Japan's whaling ships should never leave port

Friday, 18 February, 2011

Greenpeace is demanding that Japan's Government finally end its commercial whaling programme and re-open an investigation into corruption scandals inside the industry, following today's announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries that it has recalled its Antarctic whaling fleet from the Southern Ocean, marking the fleet's shortest ever season.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Junichi Sato, Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan said; "This historic announcement confirms what we all know: that Japan's whaling serves no purpose whatsoever and the fleet has no business in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary."

"All the whaling programme has produced is a stockpile of thousands of tonnes of frozen whale meat, the waste of billions of Japanese taxpayer's yen, and a culture of corruption and scandal. An early return of the whaling fleet is not enough - Japan's whaling ships should never leave port again."

Polls show that over 70 per cent of Japanese people do not support distant water hunting of whales far from Japan Greenpeace has been working to expose the corruption that has helped sustain its commercial whaling programme, conducted under the guise of scientific research for years.