Tuesday September 16th, 2014 – Hobart, Australia.
Following Sea Shepherd’s victory of saving 784 threatened, endangered and protected whales during the 2013/14 whaling season, the International Court of Justice delivered a landmark ruling declaring that the Japanese whaling program in the Antarctic is illegal.
Shortly thereafter, the Japanese Government announced that despite the momentous decision by the highest court in the world, the Japanese whaling fleet will return to the Southern Ocean in the 2014/15 Austral summer season; to conduct non-lethal surveying of whales, with the intention of resuming full scale lethal whaling in the 2015/16 season.
Sea Shepherd is preparing its fleet of ships to once again confront the Japanese whale poachers, should they decide to resume their illegal whaling operations this coming season.
However, if the whale poachers abide by their promise to not kill whales, then Sea Shepherd will take the opportunity to target the illegal fishing of Patagonian and Antarctic Toothfish in the Southern Ocean, shifting focus from saving endangered whales to protecting vulnerable fish and the delicate marine ecosystem that they inhabit.
“Operation Icefish will be the first campaign of its kind, using innovative direct action tactics to fill a law enforcement void exploited by illegal toothfish operators. The Bob Barker and the Sam Simon will leave Hobart, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand, respectively, to shutdown illegal toothfish operators in Antarctic waters. Illegal fishing operations will be documented, reported and confronted. Unlawful fishing gear will be confiscated and disposed of.
In the course of Operation Icefish, Sea Shepherd will patrol the Southern Ocean ‘shadowlands’ in a bid to make a citizen’s arrest of the half dozen illegal toothfish operators who continue to exploit these vulnerable fish populations outside of the full reach of the law,” said Captain Peter Hammarstedt, Director of Ship Operations for Sea Shepherd Global
“During several of our past Southern Ocean campaigns, we have encountered illegal longlines. It has been on our agenda for many years to intervene against these fishing boats.The illegal and unregulated fishing of Patagonian and Antarctica Toothfish needs to be stopped and Sea Shepherd has the passion and the resources to do so,” said Captain Alex Cornelissen, Chief Executive Officer for Sea Shepherd Global.
“Whether it will be whale poachers or toothfish poachers, Sea Shepherd is determined to maintain a spotlight on what is often known as the “last frontier”, Antarctica’s Southern Ocean Wilderness, which is of global significance and deserves the outmost protection. There are few places left in this world with nature on a grand scale,” said Jeff Hansen, Managing Director Sea Shepherd Australia.
About Sea Shepherd Global
Sea Shepherd Global is a non-profit conservation organisation whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Sea Shepherd Global uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately balanced oceanic ecosystems, Sea Shepherd Global works to ensure their survival for future generations. Visit http://www.seashepherdglobal.org for more information.
• Mick Mcintyre, Director, Whales Alive, www.whalesalive.org.au Please find below Mick Macintyre’s day one (Monday Sept 15) report in note form from the International Whaling Commission meeting in Slovenia. Mick of Australian Whales Aline group has attended every IWC meeting since 1993 …
International Whaling Commission (IWC)
MEETING IWC 65
Monday September 15th, 2014
REPORT by Mick McIntyre
Director, Whales Alive
DAY 1
Greetings from Portoroz, Slovenia
IWC 65 opened this morning in the coastal town of Portoroz, on the Adriatic sea.
The commission has not met for over two years as the meetings are now biennial.
This is the first IWC meeting since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its historic ruling on March 31st
Protest: Sea Shepherd and Surfers for Cetaceans led a protest outside the meeting venue,.
MEETING opened with speeches from the Govt. of Slovenia
68 countries registered but only 61 were present (some countries not present include Palau and Tuvalu although Kiribati is here)
Australian Minister of Environment Greg Hunt gave his intervention early (as he was only in town for the morning of Day 1). His intervention was effective because of the following words. He reminded the commission of the exact words of the ICJ ruling
“That the JARPA II was not a programme for the purposes of scientific research pursuant to Article VIII “
he went onto say that “Australia welcomed the 31 March 2014 decision of the International Court of Justice that ordered that Japan “shall revoke any extant authorization, permit or licence to kill, take or treat whales in relation to JARAP II and refrain from granting any further permits under Article VIII, in pursuance of that programme”
He then said
“The words of the court, the highest court of international law, speak for themselves, We need to ensure that the IWC considers the guidance from the court and incorporates its learned judgment into the practices of this Commission.”
