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Poll: Australians Want Government to Intervene on Whaling

whaling
Three dead Minke Whales on the deck of the Nisshin Maru. Photo credit: Tim Watters / Sea Shepherd Australia

Published Dec 21, 2015 7:24 PM by The Maritime Executive

A national poll, commissioned by Sea Shepherd Australia and undertaken by Australian market research company Roy Morgan Research, has shown that 76.9 percent of Australians want the Federal Government to send a ship to oppose Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.

The poll, involving 1,000 people, was announced by Sea Shepherd as part of an on-going campaign against whaling globally. 

In March 2014, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Japan’s whaling program to be commercial and illegal, and ordered that it stop immediately. Japan said at the time that it would respect the decision. However, within months Japan had unveiled its plans for a new whaling program titled NEWREP-A, under which a further 4,000 protected Minke whales would be slaughtered over a 12 year period. 

Japan announced in October that it will ignore the International Court of Justice decision and will resume whaling in the Southern Ocean. The move sparked calls for the Australian government to make good an election promise and send a vessel to the area.

On November 18, the Australian Federal Court found the Japanese government-funded whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd, guilty of breaching a 2008 order to stop killing whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary, and fined if A$1 million for the breach.

“It’s time that the Australian Government represented the wishes of Australians and not the interests of the Japanese whalers, who are backed by the Government of Japan,” said Jeff Hansen, Sea Shepherd Australia Managing Director. “The Japanese whalers have a $1 million dollar price tag on their heads after being found in contempt of an Australian Federal Court ruling which banned their whaling operations in the Australian Whale Sanctuary. Their so-called scientific research was also found to be illegal by the International Court of Justice.

“The Japanese whalers’ explosive, grenade tipped harpoons are primed and on their way to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, intent on killing protected whales, intent on breaking laws, intent on committing crimes. Anything less than sending a vessel would be aiding and abetting in this crime against the whales,” said Hansen.

The poll results are available here.