MEDIA RELEASE: Whale conservation groups call for Boycott of Japanese Products,
Demonstration at Brisbane Japanese consulate, Sony, Mitsubishi and JAL 25th Jan 11am
Fed up with the Japanese government insisting it must continue to kill whales, members from whale conservation groups in Australia and around the world are now are calling for consumers to boycott Japanese products and services.
Dean Jefferys, Filmmaker, whale activist and founder of Byron Whale Action Group, along with other concerned individuals from Byron Bay and Brisbane, will deliver 786 anti whaling signatures Jefferys has collected to the Japanese consulate in Brisbane, 17th Floor, Comalco Place, 12 Creek St, Brisbane, along with a letter demanding Japan stop killing whales immediately in the Southern Whale Sanctuary. The group also plans to hand deliver a message to the head offices of JAL, Sony and Mitsubishi in Brisbane to inform them of the boycott campaign.
Jefferys said " I cant understand why Japan is prepared to keep killing these majestic defenseless whales despite a tsunami of world public opinion against them. Japan is disgracing itself internationally to satisfy the desires of a corrupt few. This is why we are now are calling for consumers around the world to boycott Japanese products and services to pressure Japan to stop this barbaric practice. Maybe the CEOs of the big Japanese companies will start to lobby the Japanese Prime Minister on our behalf when they start loosing millions of dollars in sales and Japan looses millions of dollars in tax revenue due to an international boycott campaign."
"We now have a Federal court ruling declaring Japanese whaling in Australian Antarctic waters is illegal yet the Australian Government doesn't want to enforce the injunction. We are running out of options to save the whales. If the Government was serious about stopping the Japanese killing more whales then members from customs ship the Oceanic Viking, that are in the area monitoring and collecting information for a possible international court challenge should hand deliver the Japanese whalers the court injunction then instruct them to leave Australian Antarctic waters and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, return to Japan and stop all whaling for all time." Jefferys said.
The Japanese Whaling fleet is currently in the Antarctic and plans to kill over 1000 whales, including many that are pregnant, in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under the guise of ‘scientific’ whaling. This kill includes 50 endangered fin whales and 935 minke whales. This is the biggest hunt since the moratorium on commercial whaling came into force more than 20 years ago. Although international pressure forced the Japanese to say they would not kill humpbacks this season they have said they will start killing them again as early as December 2008. These are the very whales that hundreds of thousands of people enjoy every year during their annual migration past our shores and one of the main species that supports our $300 million whale watching industry.