His intervention was the first time that the IWC had talked about the ICJ ruling and its now puts on the record the need to embed the ICJ ruling into the workings of the IWC. More on this will come later in the week when a NZ resolution is tabled.
The Abbott Govt’s response to the announcement of the ICJ ruling on March 31st was very underwhelming. So very good to see Australian government come out strongly today on the floor of the IWC – putting the ICJ ruling square on the IWC agenda
ABORIGINAL WHALING
DENMARK’s schedule amendment; To allow Greenland to hunt 207 kills per year from 2015 to 2018 under its so-called aboriginal whaling program
After much debate and discussion and controversy because the EU were agreeing to support this quota _ along with USA and NZ ??
The vote was won by 46 votes to 11, with three abstentions, Australia abstained
Greenland’s proposed 207 kills per year from 2015 to 2018. (176 minke, 19 fin, 10 humpback and two bowhead whales per year.)
Its hard to believe that more Whales were condemned to die today. It seems incredible that Humpbacks are to be killed along with Fins, Bowheads and Minke whales.
This whaling has been proven to be commercial whaling as the meat is sold for profit. This should not have been allowed to go through. Questions on how the EU, USA and NZ could vote in favour of this proposal?
JAPAN’s small type coastal whaling
A schedule amendment to allow Japan’s coastal communities to take 50 Minke whales
More blah blah about the hardship of Japanese coastal communities
As in previous years this is a cheap way of attempting to lift the moratorium.
Antigua and Barbuda
Long and vitriolic intervention from Daven Jospeh the IWC commissioner for St Kitts and Nevis claiming the sky is falling in unless we allow Japan to kill whales
NZ intervention
Expressed his regret that the IWC seemed to be going back to the bad old days of blaming each other and not cooperating if the intervention from Antigua and Barbuda was any guide
He also wanted the commission to know that Antigua and Barbuda had been exposed at CAMLAR ( Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) as not cooperating – OUCH !!
NZ also Referred to the ICJ ruling
Saying that the court ruling said that if whaling falls outside of research or aboriginal whaling then it must be lifting the moratorium
HOWEVER NZ said that they would be interested in looking at Japans coastal whaling program if they would agree to phase out whaling in the southern ocean
He said that the ICJ ruling gave them the perfect opportunity to do that
However we have not seen any indication of that happening
In fact the opposite – with a new proposal due this week
Therefore NZ cannot support Japan’s proposal for coastal whaling
KIRIBATI
EXPRESSED THEIR STRONG SUPPORT FOR JAPANS COASTAL WHALING
AUSTRALIA
Concentrated on the scientific aspects of this proposal
J- Stock of Minke whales – that this commission has made a protected stock
Australia outlined what would be required to calculate a catch limit for this “protected” J- Stock
The Japan proposal only outlines 1 step of the 8-step proposal
This years SC talked specifically of this J-Stock
THIS WAS AN EXCELLENT INTERVENTION
EXPOSING JAPAN AS NOT FOLLOWING ANY SCIENTIFC GUIDELINES FOR THIS PROSPEOD HUNT
KOREA
Expresses sympathy to japans communities that have suffered
Dietary culture evolves over thousands of years
Korea has a long history of eating whale meat
Korea expresses regret that there has not been a review of article 10e (moratorium)
Korea supports Japan’s proposal
JAPAN
Argues that this is not about the lifting the moratorium
IWC has never prohibited the commercial capture of whales
Its all about catch limits
They propose a question to Australia
Will Australia support our proposal if we complete the 8 steps outlined by the SC to determine catch limits?
No would be the answer!!
Meeting closed
Government reception dinner this evening
Good night
Mick
• DAY 2
REPORT by Mick McIntyre
Director, Whales Alive
DAY 2 has been erringly strangely quiet
Particularly as DAY 1 was crazy
A lot of today’s business was left open to give more time to resolving issues
However the big-ticket item today was
New Zealand resolution on whaling under special permit
This resolution sets out to incorporate the ICJ ruling into IWC practice.
