 |
| Minke Whale Breaching at http://wildwhales.org/speciesid/whales/minke-whale/ |
Australia states its position……
Joint media release
Minister for Foreign
Affairs, The Hon Julie Bishop MP
Minister for the
Environment and Energy, The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP
2 August 2018
Australia is very
concerned by Japan’s latest proposal to lift the global moratorium on
commercial whaling at the next International Whaling Commission meeting in
September 2018.
Australia remains
steadfastly opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called ‘scientific’
whaling and continues to be a leader in seeking to strengthen the International
Whaling Commission to protect whales.
We strongly support the
30-year global moratorium on commercial whaling and will vehemently oppose any
attempts to undermine the processes that support it, including through changed
voting regimes or the establishment of catch-limits for commercial whaling.
Australia and Japan
enjoy a deep and strong bilateral relationship, but we disagree on the issue of
whales. At the Commission meeting in September, Australia will be calling on
like-minded nations to reject Japan’s proposal.
Australia has worked
tirelessly to see an end to commercial whaling. We have co-sponsored
resolutions to improve the operation and scrutiny of the Commission and its
scientific committee; we have supported the establishment of new sanctuaries
where whales can thrive in their own environment; we initiated the Commission’s
twelve-nation Southern Ocean Research Partnership supporting non-lethal whale
research; and we successfully took Japan to the International Court of Justice.
The Australian
Government will continue to advocate strongly and consistently for the
cessation of commercial whaling and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling. The science
is clear, you do not need to kill whales in order to study them.
How one Japanese
newspaper reported the issues……
The
Japan Times,
4 August 2018:
SINGAPORE – Japan
and Australia agreed Friday to make efforts to prevent their whaling dispute
from hurting bilateral relations, a government official said.
During talks in
Singapore, Foreign Minister Taro Kono briefed his Australian counterpart Julie
Bishop about Japan’s proposal to restructure the International Whaling
Commission to make it easier to resume commercial whaling.
But Australia is
strongly opposed to all forms of whaling, raising concern that ties between
Tokyo and Canberra could be strained by a practice that Japan says is a
cultural tradition.
Last month, Japan
proposed resuming whaling of some species of relatively abundant whales. The
government halted commercial whaling in 1982, in line with the global
moratorium adopted by the IWC, but has hunted the mammals since 1987 for what
it calls “scientific research purposes.”
In September 2014, the IWC
adopted a resolution saying Japan should abide by the International Court of
Justice’s ruling earlier this year that its “scientific whaling” program was
illegal and should be halted.
Bishop and environment
minister Josh Frydenberg released a joint statement on Thursday condemning the
proposal to lift the global moratorium on commercial whaling.
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
News.com.au, 30 May 2018, Japan
whaling kills 122 pregnant whales for ‘research’
No comments:
Post a Comment