It is November, 2002 and we have been fighting the issue of Whales being killed for many years and yet it seems like nothing has changed. We now have a commission (International Whaling Commission) to deal with all of the issues and they try to stop the whaling and yet still it continues. Recently Iceland, who believe whaling should continue, have been admitted into the Commission. Greenpeace are actively trying to get this rescinded, and are urging people to write letters to those who should know better.

http://whales.greenpeace.org/GP_and_whales/index.html

'Today, we are perilously close to witnessing a return to large scale commercial whaling. Norway continues its commercial whaling programme in the North Atlantic, openly flouting the IWC's moratorium. Japan hunts whales under the guise of "scientific" whaling, even though the whale meat is sold on the market for profit. In the past three years, both nations have increased the resources they devote to their whaling programmes, and both are aggressively pushing to lift the ban on commercial whaling.' Greenpeace

'The sanctuary system is under threat. The Japanese whaling industry conducts its 'scientific' whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary and recent events point to Japan's influence in preventing the introduction of new sanctuaries'. Greenpeace

Pierce Brosnan wrote recently,
'Three decades ago, horrific images of industrial whaling operations first inspired a global movement to protect these magnificent creatures. Men and women of conscience across the planet joined together to end this cruel and outmoded practice and rescue threatened whale species from the brink of extinction. This global grass-roots effort achieved an important victory when, in 1986, a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect. '

'Incredibly, at the dawn of the 21st century, government bureaucrats in two countries, Japan and Norway, want to return to full-scale commercial whaling. They are finalizing plans to kill more than 1,200 whales this year. Norway, which has long objected to the IWC moratorium, will kill more than 600 minke whales in the North Atlantic. Japan, which uses a scientific loophole to claim its whaling is for scientific research, will this year kill hundreds of endangered Pacific minke, sei, Bryde’s and sperm whales.'

To help please try this link:      www.ifaw.org/ various whale pages

2014 - Pierce Brosnan is still fighting for this cause....

07:49 PM ET 2/25/98

U.S. Navy begins disputed tests on whales HONOLULU (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy began aiming piercing blasts of underwater sound at humpback whales Wednesday, testing a new sonar submarine detection system that environmentalists say could harm the endangered marine mammals. The tests, designed to see how the whales react when bombarded by deafening noise, were cleared to begin after a federal judge in Honolulu Tuesday refused a request by environmental groups to stop them. ``A week from today we're going to go back to ask for an injunction,'' said Paul Achitoff, the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund lawyer who filed the failed request for a restraining order. ``We will go back to this same judge and try to persuade her that she misunderstood the situation.'' The Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar tests, being run for the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, will use huge transmitters towed behind ships to pump sound into waters just a few miles from the new Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. The tests are part of a project to develop a new long-range sonar system to detect ``quiet'' submarines by flooding the oceans with soundwaves. Environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the Animal Welfare Institute, have described the noise as ``a thousand times louder than a 747 jet engine'' and say it could harm the whales in their favorite breeding habitat. ``They really have no idea how this is going to effect the whales, let alone other marine life,'' Achitoff said. ``It is really a question of looking for a pain threshold.'' Navy scientists acknowledge that LFA will use sounds of up to 215 decibels to see how loud a sound must be before it causes a ``behavioral change'' in the whales. But they say the test will not harm the humpbacks, and will help the Navy avoid disturbing marine life in future by obtaining data on what exactly the whales can and cannot tolerate. Similar tests have already been conducted on whale populations off the California coast without any noticeable adverse effect, navy scientists say. 'REUTERS'

2014 - and they are still doing this... Nothing changed.....