Japan. Whaling ship outlawed following Greenpeace action in Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary

[Judi Lynn]

Japan. Whaling ship outlawed following Greenpeace action in Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
Tuesday, 28 October 2008




The Oriental Bluebird, re-supply and transport ship of Japan's whaling fleet, has been de-flagged and fined, following a legal ruling by Panamanian authorities. Greenpeace is calling on Japan's government to uphold international law by mothballing the vessel and ending the annual hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The Oriental Bluebird, used to refuel the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean and to ship whale meat back to Japan, was fined the maximum penalty, after being ruled in violation of a number of domestic and international regulations by Panamanian authorities in a process that began in April 2008, relating to its permissible use, the safety of human life and the preservation of the marine environment (1).

This follows action by Greenpeace activists against the Oriental Bluebird in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in January 2008 (2) and a concerted campaign by environmental groups in Panama (3). The maximum fine of 10,000 Balboas (US$10,000) was imposed on the owners of the ship, Hiyo Shipping Co. Ltd, in Japan who on October 8th removed its Panamanian registration and flag.

"The Oriental Bluebird has now become an international pariah vessel, and its owners will be urgently looking for a new flag State which will condone its breaches of environmental treaties. It would make a mockery of international law if Japan continued to rely on the services of this vessel," said Sara Holden, Greenpeace International Whales Campaign coordinator. "We are delighted that Panama has found the vessel guilty. Japan must now do the same, not just by mothballing the Oriental Bluebird, but by retiring the entire whaling fleet. The international community has a responsibility to hold Japan to this."

More:
http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=44907

[Judi Lynn]

1. Japanese whaling ship outlawed

Japanese whaling ship outlawed
28 October 2008

Panama — Yet another nail has been put in the coffin of Japan's dying whaling industry. We've managed to get the Oriental Bluebird, re-supply and transport ship of Japan’s whaling fleet, de-flagged and fined, following a legal ruling by Panamanian authorities. We are now calling on Japan to scrap the illegal vessel together with the rest of the whaling fleet.

The Oriental Bluebird, used to refuel the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean and to ship whale meat back to Japan, was found to be in violation of a number of domestic and international regulations by Panamanian authorities. On October 8th it was fined the maximum penalty due to violations relating to its permissible use, the safety of human life and the preservation of the marine environment. In human speak, that means that the ship, which was only supposed to be refuelling the fleet (in one of the most fragile and pristine environments in the world) was not supposed to be transporting whale meat.

They should scrap the entire fleet - not just the fridge!

We're proud to chalk up this victory. Last year, we took action against this ship in the high seas to prevent the fleet from refuelling, and joined with other environmental groups in Panama to demand the vessel be de-flagged. We asked why a ship flagged by Panama was allowed to deliver whale meat to Japan, when Panama, as a party to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, is specfically forbidden from any such trade. Panama asked a more basic question: why was it transporting whale meat at all when it only carried permits for refuelling?

More:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/japanese-whaling-ship-outlawed281008

[GliderGuider]

14. If whaling ships are outlawed,

pretty soon only outlaws will have whaling ships...

[LaurenG]

2. Good news

:bounce:

[kristopher]

3. Pyrrhic victory

In case you haven't noticed, every time anti-whaling activists push the Japanese with one of their imagined clever maneuvers like this, the Japanese just push back harder. This is going to do nothing to stop them; it just firms up the resolve of those Japanese who dislike being bullied.

Where is the story about the extra $8,000,000 allocated this year for a Coast Guard ship to sail with the whaling fleet?

[Chulanowa]

4. There's people on the ground in Japan working against that

Both foreigners and Japanese. A of Japanese are disgusted by the whaling practices, and the more their numbers grow the less likely it is that the practice will continue.

[kristopher]

5. I don't think so.

On a scale of what they care about, whaling is lower than the jobs involved and a huge amount lower than the nationalistic sentiment that results from the perception of being bullied. Look at the record, it is one of antiwhaling forces gaining one Pyrrhic victory after another; patting themselves on the back for a series of actions that are leading inexorably to the Japanese rejecting the IWC and their full resumption of commercial whaling.

The use of subterfuge to expand IWC membership with friendly non-whaling nations just resulted in the Japanese recruiting nonwhaling nations; the indefinite extension of the "temporary moratorium" resulted in "scientific whaling"; and the use of force by Sea Shepard has resulted in the deployment of Coast Guard personnel last season, and a ship this season.


If you REALLY want them to stop, I'd suggest you bury your indignation and realize that they have a legitimate cultural identity that you have to deal with. Get a large group of people together and go to Japan and stand for a couple of weeks at the entrance to subway and train stations asking them to understand that to many Westerners, killing whales is the same as murder because of their intelligence. Be humble and BEG for their UNDERSTANDING.

If you do that, I'd rate the chance of swaying public sentiment to your side very, very high Keep on the present path and the situation is only going to CONTINUE to DETERIORATE.

[Chulanowa]

7. Japan doesn't have a whaling culture

They harvested a few whales, but it was never, never the industrial operation of Britain, the US, or any of the other great whaling nations. Japanese whaling took off after WW2 from a US initiative to feed a lot of people in a ruined country. Whale was a famine food and a reminder of losing the war, and to this day most Japanese people do not eat the stuff. This is why the whalers have freezer upon freezer full of whale meat, why it gets turned into dog food, and why it gets handed out for free in school lunches, because they can't make it move.

