Exposed: Secret Meeting Could End Whale Protections

[Omaha Steve]

International Fund for Animal Welfare | September 11, 2008 A Better World for Animals and People


The whales need you more than ever… please act now to keep whales protected



We’ve learned about a secret meeting that could mean the end of years of whale protection.

>From September 15-19, a group of member countries from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will meet in St Petersburg, Florida to consider lifting the ban on commercial whaling.

WE CAN NOT STAND BY AND LET THIS HAPPEN.

The IWC is threatening decades of whale protection b y holding this secret meeting.

Please take these 2 simple actions now to stop this from happening:

* Tell Secretary of Commerce, Carlos M. Gutierrez, to keep whale protection
a public issue: http://www.stopwhaling.org/c.foJNIZOyEnH/b.4489567/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?msource=DR080902001

* Spread the word to family and friends about this new threat facing whales: http://www.stopwhaling.org/c.foJNIZOyEnH/b.2666725/k.1E6C/Stop_Whaling__Tell_Your_Friends__IFAW_US/siteapps/email/spreadWord.aspx

I don’t need to tell you how high the stakes are for whales – you know the pain a whale endures as it is hunted… pursued to the point of exhaustion…shot by an exploding harpoon…and finally killed and dragged onto the deck of a whaling ship. You know that whale populations are just now starting to show signs of recovery, and this meeting could undermine all that has been accomplished for whales.

Yes, you know -- and you have spoken up before for those who can’t speak for themselves. So I know I can count on you to stand up for animals again by speaking out against this new threat to whales.

The IWC has their secret meeting…but the whales have a secret weapon of their own: YOU.
Please help IFAW ensure whale protection remains a public issue!

Thank you,

Fred O'Regan
President and CEO

p.s. The IWC is going forward with this meeting even though the secret is out. Please act now to keep whales protected, and pass this on to your friends and family.


Send an eCard to your friends: http://www.stopwhaling.org/site/c.foJNIZOyEnH/b.4134515/k.3A5A/Send_an_eCard_to_your_friends/apps/ka/ecard/choosecard.asp

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kristopher]

2. What evidence do you have that this meeting is a threat to the moratorium?

The last secret meeting was an attempt to settle the issue with Japan and had nothing to do with lifting the moratorium. Why are you claiming this threat without presenting evidence to support your alarmist assertion of such a "threat"?

[Omaha Steve]

3. Not my claim

I do trust the IWC more than Japan and friends.

[kristopher]

4. That's a nonsense reply.

Or are you saying that you have word from "the IWC" (of which Japan is a member) that supports the conspiracy theory your post posits?

If that is the case, please share this inside knowledge from "the IWC" with us. If it isn't, then what, precisely, does your remark on trust mean?

[Omaha Steve]

5. Secret plan to let Japan resume whaling (news article)

Need I say more? This is a news, not opinion article. Now why are you so sure Japan and others that are paying countries to join the commission to end the ban are honest good guys?

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/secret-plan-to-let-japan-resume-whaling-793486.html

London meeting discusses compromise over much-flouted ban on commercial hunting

By Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen
Sunday, 9 March 2008

Controversial plans to lift the worldwide ban on whaling were presented to a secret meeting of more than 70 governments in London last week.

The plans, which have alarmed environmentalists, have been welcomed by both pro- and anti-whaling governments and seek to lift a long stalemate over hunting, enabling Japan officially to resume commercial whaling for the first time in more than 20 years.

The plans would permit the world's main whaling nation to carry out a limited hunt in waters close to its shores. In return, Japan would have to stop exploiting a loophole in international law, through which it kills hundreds of whales around Antarctica each year under the guise of "scientific research".

The plans – drawn up at another unpublicised meeting in Tokyo last month – were presented by the governments of Argentina and the Netherlands to a closed three-day session of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at the Renaissance Hotel near Heathrow airport, which ended yesterday.


