Comments on: Japan: Bloggers criticize Greenpeace over whale-meat theft

By: Andrew Davies

Andrew Davies — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:40:27 +0000

Yeah, the whalers investigated themselves… And decided they’re completely innocent.

Greenpeace Japan has been campaigning to protect whales for years. The point is that Japan’s whaling industry is corrupt and you can’t trust them. Cheating taxpayers by allowing whale meat theft is only part of it.

Timeline and details here…

http://greenpeace.org/whale-meat-scandal

By: beachmollusc

beachmollusc — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:41:32 +0000

The accusation that GPJ members claimed against the ‘Scientific Whaling’ was rejected officially and legally. According to the official statement by the institution in charge of the whaling business, ‘a box of stolen whale meat’ was not stolen but was given as a gift for the hard-working crew member of the research vessel. It had been paid for by the company that operated the cruise. OK, it was just a manifestation of Japanese way of compensating for the long hardship on board, dedicating oneself for the research activities.

What the GPJ members should have accused was the validity of the product of so-called scientific research, instead of such a trivial issue of byproduct-souvenir-giving by the government-subsidized activity.

Please take a look at the following URL.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1657789.htm

By: Andrew Davies

Andrew Davies — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:03:45 +0000

Hi Chris, The activists have finally been charged. Update here. As to the specific comments above, I certainly consider it ethical to act (peacefully) if a crime or harm is being done. These two activists put their freedom on the line to expose corruption, and now they're paying for it. To be clear, what they did was, literally, intercept a box of stolen whale meat and deliver it to the police (along with details of their investigation). Please feel free to read the dossier they submitted to the police for more details.