===== A message from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list ===== SEA SHEPHERD CONDEMNS CANADA'S COMMERCIAL WHALING BID ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 15, 1999 Government's collusion advances worldwide "native whaling" scheme The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is outraged by the Canadian government's open support for the return to commercial whaling and an international trade in whale meat. The details of the federal government's involvement with a commercial whaling lobby group appeared on the front page of the June 14 Globe & Mail. "In financing the World Council of Whalers and advising them on the promotion of their agenda, Canada is actively working against widely accepted conservation regulations as set down in both the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species," said Sea Shepherd International Director Lisa Distefano. "In light of this revelation, the government's statement of 'official' opposition to commercial whaling is no more convincing than Canada's 'official' denial that they issued a license to the Makah tribe to hunt whales across the U.S./Canadian border last November -- a month after they in fact issued the Makah a license to do just that." Sea Shepherd has long maintained that the claim of a subsistence need to hunt whales by the Makah tribe of Washington state was part of an international ploy by Japan, the Makah's primary international trading partner, to undermine the ban on commercial whaling via exceptions granted to indigenous people for aboriginal whale hunting. "In recent years, the strategy of the whaling lobby has been to re-cast commercial whaling as subsistence whaling, and re-write international conservation regulations in order to blur and eventually eliminate the categories," said Sea Shepherd President Paul Watson. "The support of the U.S. government for the Makah tribe's 'cultural subsistence' whale hunt and the support of the Canadian government for the World Council of Whalers' openly professed goal to return to an international trade in whale meat is all of a piece. Changing the name of commercial whaling to 'aboriginal whaling' is not acceptable, and the citizens of both nations need to make that clear to their governments." The World Council of Whalers is headquartered in British Columbia. Sea Shepherd supports the principled stand of British Columbia's premier that whale hunting will not be a negotiable item in upcoming land claims talks with Vancouver Island tribes, but notes recent statements by provincial government officials attempting to soften that stance. "British Columbia has shown signs of back-pedaling on this issue," Watson said. "The provincial government and the people of B.C. need to take heed of their federal government's collusion with the whaling lobby. All parties need to know that this is Japan's international game plan, and ensure that they do not fall into the same trap." Sea Shepherd will closely monitor any future moves toward the expansion of whaling in Canada, or Canadian support for the international whaling lobby. ### ===================================== Sea Shepherd Conservation Society P.O. Box 628 Venice, CA. 90294 USA e-mail: seashepherd@seashepherd.org Web Site: http://www.seashepherd.org Tel: 310-301-SEAL(7325) Canada: 604-688-7325 Fax: 310-574-3161 ===================================== (If this is sounds as outrageous to you as it does to me, then let the Canadian Government know! People who need to hear from you are: 1) Jean Chretien, Prime Minister, 2) David Anderson, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca 3) Jane Stewart, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs 4) Your local MP - if you don't know who it is, go to http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/senmemb/house/membcon-e.htm 5) Glen Clark - Glen.Clark.Office@leg.bc.ca 6) Gordon Wilson - Gordon.Wilson.Office@leg.bc.ca Mail may be sent postage-free from within Canada to any Member at the following address: House of Commons Parliament Buildings Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6) ***** FROM PENINSULA CITIZENS FOR THE PROTECTION OF WHALES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just a note to let you know that the Peninsula Citizens for Protection of Whales is going to hold our 1st annual Whale of a Sale yard sale (July 8,9,10) to earn some $$ for various expenses.... Anyone that has items they would like to donate, please contact Don or Marcia Munson at 452-9448, and they can tell you when/where to bring items.... Anyone interested in helping with the yard sale (need lots of help)...hours are going to be from 8 a.m. to ?? please call Marilynn at 452-6361. ***** THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN- MAYBE SOMEDAY THE MEDIA WILL LISTEN? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- " ...The issue (of Makah whaling) dominated the last half of May, logging 470 letters, nearly a third of the 1446 received for the month, with an estimated 10-to-1 against the hunt..." (Seattle Times) ***** WHALE CORPSES MORE POLLUTED THAN SEWAGE SLUDGE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 13:52:41 -0400 (EDT) Bonn, June 7 DPA - The corpses of Atlantic sperm whales found beached along Germany's North Sea coast contain such high concentrations of toxic pollutants that they should be classified as toxic waste, a recently concluded study has found. The study, commissioned by Greenpeace, was carried out by the Ecological Institute in Darmstadt, southern Germany. The institute's experts analysed the pollutants in the tissue of sperm whales found stranded on North Sea beaches in the last few years. They found that the levels of some pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the whales' flesh and fat were not only markedly in excess of the maximums permitted in foodstuffs but too high for them even to be classified as sewage sludge. Manfred Krautter, a Greenpeace chemical expert, said: ``Examination of the beached whales has shown that environmental pollution has reached an extreme extent, even in the open Atlantic. The release into the environment of chemicals that are slow to degrade must be stopped as a matter of urgency. Unless that happens, the survival of the big whales is seriously endangered.'' Apart from the classical environmental pollutants (PCBs, DDT, chlorinated pesticides), recent studies carried out in the Netherlands and by Greenpeace Germany have found high concentrations of a younger generation of long-term pollutants. They include brominated flame retardants (from computers, cars, electrical equipment, etc.), TBT (a biocide used in anti-fouling paints for ships' hulls) and chlorinated paraffins (PVC softeners, etc.). These persistent organic pollutants, POPs for short, are transferred from consumer products into the atmosphere and into lakes, rivers and seas. They are carried for thousands of kilometres by air and ocean currents, finally accumulating in the food chain of both humans and animals. Greenpeace Germany has called on the chemical industry, the German government and the European Union (EU) call an immediate halt to the release of persistent pollutants into the environment. Users of these pollutants, such as the plastics, computer and shipping industries, must switch to non-toxic substitutes, it says. At the 1995 North Sea conference and in the 1998 Oslo-Paris convention both Germany and the EU undertook to halt the release of dangerous chemicals into the marine environment. To date, however, nothing has happened. The high level of toxins found in the whales has implications for their disposal. At present, dead whales and seals are usually sent to animal corpse processing plants to be turned into animal feed. As a result, the toxins enter the feed of commercially-reared animals, and thus into the food eaten by humans. ``No one would dream of using highly polluted sewage sludge as a raw material for making animal feed. So the poisoned whales must be treated as toxic waste and disposed of accordingly,´´ said Manfred Krautter. Greenpeace has also called on the German government and the EU to change the law on animal feed, which currently prescribes no maximum limits for PCBs or new-generation persistent pollutants. As a result, even highly toxic material can be mixed with other animal feed and sold. ***** FIFTY CALIBER SHOOTERS CLUB? ----------------------------------------------------- A reliable local source has reported seeing Makah whaling captain Wayne Johnson last Wednesday in downtown Port Angeles. He was observed in an obviously highly intoxicated condition- confused, disoriented and aimlessly staggering around the vicinity of Delaney's. So much for the return to whale killing as a cure for the Makah tribe's alcohol and drug abuse problems. *****