I agree that hte Japanese government is pretty immobile because of the "we will not bow to outside pressure" thing. But hte majority of Japanese people aren't out waving the figurative pro-whaling flag. Like most Americans, or most people anywhere, they're indifferent to an issue because it never comes up. When it does come up, the people of Japan demonstrate every bit of rationality that any other person is capable of - that the Japanese whaling fleet is breaking international law, that hundreds of whales end up on Japanese garbage heaps year after year, that the creatures are a very slowly-replenishing resource compared to other sources of food or income, etc. This is all without emotional appeals, and I guarantee you that the Japanese people understand that just as well as anyone else. They're not space aliens.

[Kolesar]

8. Ok, thank you for your comments...eom

[GliderGuider]

9. kristopher seems to hate it whenever the gaijin win a round.

He's always right there to explain to us just why it's useless to fight. Frankly, it makes me wonder about his motives.

[kristopher]

10. I didn't say they had a whaling culture.

I said "they have a legitimate cultural identity that you have to deal with." In this instance I'm referring to the way people interact to get things done. Their method of dealing with social friction is different than the much more legalistic perspective prevailing in western culture. Look at your post as an example, instead of trying to understand *exactly* what might be happening within the Japanese cultural paradigm, you sluff it off with a couple of poorly derived assumptions, a fallacious claim concluding the Japanese are breaking international law (they aren't) and a non-sequitur that relies on the Japanese sharing your view of whales as a resource - they don't.
I assure you I'm unlikely to view the Japanese as "space aliens". I've an intimate, deep and long lasting well of experience with Japan and the Japanese and have personally discussed the matter of whaling with hundreds of ordinary citizens.

Grievances are most often "endured" by the Japanese instead of being brought into the open to be publicly discussed. If the source of the discontent becomes unendurable, action is preceded by an appeal to the person or entity that is causing the friction. It is essential that this appeal be seen as sincere. Everything that has been done by antiwhaling activists has violated the basics of interpersonal relationship problem solving and ignored the emotional paradigm of the Japanese. We've come across as dishonest, deceitful, arrogant and bullying. Would you "give in" to someone behaving like that?

If your posts are motivated by a genuine desire to solve the problem instead of some personal ego trip, you'll heed what I wrote in my last post. It is the best advice on the topic you'll ever get.

[Chulanowa]

11. You didn't make it clear what part of Japanese culture you were referring

And I hate to break it to you, but sending the Nishiin Maru and attendant vessels into the whale sanctuary in the south pacific for clearly commercial purposes most certainly does violate international law. Unfortunately the only nations actually equipped to handle the violations are Australia and new Zealand, both of whom are hobbled by the double-edged sword of their reliance on Japanese trade. You may want to educate yourself on the situation instead of expecting me to defer to you and your whaling conversations with several hundred Japanese citizens.

I'm aware that it's part of the Japanese character to endure problems and rest assued that someone higher up the chain is handling the issue. I'm also aware that that's not an absolute given, and that activities by anti-whaling activists are making progress in Japan, at least among the general populace, even if the government is mumbling and shuffling their feet on the matter. I know that after being made aware of the Taiji dolphin kill and the facts and statistics behind it, a good many Japanese people responded with disgust and outrage - not at the activists as you would claim, but at the fishermen conducting the kill, and the government's flimsy excuses for it (excuses which mirror the Canadian government's excuses for the killing of harp seals)

People work basically the same the world over. While I'm certain things like a certain Australian anti-whaling ad I've seen (Japanese man orders whale at a sushi bar, gets harpooned) most certainly would not fly in Japan, the basic outline I provided - appeals to logic and the facts of the situation - will work on any population, anywhere on earth. If you're about to tell me that the people of Japan are different from the rest of the world in this, I'm just going to have to tell you you don't know Japanese people as well as you think you do.

[kristopher]

12. You don't understand the law you think they are violating.

The Japanese have every right, under the accepted regulations of the IWC, to conduct "scientific whaling" as they define it. You may not like it, you may want to redefine the applicable laws, but your wants really don't enter into the picture. You could easily verify your understanding by finding objective sources that specialize in international law instead of (as you are clearly doing) relying on biased information provided by advocacy groups that oppose whaling. However we both know that you won't do that because you, like all others seeking to impose their values on others, prefer to insulate yourself from inconvenient truths.

You are clearly intent on turning this into an attack on me instead of discussing the issues I've raised on the merits of my arguments. Just as clearly, you have no actual firsthand knowledge of the people and their culture, nor do you possess a working knowledge of the way differences in culture manifest themselves through expectations, values and beliefs.

As with most of your ilk you are totally focused on what this means to you and are unable to subsume your ego to the idea that the cultural paradigm you take as a given is prompting you to take/support actions that are counter-productive to your stated goal. What is most important isn't actually saving the lives of the whales, but rather the identity you've established that is based on fighting a perceived evil.

shoganai ne. kimino atamawa ishiatama da, dakara kujirawa maketasou da tou omoimasu.

Edited to add: Owatta.

[Chulanowa]

13. My "ilk" huh?

I was unaware I had ilk. I thought there were forms to fill out for that?

Well, I'll head this way with my ilk, and you go that way with your manga collection, and we'll call it a day

[Duppers]

6. "Hold Japan to this"

AMEN!