Sea Shepherd

[Paul Ward]

The Antarctic Whale Sanctuary was set up by the IWC (International Whaling Commission)

http://www.iwcoffice.org/conservation/sanctuaries.htm

though Japan has tried to scrap the idea:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...6/s1398374.htm

I emailed the Japanese Whaling Association on more than one occasion asking for evidence of their scientific findings (originally in January 2002):

Hi there,

I have a web site www.coolantarctica.com that is a general Antarctica site. I am in the process of adding a "whales and whaling" section. I have no particular axe to grind or alternative agenda, I wish to present information to an audience that consists of many schools and teachers. The section will contain basic facts and pictures about whales, historical information and present day information.

Would it be possible to present some of the scientific information on my site that has been found by the Japanese whaling programme? The whaling pages are not yet in place, perhaps you would want to see them first, but they will be presented in the same manner as the pages on travel in Antarctica where I have contributions and links about pro and anti-tourism.

My own position is as a concerned naturalist eager to promote Antarctica, I do not suffer from the mawkish anthropomorphism of some campaigners. If you were able to contribute anything, I would happy to submit the page that I use it in for your approval or otherwise before publishing it on my site.

Best regards
Paul Ward

I never received a reply.

There are a number of publications on the JWA website, but they all seem to aim in the direction that the "scientific" aspect of the whaling is to determine if it possible to continue commercial whaling.

This is very different to what most people would understand by scientific research into whales.

I am interested 4islands in why you support regulated whaling when the means of killing has been shown time and again to be the most barbaric manner of killing any animal for human consumption that there is?

When the killing is totally unnecessary for food production (though was not always so historically) why should it now continue?