World's Top Enviros Tell President Bush 'Stand Strong' As Japan Kills 440 Whales, Launches 'Eat Them' Campaign

4/10/2002

From: Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell of IFAW, 508-744-2076; e-mail: jfm@ifaw.org

WASHINGTON, April 10 -- President George W. Bush was called upon today by a powerhouse group of the world's leading environmental organizations to stand strong against Japan's and Norway's increased whaling and push for international whale trade.

In an advertisement in today's Washington Post, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - http://www.ifaw.org), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Greenpeace, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) called for President Bush to, "assert U.S. leadership, including immediate diplomatic pressure, in opposing further commercial and so-called 'scientific research' whaling, before the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets next month in Shimonoseki, Japan.

Japan created an international furor last week when its fleet returned with 440 minke whales hunted in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and it launched its "Save Them, Eat Them!" campaign to promote whale meat eating among the country's youth -- a majority of which have never eaten whale meat according to a recent Asahi Shimbun poll. Japan Fisheries representative, Masayuki Komatsu, went so far as to say recently, as reported by the London Sunday Times, "In Tokyo kids eat hamburgers all the time and their grades are slipping. In western Japan it's different. Youngsters eat whale meat all the time and their grades are good."

"Japan's whale hunting and eating campaign has reached a new level of audacity," said IFAW President Fred O'Regan. "The disregard for international treaties, world opinion, and conservation must be met with strong action. Now is President Bush's time to make his mark as a world leader in the international environmental arena."

The Washington Post ad also cites a poll conducted by Market Strategies, Inc., which showed that more than 80 percent of American voters approve of high-level U.S. government officials speaking out against whaling by Japan and Norway. The poll also showed that three out four Americans would support diplomatic pressure and a majority support measured trade sanctions against the two countries if they continue commercial whaling.

IFAW President Fred O'Regan said, "The American people are united in their desire for U.S. action to reverse these recent moves by Norway and Japan. The Bush Administration has said all the right things on this issue up to now. We hope and expect that the U.S. will lead the effort to bring international pressure on Japan and Norway over the next weeks."

Japan's blatant push for a full-scale international whaling trade has also angered international celebrity environmentalists. Actor and whale conservationist Pierce Brosnan has launched a global appeal against commercial whaling, calling on U.S. citizens and others around the world to write letters of objection to the embassies of Japan and Norway around the globe. Brosnan's personal e-mail and video appeal can be accessed at http://www.ifaw.org.

The Washington Post ad may be viewed at http://www.ifaw.org/pdf/president.pdf.