs has 'misleading' whaling photos
http://news.smh.com.au/customs-has-misleading-whaling-photos/20080207-1qpm.html
Japanese authorities have hit back in the public relations war over its "scientific" whaling program, accusing Australian officials of misleading the public.
The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) denied two whales photographed as they were dragged bleeding into the whale processing vessel Yushin Maru, in the Southern Ocean, were mother and calf.
The two whales were unrelated, ICR director general Minoru Morimoto said, and the variance in size showed only "random sampling" in practice.
"It is necessary to conduct random sampling of the Antarctic minke population to obtain accurate statistical data."
"The government of Australia's photographs, and the media reports, have created a dangerous emotional propaganda that could cause serious damage to the relationship between our two countries," he warned.
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