When the new Rudd government was elected in Australia late last year all sorts of promises were made about ending Japanese whaling in the Antarctic including monitoring the whaling fleet. But according to a recent article in the The Australian the government’s stated intention have gotten stuck in neutral:
“A docked Australian ship supposedly monitoring Japanese whaling vessels may have missed observing half of Japan’s annual whale cull.
“Revelations that the Customs Ship Oceanic Viking was still in Fremantle has prompted the Coalition to claim that the Rudd Government was asleep at the wheel and had gone into holiday mode.
“Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt this morning called on the Government to stop partying and going to the cricket, and get back to the job of government.”
And when the Australian government does decide to start monitoring, it will be keeping the Japanese whaling fleet’s location secret, and this is a betrayal of public trust according to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald:
“THE anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has condemned the Federal Government’s decision to keep the location of the Japanese whaling fleet secret.
“‘The move was a betrayal that would withhold vital information from anti-whaling groups,’ Paul Watson, of Sea Shepherd, said.
“‘Once again the cards are stacked against us, as governments continue to co-operate with each other to maintain the status quo,’ he said, adding the Government owed it to the Australian public to say where the fleet was.
Links and text from JG Moebus in California
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
From Greenpeace’s weblog:
“From Perth Today newspaper :
“THE Oceanic Viking customs ship will leave Western Australia this week on a 20-day Japanese whaling monitoring mission, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.
The ship is still at HMAS Stirling Naval Base, south of Perth, despite a December 19 promise it would be out monitoring Japanese whalers within days.
“I am advised that the Oceanic Viking will leave this week,” Mr Smith told reporters in Perth.
He would not say which day the ship would leave.
But he said its mission would be “coordinated” with several days of aerial surveillance.
The timing of the operation was to maximise its chances of success in gathering video and photographic evidence for a potential international court case against Japan, Mr Smith said when asked why the mission had not left earlier.
“All of the decisions that were made in respect of the Oceanic Viking have been made on the basis of maximising the potential of 20 days of successful activity. ”