12/29/2012 Update 2/29/2016 Japanese still taking and eating whale.

WHALE EATING JAPANESE NEED A WAKE UP CALL.

Green Peace Doesn't Know How to Deliver It.

NOAA OFFICIAL PHOTO

 Japanese whaling ships departed Japan for Antarctic waters December 28, 2012. They were tailed out of Japan by the militant ocean environmental group GREEN PEACE. The fleet intends to take approximately 1,000 whales claiming that the slaughter is vital to scientific research. This allows the activity through a loop hole in the present world wide ban on whaling. It seems the other nations of the world can manage to study these marine mammals without killing them in large numbers. Japan cheerfully admits that nearly all of the whales end up on diner's plates.

Japanese Coast Guard officers are aboard the whale ships to deal with potential harassment tactics from Green Piece. The whaling vessels departed weeks later than the optimal time; yesterday was really the last day they could make the season. A U.S. court has ordered the U.S. based Green Peace to stay a minimum of 500 yards from the whaling fleet's vessels. Green Peace is not known for its adherence to the International Rules to Avoid Collision.

Opinion: We are big fans of the very competent and professional Japanese Navy and Coast Guard but we feel for Japanese Coast Guard professionals compelled to participate in this blatant effort to circumvent international law, that  they are sworn to uphold, as well as their own national law. This is a clear example of Japanese politics beholden to Japanese corporate interest. Those corporate interests are profiting by supplying a small and uncaring and / or misinformed market segment. As active duty U.S. Coast Guard members we have had experience with Green Peace. They can be as big a danger to the environment with their reckless near collision tactics as the vessels they seek to annoy. For the cost of the voyage they could have easily launched a PR campaign in Japan against the consumption of whale meat. Attacking the market will do more damage to the industry that pursues the whales than even sinking one of their boats, which is not a Green Peace goal but could easily be a result of the activity. For all of their dangerous and potentially destructive efforts off shore, Green Peace might, if they are lucky, actually save less than a half dozen of the targeted whales. The Japanese are quite capable of shame. The real cure to the whale eating habits of the minority of Japanese fueling the hunt is a major media campaign illustrating the shame of such consumption. 

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