If you go to Ulsan's official IWC website you will see the proposal for a "Cetacean Reseach Centre", right next door to the Whale Museum (which sets the tone by featuring a large harpoon boat out the front). Note the following words: "Facilitate scientific research for conservation, management and effective use of whale resources, to ultimately boost the national image." Hmmm....how does "conservation" go with "use of whale resources"? We asked ourselves that very question.

So, recently, KFEM and Greenpeace got their hands on the plans for the redevelopment of this site in Ulsan. And what we found was shocking. There, on the plans (but not on the website) was a proposal for a "whale processing factory" and a "whale burial ground". This didn't sound very promising to us, to say the least. Or very scientific either.

This morning, after months of planning and two days of intense, round-the-clock preparation for the whole crew, we set up a "Whale Embassy" on the proposed whale meat factory site. In the early morning light, as our orange-clad activists set up the huge dome that would form our embassy (as you can see in the photo) we got some very strange looks from the locals.

Most people were just plain curious, some even wandering through the press conference which we held on site. The poor local policeman had a look on his face that said "Why me?". The workers on the museum construction site and in the whale meat restaurants across the road stared at us open-mouthed.

After the initial buzz, all was quiet... until some members of the IWC organising committee showed up. They said that we'd made a huge mistake. For one tiny moment a voice in my head said "Oh no! Could we possibly have mistranslated "amusement park" for "whale meat processing factory"? However, the mistake apparently was, the whale meat processing factory will be part of scientific research. Well, sorry guys, in my books that's still whaling because the end product is a dead whale.

Later today there was another incident - a report of a dead cetacean washed up in Ulsan harbour. In the last few days in Korea, five fishermen have also been arrested for allegedly harpooning a whale and then attempting to illegally sell the meat at market (officially all whale catches need to be reported to the authorities). So this was an interesting development. Shane and Natalie went to check out the carcass ("unfortunately," adds Shane). They said it was hard to tell what the cause of death was, since it was already badly decomposed.
We have asked the local authorities to do an autopsy so we can know the actual cause of death - this could yield some important scientific information in light of the falling whale numbers in Korean waters.

Anyway, we will be staying at the camp site for the forseeable future, some of us sleeping on the ship and some of us in hammocks inside the big green dome. (Although in yet another bizarre news report, a prisoner has apparently escaped from the nearby prison and run towards the harbour, so poor Sam is on watch hoping to avoid a stowaway!) I have to say though, the police and the local population have been extremely helpful - today the lady at the local supermarket (that is, the one squashed between a dolphin restaurant and a whale meat restaurant) offered for us to use her computer, and the taxi driver ferrying me into town this afternoon (so I could write this to you) gave me a discount after learning I was from Greenpeace. I guess this shows that opinions differ in Ulsan - in fact a poll last week apparently said that even in a city which was the heart of Korea's prehistoric whaling, 50-60% of people are opposed to commercial whaling. I find this very reassuring.