MEDIA RELEASE 20-6-06 Brisbane Anti Whaling Protest calls for boycott of Japanese products and services.

MEDIA RELEASE 20-6-06 Brisbane Anti Whaling Protest calls for boycott of Japanese products and services. Whale conservationist from Byron Bay to Noosa will converge on the Japanese Consulate in Brisbane on the 20th of June, the last day of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting. They fear that after Japans recent small voting win at the IWC, Japan will attempt to control the agenda and resume full scale commercial whaling. The Whale conservationist will be calling for Japan to stop killing whales and for people to boycott Japanese products and services. The protest will also be targeting major Japanese companies such as Sony, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Japanese Airlines. It will start at the Japanese Consulate at 12 Creek st (corner of Eagle st) in the CBD in Brisbane at Midday 20th of June with some whaling street theatre and music then march down the street to 1 Eagle st Japanese Airlines then move to Sony and Mitsubishi's head offices at Oxley House 25 Donkin st West End around 1.30 pm. We have many signed letters we will be attempting to give to relevant people. A full chartered bus will leave at 8-30 am from Railway park in Byron on Tuesday the 20th of June to link up with a number of Brisbane and Noosa environment and marine conservation groups who care for the preservation of whales. On Thursday one of the organisers of the protest, Dean Jefferys from Byron Whale Action Group had his anti whaling web-site hacked and all the files destroyed. This hack attack came soon after sending out protest e-mails to all the Pro whaling delegates to the International Whaling Commission, Sony, Mitsubishi, the Japanese Ambassador, Toyota and Japanese Airlines. The hack was almost definitely due to the anti whaling information and lobbying activities recommended from Mr Jefferys site which also recommends people to boycott Japanese produces and services and is promoting a demonstration in Brisbane to promote that idea. Luckily Mr Jefferys had his files backed up and his web-site http://www.flightofthehumpback.org is up and operating again. A report from the server in America said there were approximately 40,000+ attempted logins over a 7 hr period. It's called it a brute force attack, which is automated and uses lists of dictionary words to try and get in. This report said most of the attacks come from an ISP address in Japan. Dean Jefferys says "Despite losing in most of the votes at the 58th IWC meeting, Japan seems to have bought enough votes to pass “the St. Kitts and Nevis Declaration”, a general statement calling for the resumption of whaling 33 votes in favor, 32 votes against. If Japan gets its way it would like to resume full scale commercial whaling. Its imperative the Australian Government does more to stop Japan killing whales and immediately starts proceedings against Japan in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). If our government is to scared of Japan to act and the Japanese government continues to kill over 1000 whales a year under the guise of "scientific whaling", consumers will have no choice then to launch a campaign to boycott Japanese companies goods and services such as Sony, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Japanese Airlines. People power recently managed to force Nissui a major share holder in the Japanese whaling fleet to sell its shares through a boycott and e-mail campaign, now we have to treat Japan like a big company. When Japan starts losing millions of dollars in revenue, lost taxes and investments it will have to stop killing whales. When a country is so out of step with world public opinion then peoples consumer power can bring them back into line. The world need to do to Japan what we did to South Africa to stop Apartheid. Japan plans to put 10 Fin whales and 50 humpback whales on it's menu along with over 1000 other whales it wants to kill this coming summer. " People can access links, petitions, action ideas and whale info from http://www.flightofthehumpback.org if it hasn't been hacked. The International Whaling Commission meeting is on from the 16th to the 20th of June in St Kitts in the Caribbean. For more information or interviews contact Dean Jefferys on 02 66840002 or 0428137611 or 0400545326 For further comments MITSUBISHI 1300 131211, SONY 07 33344000, JAPANESE AIRLINES 07 92721133 For the whales Dean Jefferys