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David @ Tokyo

Perspective from Japan on whaling and whale meat, a spot of gourmet news, and monthly updates of whale meat stockpile statistics

1/16/2007

 

Greenpeace Japan to launch a "whale love" site

Yep... that's right. "whale love".

The press release in Japanese is here. I'm not going to bother to translate much of this, but according to them (my translation):
"Regarding whales, it is Greenpeace's role to bridge the gap between the international community and within Japan, and to find a path in which humans and whales can truly co-exist together"
(sigh)

The actual web page (which has an English version) is at www.whalelove.org.

Apparently from the 25th of January (to coincide with the late expedition of the Esperanza to the Antarctic) they are going to broadcast some videos of a Spanish guy and a Japanese lady travelling around Japan presenting their thoughts about whales and so forth. It seems the videos will be available in both English and Japanese, so if you do happen to feel the desperate urge to sit through a Greenpeace propaganda show, be their guest!

* * *

The www.cowlove.org, www.sheeplove.org, and www.piglove.org domains appear to still be available.

Labels: ,


Comments:
David-san,

The ICR and JFA have to
make more powerful web
site to promote whaling
to young generations.

Especially I think they
have to let the young
generations know the facts
IWC and the right history
of Japanese whaling.

Otherwise, they might be
more misled by the insane
group.

Among Japanese women,there is a movement to promote to have whale meat.

Please see below.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20070115-00000124-mailo-l13

Y/H(Japan)
 
Y/H-san,

Interesting article! Thank you.

I have heard of the WFF before, good luck to them. I'd like to try to find their new book myself.
 
HI David and Y/H.

Funny stuff from Greenpeace. I wonder if there isn't copyrights problems with that famous Japanese TV show on which young Japanese people travel the world in a pink van...and GP's "Whale-Love Wagon".

There is also a gap between the English and Japanese versions of their message :
- "人類全体としては、ここ数十年のうちにクジラを捕獲の対象から保護の対象と見る、大きな変化が起こりました".
- "Almost all nations have changed their view of the value of whales no longer seeing them as game but as a valuable marine resource to protect".

If I follow their rhetoric (in Japanese), I guess that Greenpeace will then ask Norwegians, Icelanders, Inuits and any other whaling people to stop their activities in order to adapt themselves to the view of the "whole humanity".

I suppose that ICR/JWA's Kujira portal site is not bad a website for promoting whaling to Japanese people. It might not be as much appealing to young people as GP's "Whale-Love Wagon", though.

However, I think it would be better if the ICR/JWA could avoid giving some misleading informations in their pamphlets. For example, in the one titled 鯨と日本人, it is written that the IWC/SC has agreed that there were AT LEAST 760,000 Minke Whales in the Antarctic ([...]南極海にミンククジラは少なくとも76万頭以上[...]).

As David, I'd like to find WWF's new book and have a look at its contents.
 
Yeah, they need to update their homepages, etc. The 760,000 figure is still the accepted figure for 1990, but certainly people may get confused if they mention it. At any rate, hopefully the IWC/SC will finally give the new agreed estimate this year. They also need to avoid saying things like "whales are increasing", as it depends on each individual case, and this is probably no longer true with the Antawrctic minke whale (the ICR results indicate this as well).

The PR should instead say "minke whales are abundant, and thus potentially harvestable". Even if the estimate is only say 400,000 ~ 500,000, it's still an incredibly abundant species relative to other parts of the world.

Hopefully the IWC Scientific Committee will produce some advice about where they believe the population is giong from here (with the reasons why), as well, in addition to the more recent abundance estimate. I hope they also make the reasons for the decline clear as well. JARPA has only killed something like 8,000 or so, so I wonder if anti-whaling groups will attempt to attribute the decline to research whaling, and not environmental and population dynamics factors.

As for Greenpeace, they are their own worst enemy. Few in Japan will take them seriously when they come out and try to mislead them about what humanity thinks. Greenpeace will remain unsuccessful here until they stop assuming that people are stupid.
 
Hi David.

I hope the IWC/SC will give the new estimate for Antarctic Minke Whales soon. It's been awaited for for long now. I agree with you that 400,000-500,000 whales estimate would be a proof that this species is quite abundant.

I suppose Greenpeace and Co might again ask people like Steve Palumbi to produce new miraculous studies showing that there were far more whales before.

I don't doubt that Greenpeace's new initiative to convice the Japanese public that they don't need whaling will fail. Actually, I'm pretting sure this is more for a show as no more whaling would mean much less revenues for GP. It would be hard to find as appealing an animal as whales are. A "Save the cods" campaign is unlikely, isn't it?
 
I think Greenpeace are foolish to rely on his work. This is from Annex G of the 2006 IWC/SC report, regarding a Roman and Palumbi paper from 2003:

"... the discrepancy between genetic estimates and the catch record remains largely unreconciled.

The sub-committee recommended the SC consider this issue at some point in the future when additional publications describing methodological and analytical progress are available. At that time the SC could consider these advancements and assess whether they are relevance to the IWC."

Indeed, even if Palumbi's work is ever accepted, it seems to be of decreasing importance (to a non-scientific observer like me, anyway). From what I read, it appears to be commonly recognised that ecosystems are dynamic, changing, and the Antarctic is no exception. What may have been the carrying capacity of a given stock of whales prior to whaling has most probably changed since then, to a greater or lesser extent. There were two papers on catch-at-age based models discussed at the last IWC/SC meeting, and at least the way I read it they both support the idea that the carrying capacity for Antarctic minke whales fluctuated up and down in the last century. But then, the Roman and Palumbi work does not appear to be in reference to even pre-whaling abundance, but some time in the distant past, which may be completely irrelevant to us today, as we are looking to manage whale stocks today and in the future, not in the past in a time when none of us existed on this planet.

I presume this is why the IWC/SC makes reference to assessing whether the findings "are of relevance to the IWC". I suspect not, but hey, you never know! We can bet that Palumbi will do whatever he can to make it seem that way :-)
 
Isanatori-san,

>I suppose that ICR/JWA's Kujira >portal site is not bad a website >for promoting whaling to Japanese >people.

Not a bad site.I agree with Isanatori-san,but something appealing is lacking,I am
afraid.

For example,on the web site,through internet TV, if a Japanese young movie star says "I like whalemeat. once a week, I have it",young men or women will rush to the fish shops.

Yes,they have to get more publicity
for them.

>It might not be as much appealing >to young people as GP's "Whale->Love Wagon", though.

In this sense,The ICR or other
associations of whaling should
try to make more fantastic web
site than GP's.

The important point the GPJ's poll shows is the young generations' ignorance of whaling as well as whale meat's taste.

Y/H(Japan)
 
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