Help End Whaling
Overexploit, cheat, deplete. The cycle of greed behind the global whaling industry drove one whale population after another toward oblivion. Greenpeace has an important campaign to end whaling that has recently exposed government corruption in Japan.
Created 2 months ago by Greenpeace .org
Why should you join?
It is still not known if some species will ever recover, even after decades of protection.
The statistics say it all. The blue whales of the Antarctic are at less than 1 percent of their original abundance, despite 40 years of complete protection. Some populations of whales are recovering but some are not.
Only one population, the East Pacific grey whale, is thought to have recovered to its original abundance, but the closely related West Pacific grey whale population is the most endangered in the world. It hovers on the edge of extinction with just over 100 remaining.
Facts and figures
Recent DNA evidence shows that the impact of commercial whaling may be even worse than previously thought.
Most estimates of historic whale population size have been extrapolated from old whaling figures, but this method is often very inaccurate, argues marine biologist Steve Palumbi of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in California, USA.
In 2003 Palumbi and his colleagues used DNA samples to estimate that humpback whales could have numbered 1.5 million prior to the onset of commercial whaling in the 1800s.
That number dwarfs the figure of 100,000 previously accepted by the IWC based on 19th century whaling records. Humpback whales currently number only 20,000.
Japanese delegates to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) constantly refer to a 1990 estimate of the Antarctic minke population of 760,000. But that figure was withdrawn by the IWC in 2000 because recent surveys found far fewer minkes than the older ones.
The new estimates are half the old in every area that has been resurveyed. The IWC’s scientists do not understand the reasons for this and so far have not been able to agree a new estimate.
Consumption, contamination, catastrophe
Whaling is no longer the only threat to whales. The oceans, or rather, human impacts on the oceans, have changed dramatically over the half-century since whales have been protected.
Known environmental threats to whales include global warming, pollution, overfishing, ozone depletion, noise such as sonar weaponry, and ship strikes. Industrial fishing threatens the food supply of whales and also puts whales at risk of entanglement in fishing gear.
If you’re thinking of eating whale, you might want to think again – the blubber of dead whales in some areas is so highly contaminated with organochlorines such as PCBs and pesticides that it would be classified as toxic waste!
Organochlorines are known to damage development of children and affect reproduction.
Despite these accumulating threats, an increasing number of nations in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are voting for an immediate resumption of commercial whaling. Some new and enthusiastic members of the IWC include Benin, Gabon, Tuvalu and Nauru.
Obviously, these new memberships and voting numbers do not reflect a change in world opinion. These countries have all been recruited to join the IWC and vote under what is termed a “vote consolidation program” by the Fisheries Agency of Japan.
Look under Information for the latest news.
Great Expectations
Expectations for the recovery of whale populations have been based on the assumption that, except for commercial whaling, their place in the oceans is as secure as it was a hundred years ago.
Sadly, this assumption is no longer valid. This is why we believe that commercial whaling in all forms must be stopped.
Recent Activity
- Page created by Rene Jorgensen
- Image uploaded by Rene Jorgensen
- Video uploaded by Rene Jorgensen
Japan holds whale activists without charge
Tokyo, Japan - Japanese police have arrested two Greenpeace activists for exposing a whale meat scandal involving the government-sponsored whaling programme. The two activists, Junichi Sato, 31, and Toru Suzuki, 41, are being investigated for allegedly stealing a box of whale meat which they presented as evidence. The box of the most expensive cuts of whale meat had been illicitly rem...
Read more »
Created by Rene Jorgensen, Last updated 2 months ago,
There are no promises for this campaign yet.
There are no events for this campaign yet.
Events
These are the events associated with this campaign.
Click on dates on the calendar to see the events for a specific day. Or see all events.
There are no Blog posts yet
Help End Whaling's Blog
Here is where the creator of the campaign can keep everyone up to date with what is happening around the campaign and any important news, just like a campaign diary or newsletter.
Subscribe 
Get the latest posts straight to your door by subscribing to the RSS feed of this blog, or by just joining the campaign you will automatically get an email every time a new blog is posted.
Get involved
You can have a real impact on the blog section:
- Discuss each post in the comments section
- Report a post if you don't think it should be there
Archives
See all of the blog posts in this campaign by browsing the archives.
There are currently no topics for this campaign
Spread the Word