Happy whaling ban day Brazil!
Posted by Irene onboard the Esperanza
Leandra showing off her binoculars.
©Greenpeace/Berg
Leandra's country Brazil banned whaling in its waters back in 1987, when the federal law no. 7643 was signed. "Since 20 years we have been able to see whales free, jumping, breeching and breeding along our coasts. It's amazing!" says Leandra.
In Brazil it is still the 18th, so
HAPPY WHALING BAN DAY BRAZIL!
You can watch whales a thousand times, but you can kill them only once. A whale watching company in Sydney offers free tours for Japanese tourists.
The idea behind it is that very few people would want to eat whales if they had seen them alive in their natural environment. The company's manager Will Ford:
"There are very few people who come out and do a whale-watching cruise and then go away thinking that it's still okay to eat them or to hunt them"
But the offer has a small hitch:
"The prime condition for this offer is that the government of Japan orders the whaling fleet to return and does not take a single whale."
Very few Japanese actually eat whale meat on a regular basis, but perhaps this initiative could raise awareness in Japan about the government using tax money to hunt for whales in Antarctica. Many do not know about this "scientific research" being carried out far away from the Japanese coasts.
Interest in eating whale is in fact so little that the Fisheries Agency of Japan tries to push whale meat back in the daily diet by using a marketing company! Check out Dave's post from last month "Would you be comfortable eating whale meat?"
The ship is moving gently, and it feels very good to finally be back en route to Antarctica! The sad bit is that we had to say farewell to our friends and crewmembers in Auckland, they have all contributed to this expedition. I made a page for the crewmembers who left the Esperanza - thanks for everything, and take care, wherever you go!
I've also started posting some new faces - meet Sakyo, campaigner from Japan.
- Iréne
Goodbye Rien!
©Greenpeace/Jiri Rezac
Comments
Hi Irene: I am marine biologist in the Mediterrenean and socia of Greenpeace ... I started as well a protest note in the fotocommunity Spain where I am a member ...: I got the pic of Esperanza from Greenpeace Admin. and I did a montage with a whale fluke taken here at Gibraltar ... The montage picture was granted a little star, means it is now in the gallery ...:-) Huge number of photographers have posted their good wishes to the Crew afterwards (more than 150 users) - mostly in German or Spanish ...
I send you this URL:
http://www.fotocommunity.es/pc/pc/channel/401/extra/new/display/11032230
for wanting to wish you good luck and it would be lovely if you could arrange sending me a feedback email to my address so I can translate it into Spanish and public it in the Photocommunity - they love to get news from me with pictures, at least 150 protest notes were written by them in the according web blog ...
Best regards and good luck, Miriam R. (miriamtoby@terra.es)
Posted by: Miriam R. | December 19, 2007 9:20 AM
Japan Suspends Humpback Hunts
December 19, 2007
At the end of the year we bring some good news from the Antarctic and some vitally important information from around the world.
JAPAN TO SUSPEND HUMPBACK HUNT
Reports from Tokyo indicate the Japanese have told the American Ambassador they will not hunt humpbacks this season.
Photo by David Martin
Australia has indicated she will send an armed vessel and aircraft to monitor the Japanese fleet and bring back evidence to support Australia's legal action against Japan in the World Court.
BV PROTESTS BARRAGE JAPANESE EMBASSIES
Your phone calls and faxes protesting Japan's dolphin hunt sent a strong message to Japanese embassies around the world. Faxes and phone calls force them to pay attention. Thanks for the reports you sent us of your interactions with embassy officials. Your voices were heard.
From BlueVoice.org
Posted by: echo | December 19, 2007 10:06 PM