Aid and Relief Awareness for the World

For those who are very aware of the things and crimes that happen in the oceans of this beautiful planet, the early days of 2008 were marked by the relentless chase that went on in the Southern Pacific. Greenpeace’s ship Esperanza confronted Japan’s flagship Nisshin Maru, the head of a large whaling fleet that was heading towards the southern migration paths of whales at this time of year.

As it turns out, the chase went on for a several weeks, the Esperanza managed to stall the whaling activities for at least eleven days when it was preventing Nisshin Maru from acquiring targets in mid-ocean, but most of all, it managed to turn the world’s attention to a long lost and (almost) forgotten war that goes on for decades.

Japan is not the only country that keeps on hunting whales after the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Iceland and Finland claim that they keep hunting for food. In fact, whaling has never really stopped in the Northern Atlantic and the Southern Pacific all these years, it has only slowed down. Whale populations had managed to stabilize and even increase in some cases, but the ridiculous excuse of “scientific research” has given some countries the necessary alleged claim to hunt down and kill several hundreds of whales every year.

What is the EU’s position on this? The Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas, believes that it is time for EU to stand up and condemn whaling in every way. Other countries, like Finland and Iceland, say that a global ban would have significant repercussions to their economies, since whale meat is (according to them) a major aspect in their food and trading, so it is their right to do it in a sustainable way.

It is sad that all the major media covered Greenpeace’s and other NGO’s activities with limited or zero time. The truth is, this subject is an embarrassing, cruel and very disturbing to most of their viewers, so it is best to say a few words, “do their duty” as they are supposed to, and then quickly go on to the next subject. However, a picture says a thousand words. Take a look at the whaling section of Sea Shepherd to see what this war looks like. To this end, Canon was more or less forced to take a stand in this cruelty and start a campaign against whaling, with the misleading slogan “Why use a harpoon when you can use a Canon“. The thing is, Canon was unwilling to clearly condemn Japanese whaling program and still attribute a scientific aspect to its scope.

It is also sad that during these activities, a major violation of international laws was witnessed and captured on camera. Despite the fact that the whaling fleet was filmed hunting even inside the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, on the 22nd of January a cargo ship registered with Panama flag, the Oriental Bluebird, was documented loading whale meat, in violation of both the CITES and the Panamanian law. Interestingly enough, the video footage was put on YouTube, only to discover that it is no longer available, no explanation given.

On February the 4th 2008, the Esperanza and its crew sailed to Hobart after some 5000 miles of chasing with the Nisshin Maru in the Antarctica. We don’t really know how many whales were saved (Greenpeace says it close to 100) because of the delay and the effort by the whaling fleet to avoid being spotted in the act with blood on their hands. The question is, was it all worth it? Does it really matter if a whale is saved today, only to be killed the next day or next year. Well, take a good look at the picture below. It matters to them.

(Source: Greenpeace/Kate Davison, two years ago)