Greenpeace try eating whale to stop whaling

[Barrett808]

TOKYO (AFP) - As activists clash with Japanese whalers on their Antarctic hunt, other anti-whaling campaigners are doing the once unthinkable -- getting out chopsticks and tasting whale meat.

In a bid to reach out to the Japanese public to end the slaughter, the environmental movement Greenpeace is turning its back on confrontation to show it is respectful of Japanese culture.

For Valentine's Day, Greenpeace distributed cards worldwide, including by fax to a Japanese whaling boat, reading, "I love Japan, but whaling breaks my heart."

And some supporters of the group which has battled for decades to protect the world's largest animals are doing what hardliners find abominable -- eating whale.

Greenpeace last month launched an online travelogue -- the Whale-Love Wagon -- of Japan's whaling towns. In one episode, a Spaniard visits a grandmotherly woman's home to eat whale for the first time and politely tells her in Japanese it was delicious.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070214/sc_afp/japanenvironmentwhalingngo

[Barrett808]

1. Sea Shepherd: Greenpeace Eats Whales to "Save" Them

Greenpeace has gone over the line this time in betraying the whales.

The Greenpeace Foundation has launched a bizarre and contradictory campaign to "save" the whales. This week on Valentine's Day, Greenpeace hit the road in Japan with the strangely named "Whale Love Wagon."

The campaign opened by asking supporters to send a fax transmission to the Antarctic whaling fleet saying, "I love Japan but whaling breaks my heart."

The Greenpeace attitude is that if they can't beat them, then they should join them. And in doing so, Greenpeacers have betrayed the whales. They are eating them.

In promoting their theme that Japanese whale eating culture must be respected, a video distributed by Greenpeace depicts a Greenpeacer visiting a Japanese grandmother in her home. He sits down and eats whale with her, and politely tells her that is was delicious.

"We are making it very clear that we have no problem with Japanese culture or eating whale," said Emiliano Ezcurra, an Argentinian Greenpeace activist who helped design the campaign.

Ezcurra said that Greenpeace has no problem with whaling on Japan's coast but opposes the slaughter of the whales in the Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary.

Sea Shepherd Founder and President Captain Paul Watson, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace is appalled at the pro-whaling stance of Greenpeace. "This campaign is just simply bizarre," said Captain Watson, "How does Greenpeace think they are going to stop whaling in Antarctica by publicly eating whale meat and declaring whale meat to be delicious? What are these people thinking?"

This is not the first time that Greenpeace has betrayed the whales. In 1997, they assisted in a Yupik whale hunt by towing a dead bowhead whale ashore and ate whale meat as guests of the community.

Greenpeace International Director John Frizell has openly stated that Greenpeace is not opposed to whaling in principle.

When Sea Shepherd crew visited the Greenpeace ships Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise in Cape Town in February 2006, they could not help but notice that on the eve of a major campaign on overfishing along the African coast, the Greenpeace crew were sitting down to dinner before platters of baked fish.

When one of the Sea Shepherd crew questioned the contradictions and said that Sea Shepherd ships served only vegan meals, the cook on the Esperanza said, "That's just silly."

Greenpeace has a reputation built on the hard work and ideas of people like Paul Watson, Robert Hunter, Bobbi Hunter, Al Johnson, Dr. Paul Spong, and others, and these ideas and efforts are being spat upon by these politically correct bureaucrats who now run Greenpeace.

Emily Hunter, the daughter of the late Robert Hunter is presently with the Sea Shepherd campaign in Antarctica onboard the ship named after her father. "The memory of my father, the first president of Greenpeace, has been dishonored by this incredibly ridiculous campaign to have Greenpeacers eat whale meat as a gesture of support for Japanese culture," Emily commented.

Greenpeace sent one of their ships the Esperanza to Antarctica to unfurl anti-whaling banners before the Japanese whaling fleet. Despite being given the coordinates of the whaling fleet for over a week, the Esperanza still has not found the whaling fleet. If they do find the Japanese fleet, there will be no whaling activities to oppose.

Whaling in Antarctica is over for this season as the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru, in the Ross Sea, has experienced a major fire in their engine room.

Sea Shepherd hunted for the Japanese fleet for 6 weeks before engaging them in confrontations north of the Balleny Islands on February 9th and February 12th.

Speaking from the ship Robert Hunter, Captain Watson said, "I respect Japanese culture, and in fact, I have been a student of Japanese history, but I do not and never will respect any part of a culture that butchers and eats the flesh of one of the most intelligent, socially-complex, and most gentle sentient beings on this planet. I place whale eating on the level of cannibalism as barbarous behaviour."

The slaughter of endangered whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary must be ended and it won't be ended by sitting down with Japanese grandmothers and sharing a whale burger with them.

http://seashepherd.org/news/media_070216_1.html

[seriousstan]

2. Greenpeace.....saving the whales.......for dinner.

[xchrom]

3. ...

:puke:

[Barrett808]

4. Watch the video here:

Whale-Love Wagon 03 - Grandmothers' home whale recipe
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b1L2WuV-pGo

[ohio2007]

5. hmmm...tastes like chicken....of the sea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOxHrOcOSfA

[Dover]

6. I think this will be more effective than direct confrontation, though that does have its place.

Changing peoples attitudes and educating them will, in the end, have more chance of longterm success and a win-win. The whalers are, in part, responding to the market for whale meat. So go after that market. I've seen this approach in different markets work well and is long lasting. People really do want to help the environment and can change their behaviors and choices and even their taste for things.

The communities that are dependent on whaling need to be helped as well in order to develop other markets to sustain themselves.