AP

The meeting took place as confrontations with Japan's "scientific" whaling fleet in the Antarctic increased

The meeting took place as confrontations with Japan's "scientific" whaling fleet in the Antarctic increased sharply. On Tuesday, the militant Sea Shepherd organisation, which has been shadowing the fleet, threw mild acid at the Japanese and on Friday the group's captain, Paul Watson, claimed he had been shot in the chest.

Participants at the Heathrow session were forbidden to disclose anything about the discussions designed to "to find a way out of the impasse" over whaling and "seek ways to improve how negotiations within the IWC are conducted". An IWC spokeswoman flatly refused to comment on the plans, saying that they were not part of the formal proceedings.

However, delegates admitted there had been informal discussions. "There is a big push. People are saying there has to be a solution," one delegate said, on condition of anonymity.

Britain – historically anti-whaling – has indicated that it would back a compromise to allow a limited resumption of commercial whaling. Its official negotiator, Richard Cowan, a civil servant at the Department for the Environment, told the Tokyo meeting: "If you see that you cannot win, then playing for a draw is the honourable and courageous thing to do."

FULL story at link.

[kristopher]

7. Here we go again

"...why are you so sure Japan and others that are paying countries to join the commission to end the ban are honest good guys?"

You obviously know nothing of the history of this dispute. The reason Japan started recruiting non-interested nations for IWC membership was in RESPONSE the anti-whaling NGOs who started recruiting non-interested nations in order to get the moratorium passed. That is the truth. (Check it out if you don't believe me, google is your friend.)

It is clear from your comments that you haven't got a clue about what you are actually supporting or opposing. Here is the way things stand:
The people of Japan do not share our view of whales as anthropomorphic beings. You probably have the feeling that killing a whale is somehow a variant of 'murder'. The Japanese simply don't have that belief so they CAN'T embrace the same values you have on whaling.
To them, the moratorium on whaling is an unethical violation of the mission they agreed to when they helped form the IWC. In case you don't know what that mission was, it was (and still is) to manage world whale stocks as a source of food.
Since the IWC was formed, OUR values have changed and we've come to view whales (and some other species) as special creatures that should not be exploited for food.
The Non Governmental Organizations that embrace this view could not gain the votes to change the mission of the IWC.
Instead of accepting their minority status, they began a strategy of recruiting non-interested nations for membership in the IWC. To encourage them to join, they provided all administrative services and paid off those willing to join with the currency of American goodwill - a commodity that translates into real money through the various aid and loan programs administered by the UN.
The Japanese were outraged by this underhanded behavior that resulted in tpassing the moratorium - just as you are outraged when you (mistakenly) think they are pulling a fast one when they do it.
They have persisted in the 'scientific whaling' sham because they are convinced that OUR unethical behavior frees them from the obligation to behave ethically themselves.
WE established the mode of operations that took a legalistic view of the IWC rules; WE exploited technicalities and loopholes that CLEARLY were contrary to the SPIRIT of the original agreements upon which the IWC was founded.

Present day, Japan is ready to abandon the effort at a collaborative approach to whaling. They would prefer to not to, but they are ready to resign from the IWC and resume commercial whaling. These "secret" meetings are a last effort to work out a compromise; if they fail, Japan will resign from the IWC and resume commercial whaling. They will also, I am quite sure, have the Japanese Navy escort their whaling fleet in order to protect them from attacks by antiwhaling zealots intent on committing piracy against Japanese whaling ships.

You may think that those ships are operating under a moral imperative that justifies their illegal acts, but that view is not going to be effective at stopping the Japanese from either whaling or from protecting their whaling fleet.

The underhanded actions some antiwhaling groups combined with the militant actions by other antiwhaling groups, are a large part of the reason the Japanese are still whaling. If they had deliberately tried, their approach couldn't have been better designed to insult Japan and push it into a corner where they cannot back down without losing great face.

Paraphrasing something another the-ends-justifies-the-means person recently said, "Heck of a job, Stevie."

[flvegan]

6. It's a meeting of a number of the supporters of lifting the ban.

Done under the cloak of an "official IWC meeting" these voting nations are simply getting together to discuss strategy on how to convince others to vote to lift the ban.