Cynthia_Smoot's Blog

There's  high drama on the high seas going on right now that you likely won't see on the network news.  In the frigid waters at the bottom of the world, two anti-whaling activists somehow managed to board a Japanese harpoon vessel... pretty much bringing everything to a standstill while this all plays out.  It's the latest chapter in an ongoing controversy that shows no sign of ending anytime soon.  Every winter Japan deploys a fleet of whalers under the guise of "scientific research'" to kill whales--1000 is the goal this year. It was only after a storm of international protest that they backed off their original intention to take 50 Humpback whales--a species that was driven nearly to extinction and has been under International Whaling Commission (IWC)  moratorium  since the mid-1960's. It's no secret that the whales killed for "scientific study" end up in Japanese grocery stores.  Interestingly, I've read that very few Japanese still eat whale meat and there's a great deal of anti-whaling sentiment among the (mostly younger)population. While we await word from Antarctica, some of you might want to read more about whales and whaling, so I've added a few links, including a diary being kept for the BBC by a crewman aboard the Greenpeace ship in the area. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7171409.stm

http://seashepherd.org/

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/