This was an historic moment
That the ruling from highest court in the world was being discussed on the floor of the IWC
In introducing the resolution New Zealand said
The ICJ ruling now means that it is no longer business as usual at the IWC
The ICJ ruling has effectively said that the approach to granting scientific whaling permits over the last 20 years has been wrong
Article 8 now has to be reconsidered by the commission as a whole
any new research projects be undertaken have to be consistent with the courts ruling
Including asking the question can the research means be achieved by non lethal means
NZ asking the Scientific Committee (SC) to reexamine ANNEX P in light of the courts decision
This Resolution recommends that no permits be granted until the SC has given the commission advice
and then the commission be given time to consider the SC recommendations before a permit is granted
(if resolution successful then it buys us time and it would effectively mean Japan could not grant a permit for the 2015/16 summer as well)
In their response JAPAN said
We Recognise and accept the ICJ judgment
However we also recognize the court ruling is only about one particular whaling program – JARPA II
(this of course is not true)
Therefore we don’t see the need for any resolution to be given
However they said they would engage in the discussion on the resolution
CHILE
Talking on behalf of the Latin American countries
Celebrate the ICJ ruling
However they don’t think the NZ resolution goes far enough
The Latin Americans want more included in the resolution
AUSTRALIA
Said that the parameters of the courts ruling have a much wider implication to this commission
And Its very important that these criteria be embedded into the IWC
So any future permit request for scientific whaling has to be put through those requirements
MEXICO
Congratulate Australia on its successful case at the ICJ
The highest UN court has set criteria on scientific whaling
MONACO
Monaco looks forward to the ICJ ruling being a landmark
We will look at the IWC
Before the ICJ ruling
And after IWC ruling
NZ continued
The world’s highest authoritative body has spoken
And we are here to give affect to that ruling
NZ said that more discussions would take place about this resolution and more amendments are going to take place
It will be Thursday before this resolution is debated again on the floor
Some sweet irony watching NZ sponsor this resolution then present a strong introduction to this resolution
Ironic because NZ were not very supportive of our idea back in 2006 of a country taking action at the ICJ
However I was more than happy to have them present such a strong case today!!
This resolution will be presented again (probably Thursday)
It may include discussions about Japan’s plans for its proposed new whaling program in the Antarctic in 2015
We will be working behind the scenes to make sure the changes to the resolution don’t weaken it to the point where Japan will use it against the ICJ decision.
Monaco resolution
Highly Migratory Cetaceans
Amongst other things this resolution sets out – to seek enhanced collaboration in the conservation of migratory cetaceans with other intergovernmental organizations
This resolution has been around a long time by the govt. of Monaco – and its an attempt to bring small cetaceans into the
IWC – at present the IWC has management measures in place for only 17 of 81 cetacean species.
So small cetaceans have been left out of the WIC
A very passionate intervention by Monaco
Before we play havoc and remove many elements of the planets biodiversity we need to act
The resolution got broad support from several countries
Plus the Expected rubbish from Iceland, Japan, Norway and Korea
It went to a vote
VOTES
37 YES
15 NO
7 Abstain
(Tuvalu abstained)
a significant victory
and hopefully will result in more cooperation wit other international bodies – which would mean more discussions about small cetaceans.
Whale Killing Methods and Associated Welfare Aspects
The working group on The Whale Killing Methods and Associated Welfare Aspects received a paper from the UK outlining what the intercessional working group on welfare had done.
Its been attempting to bring in more issues into the IWC like ship strikes, marine debris, strandings
Not surprisingly the paper was not popular!! (By the usual suspects particularly Norway)
The UK presented a revised paper for discussion, which was significantly different
This paper was held over for more discussion
Refection from today
The IWC before the ICJ judgment
The IWC after the ICJ judgment
The day ended with a NGO reception
Where we presented a gift to Australia’s commissioner Donna Petrachenko who is stepping down as commissioner after seven years
Good night
Mick McIntyre
Whales Alive
[email protected]
