Despite the commercial moratorium on whaling, the Japanese government is still sending fleets of ships to the whale grounds in the Pacific Ocean to hunt and kill whales. Sara Holden, whale campaign coordinator for Greenpeace, has said in a very stern letter that future plans for preventing the continued slaughter of whales would focus on launching every effort and resource to working on Japan itself to change the situation from within rather than sending boats to endangered areas.
Progress
Holden added that this year Greenpeace had been able to obstruct whale hunting operations and even reduce them by half through their work in Panama, where they forced whaling vessels that entered the port to reload to be registered as offending ships. She also said that in the last three years Greenpeace had raised public awareness in Japan of the issue which she hoped would force the hand of the government despite fierce opposition.
“The battle is not yet won, but the end is near and it is now time to prepare for the last fight which will take place in Tokyo, the real battle ground,” Holden said
Lawsuits
The Japanese government has brought lawsuits against some Greenpeace members, but Holden said that the government was pursuing the suit to prevent peaceful demonstrations against whaling and to stop other members from working in Japan. But she insists they will not give in, and says if the government wants to prove that protecting the whales is a crime then there will not be enough prisons to lock up all the members of Greenpeace who will continue to fight.
Greenpeace aims to protect Earth and all its endangered life forms, and their ability to reproduce and regenerate life, as well as to remove all threats that could destroy the planet.