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Australian Embassy, Lisbon
Press Release - 4 June 2007
Stop plan to hunt Humpbacks: Australia tells Japan
Australia has maintained its strong commitment in the fight against whaling with Australian Environment Minister, Mr Malcolm Turnbull, calling on Japan to drop the proposed killing of 50 humpback whales in next year’s whaling season in the Southern Oceans.
Attending the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, Mr. Turnbull told a media conference of Environment Ministers and IWC commissioners from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA, that Japan should drop its proposal to kill humpback whales. He emphasised that Australia would not support the resumption of commercial whaling in any guise.
“Australia has an excellent relationship with Japan, but the inclusion of humpback whales into the JARPA II so-called ‘scientific whaling’ programme is an unnecessary provocative act,” Mr Turnbull said.
In Alaska, Mr Turnbull and IWC Chairman, William Hogarth, met with three young students who had travelled to Anchorage from their home at Port Stephens in coastal NSW, to present the IWC with a petition signed by 40,000 Australians calling for an end to Japan’s scientific whaling programme.
“The students remind us of how the humpbacks have become a cherished part of the coastal communities of Australia where they pass on their migration from the Antarctic,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Perhaps more than anything, these three young ambassadors underline the depth of the feeling about whale conservation in Australia.
“If Japan values the strong friendship and goodwill of the people of Australia, it should drop the humpbacks from its proposed scientific whaling programme.”
Commenting on a recent Australian legislative decision to protect a newly-located Japanese World War II submarine, Mr Turnbull said that the sub’s wreck had lay on the seabed off the coast near Sydney in the very waters through which the Pacific humpbacks whales had travelled on their migration north from Antarctica to northern Australian waters.
Australia’s respectful recognition of this wreck underlines the respect and friendship that characterizes the relationship between our two countries,” Mr Turnbull said.
Canberra
04 June 2007