Greenpeace need Japanese whalers...

The answer is with Peter Garrett and Winston Peters and the Oz/NZ governments. They need to break off diplomatic relations and start hurting Japan economically and politically. A few brave souls in a boat cant do that.

i guess helen will just send another strongly worded letter and well carry on buying japanese cars
and japanese dvds and stereos

Dear Mike, thanks for your message about the whaling and for your continuing support.

Yes, we are down in the Southern Ocean with the Esperanza to confront the whalers once again and protect as many whales as we can from being killed.  Obvioiusly, it is not possible to save 1000 whales because we are only one whip with 40 people and can't be everywhere at once.  Japan has 5 hunter vessels and a factory processing ship, so we can only save some of the whales.

However, rest assured that, like you, Greenpeace is very pro direct action to stop the Japanese scientific whaling programme in the Southern Ocean.    Our activists are highly committed, even risking their own lives to put themselves directly between the whale and the whaler's harpoon and using other direct tactics to keep the whalers from shooting the whales.  The approach has worked over many years to protect substantial numbers of whales from the deadly harpoons, including during last year's expedition in the Southern Ocean up until until the point that the Japanese factory ship, Nishin Maru, caught fire with the death of one of its crew, and the whaling hunt prematurely ended.

We are, of course, committed to non-violent direct action, which means we don't condone ramming other vessels.  Ramming a vessel in the Southern Ocean is a recipe for disaster.  If a ship were to suffer severe damage and go down, not only would human lives be jeopardised, but an ecological disaster would ensue that would see fuel and oil spread through the pristine waters of the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the marine ecosystem and wildlife.  Such tactics are foolhardy, dangerous, and do nothing to stop the killing of whales.   If that's what you mean by 'direct action', you won't be seeing us do that and we won't be apologising for not doing something that is senseless and aimed only at getting publicity.

Our aim in doing what we do, apart from protecting individual whales from the harpoon is to alert the global public that the whaling is continuing, because a lot of the world still is unaware of what's happening.  So, yes, we are actively trying to get through to the media with interviews and images -- to get the word out and mobilise people.  That's why millions of people around the world, like yourself, support us, because they want us to get the word out about whaling and other aspects of environmental destruction happening in the world.  As far as your assertion that we're doing all this to get donations...  Well, we need your support, yes, that's true, because it takes money to do what we do, and to do it on a global scale, but we are not working on these issues to make money.       We'd love nothing better than to be put out of a job and see it to all come right overnight and the threats to the environment just disappear.
Beyond our direct actions in the Southern Ocean, we are active on a range of fronts as you're aware.  We have a strong programme of political lobbying action that works to ensure the moratorium on commercial whaling, which we played a key role in achieving back in 1986, remains in place.    Just last year, our lobby work in Latin America and Eastern Europe brought several countries into the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that are strongly opposed to whaling and that has bolstered  the pro-whale conservation vote at the IWC and keeps Japan from getting the upper hand and overthrowing the moratorium so that commercial whaling cannot resume.  This is vital, because Japan and the pro-whaling countries in the IWC had been dangerously close to getting enough votes to overthrow the moratorium on commercial whaling.  This cannot happen.

In addition to our political work, Greenpeace Japan is actively engaged in a campaign to win over the hearts and minds of the Japanese people and get them to become active in opposing their government's whaling policy.   After a year of this work, the tide is beginning to turn.   The majority of Japanese people are opposed to their Government's scientific whaling programme in the Southern Ocean, but that opposition needs to be organised and targetted at the Government.  The fact is that the vast majority of Japanese people do not eat whale meat anyway and they are being hoodwinked by their government.   In the end, it will be pressure from within Japan itself that will be most powerful in persuadinge the Japanese government to stop the whaling.
So, we are engaged in a most comprehensive global programme ranging from direct actions in the Southern Ocean, to the centres of political power around the world, and reaching out to the hearts and minds of the Japanese public, among other things.   No other organisation is working in such a far reaching and effective manner, and it's because of the support of people like yourself that we are able to work in this way.   Keep in mind, too, that Greenpeace is working hard on a range of other issues that also pose grave threats to whales and their ocean habitat -- this includes our climate change campaign and our campaigning to stop the destructive over-exploitation of marine fish stocks around the world.   Factors related to climate change and overfishing pose direct threats to whale populations and, if not reversed, these trends will severely undermine the ability of the oceans to support life, including whales.   So again, thank you for supporting our work.

Sincerely,

Mike Hagler
Oceans campaigner
Greenpeace NZ