Author - CEO

Well, firstly apologies for not being around online for the last few weeks. We at WDCS have been preparing for the forthcoming INternational Whaling Commission Intersessional in Rome. The members of the IWC are discussing a deal to resume commercial whaling and we dont think thats a good idea. 

So, we have been busy seeking ways to scupper the deal, just as we did ten years ago when the then 'Irish Proposal' tried to do something similar. So stand by, things will kick off in the next few days and then we need your help to stop this stupidity from going ahead. In the meantime forgive us for just being busy

The issue of Japan’s commercial whaling, sorry so-called ‘scientific whaling’, is high on the agenda again. But it’s difficult to talk about the issue when it gets mired in media cliches.

That’s said, a paper by Peter J. Corkeron, published on the 7th January 2009, (in Marine Ecology Progress Series 375: 305-309), opens up the issue with clarity and poise. Yes, poise, -I don’t think I have seen a more straightforward exposition of the problems with scientific whaling. The facts below are real, the language and extrapolation is mine and not Peter’s, so sorry Peter if I don’t do it as well as your paper deserves.

So for you and me here are the problems:

The first Japanese survey in Antarctica, JARPA I set out to evaluate the mortality of minke whales in Antarctica. To the rest of us that means they wanted to show if the minke whale population was increasing or decreasing and then use this data to say how many whales they should be allowed to kill.

Unfortunately after thousands of dead whales, a recent review of the ‘science’ that had been produced indicated that ‘the natural mortality rate had, for practical purposes, not been determined’. That’s ‘it was a total waste of time and animals lives’ to you and me.

The second research programme JARPAN II was just bad science. It took place in the North pacific and extended the whales being killed to include Bryde’s whales.

The survey design was changed part way through, so potentially invalidating previous work. Further to this the whalers actively changed their surveys when they found high concentrations of whales. That is they put the actual capture and killing whales over and above the science that they said they were doing. Because the Finance Ministry would not forgive them if they returned to port without enough whales to sell and pay back some of the subsidy that the Japanese tax payer has been shelling out for the last ten years plus.

There was also a significant gender bias in the whalers killed (they were mostly male), but the Japanese and their puppets still claim that they can make conclusions on the population dynamics from these biased samples. Now that’s just poor, poor science.

The whalers sampled stomachs of the whales they killed so that they could prove that the ‘whales were eating all the fish’. Actually of 223 whales killed, 76 whales stomachs were examined and of these some 42 animals had contents that were recognizable (undigested). Yes, that’s less than one fifth of all the animals that died…

And in conclusion (drum roll) ‘No consistent prey selection was observed across whale species, prey species, sites or years’.

That means that nothing of what the Japanese wanted to show was proved, in fact it could even mean that the reverse of what they wanted to find was demonstrated, that the whales are NOT eating all the fish. This is what happens when you try to make the science deliver up your political ambitions, when science is perverted to achieve a commercial end. This is not good science and the Japanese and their accomplices in this scientific hoodwinking should hold their heads in shame.

When I was a boy, I remember a game where you had to bounce a ball as high and then try and pick up as many metal objects as possible whilst the ball was in the air. You then had to catch the ball with the same hand.

It was called ‘Jacks N Balls’, and consisted of mad moments of panic as you tried to cram as many things into your hand as possible.

I mention this digression into my distant childhood, because what is quickly becoming known as the US ‘Hogarth Plan’ to achieve a resumption of commercial whaling, reminds me of the panic of ‘Jack N’ Balls’. The panic, (and I mean that word, panic), of those who are trying to force through a deal with as many pieces that they can get, but with an attitude that it doesn’t quite matter how many final pieces there are and it doesn’t matter if the pieces actually all go together. Apparently its only important that the ‘moment is seized’ and a ‘deal is rammed through’.

And the analogy to children does not end there. Of course the rewarding of children for breaking the rules only teaches them that they can break the rules again.

The whalers are like children in a candy store. They have been told that they should not steal, but they just cannot resist, and when the shopkeeper finds that she cannot quite reach out to stop them, she has to revert to shouting to make them stop. The children then just take more and more, saying ‘if you allow us to have just a little without stealing, we shall never steal again’. Someone advises the shopkeeper that she will have to give in, but unknown to the shopkeeper there are other children looking in at the window, greedy to join in and seeing that the children in the store are getting away with it, they stand ready to ‘take just a little’ once the shopkeeper relents.

So what’s the answer? Do we use violence against the children? Of course not, violence just makes children retreat into themselves and harbour resentments that mean they grow even more determined to get their own way.

So what do we do? We don’t give in, - we make the children ‘grow up’ - and the maturity of being in a wider community shines a light on their childish, illegal, behavior. And as children grow up they put aside their childish things.

You can see WDCS comments on the original Irish Proposal of over ten years ago. Seems the Governments of the world have very short memories.

