Tag Archives: Japanese

And if the crisis would solve the whaling issue?

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The other day I was talking to my dear friend and Guru, Sidney Holt, about this world economical crisis and if it would have any impact on the whaling scene as we know it. It is almost certain that good faith, politics, conservation policies, and lobbying alone will not turn the tide; the economical aspect of it all will be the decisive feature. As of now we cannot really forecast what will happen, but wondering about it, the fuel prices will fell dramatically, the Japanese whaling industry and hardware is getting old and they been having repeated misfortunes lately. The Oriental Bluebird, the refueling vessel that would go down to the Antarctic lost its registration and Panamá flag and is now registered in Japan requiring more staff and funds etc.

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What would be the decisions of the Japanese to the future, go forward and build the new factory ship, which will drown us on a few more years of negotiations and political battles on the stalemate state that the IWC is at the moment… we don’t know.
What do the Japanese really want of this entire circus, do we even know? It is obvious that most of the reasons they present are total bogus … so what now?

But the question I’m maybe more interested in finding out is what will the Obama Administration do? Will they uphold all the negotiations done by Hogarth? Will they change all of it upside down? It will be interesting to see!

Valentine’s day at the Japanese Embassy

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Around 3pm we started gathering at the entrance of the Japanese Embassy in Lisbon, after passing it a couple of times without noticing it was it.
14 of February is the day the world celebrates as the day of love, we had flowers and a message to the Japanese Ambassador in Lisbon, but this action was to be reproduced in another 27 different countries, an initiative started by Greenpeace.
By 3:40pm we decided to go in, we were a small group of 7 people, there were cameras and journalists to cover the event and we headed to the reception and ask to deliver the flowers to Hara Satoshi the Japanese Ambassador. A member of staff came down to inform us that the Ambassador was currently in Japan, so we asked to talk with another representative. We were told to wait, while we were waiting some interviews for the press were made, some more waiting and finally the member of staff came back saying 2 people were allowed to go up, but media wouldn’t be allowed.
So 2 of us gone up and were cordially received by 2 Japanese Delegates. We had then the change to tell them why we were there, to demystify and put a final mark on the theme that whaling in some like western vs Japan, it is not, and to ask them to leave the Southern Ocean to the Whales, by saying that Killing whales in an Protected Area is like chopping down tress at a National Park. In addition we asked Japan to withdraw their proposal to host the IWC meeting in 2009, since Portugal proposed first, never organized any IWC meeting since it joined and Japan did it twice during the last decade. It will be important for the conservation movement and Portugal to host a very successful meeting without have to go through competition that would potentially divide the commission itself and jeopardize its outcome.
That was it. The Portuguese leg of the initiative was completed.

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Later at home I open my mail to be shocked by the fact that Nisshin Maru was on fire. Apparently there is a missing person, and the thing doesn’t look good…
I truly hope they are sound and safe.

There is the risk of oil spill what would result in a major environmental catastrophe for the pristine area that is the Antarctic. Like Erik Blanc sustained “This news demonstrates the whole tragic nature of Japanese Southern Ocean whaling.” True enough. Apparently there are only a couple of good weather days ahead, after no one knows what can happen…
I truly hope all Nisshin Maru crew is safe and sound.

Read more about this here.