Japanese police have arrested two Greenpeace activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, for exposing a whale meat scandal in Japans government-sponsored whaling programme last month. According to the police the activists are “being investigated for allegedly stealing a box of whale meat which they presented as evidence.”

Junichi Sato is a well-known anti-whaling blogger in Japan and Greenpeace claims that this was, on the eve of the International Whaling Commission meeting, “an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for whaling.” The Japanese media are, according to Brian from Making Waves, saying that this arrest is “a warning to other activist groups that as the G8 approaches, voices of dissent in Japan will not be tolerated.”

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Well, that’s a maybe. The Australian government is hoping that a new proposal from them will be able to cover up a loophole that let’s Japan conduct whaling for “scientific reasons”.

The Australian environmental minister Peter Garett said today that Australia will present their proposal next week in London during an International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.

If Australia’s proposal gets accepted whaling for “scientific reasons” must be conducted according to the commission’s rules.

But this will not be an end to whaling. Several countries like Norway, Iceland and Greenland will still continue to brutally slaughter whales for “commercial” and “cultural” purposes.

It is a fact that more than 1000 whales and dolphins are killed every year by whalehunters, who make some endangered species head torwards extinction.

Mainly Japan, with support from Norway and Iceland, refuses to obey the rules of the moratorium set in 1986, from the Worldwide Whalehunting Commitee, which had as a goal to let the whale population increase, after it’s dramatic drop between the years 1925-1975.

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Since Greenpeace left the Antarctic, due to low fuel, the Japanese whalers began their slaughter of whales. Australia who is strongly condemning the whale slaughter is still following the Japanese whalers. And yesterday they could release images and videos of the Japan whaling fleets slaughter of a whale mother and her calf (video after the jump).

Peter Garrett, Australian environment minister, said that “it is explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way. And to claim that this is in any way scientific is to continue the charade that has surrounded this issue from day one.”

Mr Morimoto, japanese whalers ICR Director, said to the whalers defence that “it is necessary to conduct random sampling of the Antarctic minke population to obtain accurate statistical data.”

I wonder how “random” a “sampling” of 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales really is?

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With the Australian government, Greenpeace and Sea Shephard watching and tracking the two Japanese whaling vessels it seems all the whales are gone. But when the Japanese whalers can’t harpoon any whales they take hostages and make illegal fuel stops instead.

Now an article has appeared in Shukan Toyo Keizai, one of Japan’s leading newspapers, were they encourage Japan to “re-examine the whaling issue”.

Being one of the few issues on which Japan has made a stand against the United States and European countries, the stance of whaling hardliners could also be a vent for narrow-minded nationalism. In the end, that could easily be detrimental to national interests. Perhaps the Japanese people need to take this opportunity to re-examine the whaling issue for themselves.

Making Waves has the full translation here.

Image speaks for itself, higher resolution over at Adsoftheworld.com.

Advertising Agency: Republic of Everyone/Happy Soldiers, Sydney, Australia
Creative Director / Art Director / Copywriter: Happy Soldiers
Photographer: Adrian Lander
Retoucher: Electric Art
Released: December 2007

Japan’s whaling fleet has once again sets sail for Antarctic, on a mission to brutally slaughter whales. Let’s call it what it’s actually is and not “scientific research”, like Japan calls it.

But this time it’s a little different. This year they have decided to go big and brutally murder around 1000 whales. That’s the largest whaling mission Japan has ever done. Included in that amount are 50 humpback whales. That means that Japan will break a 44-year ban on hunting humpback whales.

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