To get back on topic... SUCCESS! For the time being, anyway.
Just got this in my email:
:
The Fisheries Agency of Japan failed again at this year's meeting of the International Whaling Commission to end the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling despite building a larger than ever bloc of votes bought with promises of overseas development aid. The usual group of eastern Caribbean countries plus western African nations Benin and Gabon, Pacific island nation Palau and even land-locked Mongolia voted in lockstep
with Japan, with only a couple of surprise abstentions from St. Vincent and the Grenadines breaking the grim pattern.
Nevertheless, the Japanese-bought voting bloc was not large enough to revive commercial whaling. In what can only be seen as a bitter retribution, Japan blocked the small non-commercial traditional whale quota assigned to Arctic aboriginal peoples in Russia and the United States - the first time in the history of the IWC that this quota was blocked.
See the Greenpeace whales site at:
http://whales.greenpeace.org
for more information.
Thank you to the thousands of people who wrote letters to Japan, to countries who were selling their vote, and to stiffen the resolve of anti-whaling nations. Thanks also to everyone who signed our picture petition against whaling and encouraged friends and colleagues to join the Global Whale Action Team. In part because of your effort, the plans of the Fisheries Agency of Japan have been defeated for another year and the whales have been given a brief reprieve.
In a few weeks our whale campaign will begin discussing next steps. The Fisheries Agency of Japan continues to buy more votes, and unless they are stopped, it is only a matter of time before the ban on commercial whaling is overturned.
We welcome your suggestions on the next steps forward. Please join in the discussion at:
http://act.greenpeace.org/1022278096
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