Japanese
whaling boats in the Southern Ocean in Australian Antarctic Territory are in conflict with Greenpeace, an international environmental group. Greenpeace ships have intercepted Japanese whaling boats in an effort to prevent the slaughter of hundreds of minke
whales.
During the 19th and early 20th century, Australia practised commercial whaling. Whalers obtained oil from the whales to use as lamp fuel, lubricants, candles and as a base for perfumes and soaps. Baleen was used in corsets, whips and umbrellas. Whaling was Australia’s first primary industry but by 1935 there were so few southern whales left that whaling stopped and they became a protected species.
Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Greens Party in Australia said Australia should send a navy ship to the Antarctic waters to monitor the Japanese whaling fleet. Mr Brown has accused the
government of ignoring the piracy of whales on Australian waters so as not to offend the Japanese government. It would appear the prime minister wants to get a free trade agreement going with the Japanese prime minister in the coming year.
Japan refuses to compromise on the issue of whaling, claiming Japanese people have
eaten whale
meat for hundreds of years and it is their traditional right to continue doing so. Interestingly, polls conducted by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun in 2002 show that only 4
percent of the people regularly ate
Whale meat. A further 53 percent said they hadn’t eaten it since childhood and 33 percent had never eaten it. While freezers of whale meat remain unsold in Japan, the Japanese government clings to the argument that foreign countries haven’t the right to tell the Japanese people what they can and cannot eat. They ignore the fact that Australia and most other countries have ended whaling.
Greenpeace will not give up. They have two ships, the Esperanza and the Arctic Sunrise in the Southern ocean. They intend to confront the whaling fleet at every opportunity and have warned that they intend to make the area a difficult place for whalers.
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