It was a shame to see that the Icelandic company Baugur has gone into administration. At a time when the Icelandic whaling industry is beating the nationalist drum, Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, head of Baugur was recently said (28th Jan) , “that the permission to go whaling until 2013 that was given by Fisheries Minister Einar K. Gudfinnsson could damage Iceland’s interests abroad”. Baugur had been a voice of opposition after being persuaded to oppose whaling by the UK NGO Campaign Whale

In stark contrast to Baugur is the Icelandic fishing company HB Grandi, which through shareholdings and shared directorships is linked to Iceland’s fin whaling fleet, the Hvalur hf company.  Hvalur is run by business mogul Kristjan Loftsson, who also sits on the board at HB Grandi.  Grandi exports a large amount of its fish to the UK, and it had allowed Loftsson to process fin whale meat in its Akranes fish processing plant in 2006.  Loftsson and others have now mounted a massive public relations campaign in Iceland to try and promote whaling as a source of jobs, including the construction of a new whale meat processing plant in Akranes.

WDCS believes we should be supporting Icelandic whale watching companies and Icelandic companies that are willing to oppose whaling - they are the voice within Iceland that will end whaling once and for all, but lets oppose Grandi and their campaign to kill whales

The Pew Whales Commission has published the statements of several NGOs who have inputted to the process of discussions. WDCS is attending the meeting, and we have submitted statements through the Whale Watch Coalition and as WDCS.

Its interesting reading what other groups are also saying. Have a look under 'Observer Contributions' - all very interesting.

You can see WDCS comments on the original Irish Proposal of over ten years ago. Seems the Governments of the world have very short memories!

I have been thinking more about recent events in the whaling debate. WDCS has an expert group of staff that have been inputting into and influencing the whaling debate for many years. WDCS helped block, it could even be said that we were instrumental in blocking, the so-called Irish Proposal - which many governments seem to have forgotten all about as they try to ram through their concessions to Japan's blackmail. The compromise that some people are trying to accomplish today bears many similarities and weaknesses of that previous attempt at allowing commercial whaling to resume. I think that some groups and governments would have been very happy if WDCS would have ‘shut up’ then, and no doubt, some feel the same today.

Since then WDCS has been subject to more of what I can only describe as censorship. I am not saying it’s coordinated, but during the last few months YouTube have taken down a whaling video that WDCS had produced (and was acceptable, it would appear, for nearly a year). The Faroese are blocking any emails originating from WDCS – seems they don’t like their people to hear an alternative view of the world to their own, - and now one of the BBC’s Magazines have insisted that we change an advert that we were running to remove comments about whaling being cruel – it appears that they are scared of being accused of allowing ‘campaigning’.

Where has the courage of debate gone? Are our media now to be simply mechanisms for bland, non-controversial comment? Are governments going to try and control what their people hear in case they may disagree with them?

We shall keep the debate going and we shall let you know if we encounter any problems. Of course, as long as we can do so, and no one stops us letting you know what’s going on ☺

The Icelandic newspaper, Morgunbladid is running an article today quoting one of the Icelandic whalers (Ginnlaugur Konradsson) as saying he fears that fish stocks will collapse if whaling is not allowed. This is the repeat of previous spurious arguments and indeed WDCS has produced a report that dismisses the arguments which you can see here. Morgunbladid goes onto say that Konradsson is reported as saying that ‘the best thing would be to get 10 to 20 ships out there to “sink” 10,000 of the animals!’  Seems that he would prefer to be using depth charges.

So, whilst Iceland launches a quota for 150 fin whales, and Norway is stockpiling whale meat for pet food it seems the rest of the so-called conservation countries are kneeling at the alter of the all powerful Japan, as their seek to out compete with each other to give Japan more and more concessions. Its a drive from the USA but other countries are helping. So what's going on? Where did this all go wrong?

Is it time that these nations had a wake up call?  Iceland's move seems to be a selfish political act to boost an unpopular government, but of course makes a mockery of Japan saying that its may reduce its Fin whale quota. Where does the USA and others think that those Icelandic kiled Fin whales will be going? To Japan on the quickest aircraft their can muster. And Norway has never indicated that its going to abide by any new agreement that the USA makes with Japan, I am not sure anyone even bothered to speak to them!  

So, for the benefit of a few ‘diplomats’ who are tired of the whaling issue, and no longer want to travel the world making the same old arguments, we could see commercial whaling back with a vengeance. Yes we have heard the arguments about 'less whales will die', but I am sorry - YOU ARE WRONG, ITS A CON!

So how did the whalers do it?  Well the truth is that they stuck to their strategy of blackmailing the rest of the world by increasing their quotas – (even though they could not use all the whale meat – WDCS has exposed the fact that both Japan and Norway have used whale meat for pet food (though the Norwegian situation is still under investigation by the Norwegian authorities)). So the whalers have not had to do anything. They have just sat back and waited for the ‘mushy minded’ countries to come to them. Seems that you can be in the wrong, be a bully, wave a big stick (or a big purse), and eventually you will win.

Great lesson for future generations
                                 
You can see WDCS comments on the original Irish Proposal of over ten years ago. Seems the Governments of the world have very short memories