WASHINGTON DC (23 Nov 2000) -- Greenpeace has strongly condemned Japan's planned whale hunt in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary. Ignoring international protests and the threat of sanctions by the US and other countries, Japan's five-ship whaling fleet left home port as well-wishers cheered and a brass band played. Japan has become increasingly defiant over the past 18 months aggressively opposing efforts to create marine sanctuaries for whales and ignoring previous agreements. According to Greenpeace campaigner, Shane Rattenbury, the southern ocean is off-limits to whale hunting. "The Southern Ocean whale sanctuary was agreed in 1994 to provide a vital safe haven for the world's great whales to recover from being pushed virtually to the brink of extinction," said Rattenbury. | | "The West is trying to impose its unilateral standards on us. I regard this as cultural imperialism," said Masayuki Komatsu whose strident ultranationalist rhetoric echoes the anti-western slogans of Japanese fascists convicted of war crimes and executed after World War II. Japan kills over 400 whales a year under the guise of scientific whaling, however, it is widely known that the whales end up on plates in up-scale Japanese sushi bars. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
