A picture is better than a thousand words. The following videos show us the impact our squandering habits have on Canada´s environment and beyond.
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domingo, 10 de junio de 2012
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FAROE ISLANDS: PILOT WHALE MEAT ON BLACK MARKET
Source: flickr de Yahoo!
Pilot whale meat can be ordered in restaurants like “Marco Polo” and in the four stars hotel “Hafnia”
en.mercopress.com/2010/09/16/activists-show-evidence-of-w...
Thursday, September 16th 2010 - 21:50 UTC
Activists show evidence of whale meat trade in the Faroe Islands
For the first time animal activists have shown evidence that an open and a black market in whale meat exists on the Faroe Islands. The animal protection activists Andreas Morlok (Project Whale Protection Action – ProWal) and Juergen Ortmueller (Whale and Dolphin-Protection-Forum – WDSF) (*) discovered on these islands, under the pretext of being anglers, that the pilot whale hunt nowadays has nothing to do with the old traditions which the hunters claim to be following.
“Contrary to the insistence of the Danish and Faroe governments that there is no trade in whale meat, we did uncover that the whale meat is not only available to the population living there at no cost, but that there exists a lively trade in pilot whale meat. Pilot whale meat can be ordered in restaurants like “Marco Polo” and in the four star hotel “Hafnia” and can be openly purchased in the fish market of the capital Thorshavn. Anybody can buy and consume whale steaks there and this at an exorbitant price of 40 to 50 Euros per meal” according to Morlok (ProWal).
By being undercover anglers, the two activists discovered that there also exists an additional “grey” market for whale products. WDSF-CEO Ortmueller explained that since after a hunt “every inhabitant has a right to whale meat at no cost, there is a very strong temptation to sell the marine mammal meat to people who will pay for it”.
The two incognito anglers were offered whale meat in the restaurant of the hotel Sjoemansheim in Klaksvik, a specialty that the chef had “acquired “ since the private freezers are full to the top after the slaughter of over 800 whales during this hunting season.
A fellow with boats for hire sold the activists half a kilo of marinated whale meat.
In the capital of Thorshavn the biggest supermarket SMS with a footprint of more than 10.000 square meters sells mink-whale meat imported from Norway as a delicacy at a price of 43 Euros per 2.5 kilos. Up to now Norway maintains that the whale meat is only for own consumption and that they only export whale products to other whaling countries like Japan and Iceland.
The two activists think that it is also a dangerous neglect to omit the fact that whale meat is contaminated to a high degree with mercury and PCBs. The Faroe government only mentions that ‘children and pregnant women should maybe abstain from eating whale meat’.
Morlok of ProWal argues that slaughtering whales nowadays is unnecessary since it has nothing to do with old traditions: “there are plenty of groceries to be had on the Faroe Islands: by way of daily ferry and airline service consumer goods are imported and readily available. The living standard is well above average.
Every family owns their home and is motorized. Motor boats, yachts and jet-skis are predominant in all of the many harbors. There are several movie theaters, museums and three hospitals for the around 48.650 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands. Super modern underwater tunnels connect some of the islands and there are helicopter taxis available.
On top of this motherland Denmark gives the Faroe Island a nice annual subvention of 125 million Euros, which affords the Faroese a very nice life indeed. The pods of whales are nowadays located through expensive satellite detection devices. The unregulated hunting quotas lead to overkill so that the whale meat ends up on the open market. More than nice pocket money for the Faroese.”
Ortmueller of WDSF argues through experience that today’s whale hunt in the Faroe Islands is nothing but entertainment following an old tradition and there are many other forms of animal cruelty manifested.
“Rabbits are being shot with lead pellets although that renders them inedible. The catching and cooking of young water-bird chicks unleashes great enthusiasm. The birds are being scooped up off the ground with net catchers at a time when they are unable to fly and are heavy from a good summer feeding. In November they start the annual hunt for herring shark, which is authorized by their government. This hunt is just sheer entertainment which brings high prizes for the best catch as we were told by the administrator of the local Natural Science museum. The hunters are not interested in the fact that the sharks are endangered as per the IUCN and should not be hunted at all. I asked one of the Faroese hunters provocatively, why they do not eat any dogs and he answered that there were not enough of those around“.
WDSF and ProWal sharply criticize the government of the Faroe Islands and are demanding an immediate halt to all whale-hunting. The two organizations warned: “We will report to the respective police departments on the Faroe Islands as well as in Norway and shall advise the supervising authorities of the Danish motherland of the active commercial trade in whale meat”.
(*) Juergen Ortmueller, CEO, WDSF (Germany) (Whale and Dolphin-Protection-Forum – WDSF - www.wdsf.eu/faeroeer). Andreas Morlok (Project Whale Protection Action – ProWal www.walschutzaktionen.de/226301/home.html)
Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9183672/5432213726/
Date: September 16, 2010
JAPANESE WHALE MEAT FOUND ON BLACK MARKET
Source: Discovery News
Police in South Korea reportedly raided a Japanese restaurant in Seoul today, the latest development in a widening scandal involving illegal trade in whale meat. The raid comes a day after a new study established that the whale meat that was served to customers in a Los Angeles sushi restaurant came from a whale that was killed as part of Japan's "research whaling" program. The lead researcher in the study says that the findings underline that provisions in a draft "deal" being negotiated by members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are inadequate to prevent illegal trade in the future.
A team of undercover activists, working with an associate producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, documented late in 2009 that an upscale LA sushi restaurant, The Hump, was selling whale meat - a violation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. (Prosecutors have brought charges against the chef and the owners, who have since closed the restaurant).
The scientist who determined that the meat in question was from an endangered sei whale, Scott Baker of Oregon University, is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Biology Letters on Wednesday. Using DNA analysis, Baker and colleagues determined that the genetic sequences of the meat were identical to those in whale meat products purchased in Japan in 2007 and 2008, "consistent with an origin from a whale killed in the JARPN II (Japanese scientific hunt) in the North Pacific." The Biology Letters paper also identified samples of whale meat served in a Seoul restaurant as being Antarctic and North Pacific minke whale, sei whale, fin whale, and Risso's dolphin. Baker and his team noted that several of those samples were "inconsistent with local origin":
The findings come as IWC member countries seek to finalize a controversial deal that would essentially legitimize continued whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland in exchange for agreed restrictions on that whaling. Advocates of the proposed agreement argue that inclusion of a provision for a DNA database of whale meat is a defense against illegal trade, but Baker says that, as presently drafted, that provision is wholly inadequate.
"We have argued that an acceptable scheme must be robust, transparent and independent and, if possible, efficient and economic. Unfortunately, the current proposal does not fully satisfy any of these criteria," he wrote in an email. For example, he says, the present draft "makes it quite clear that the submission procedure for a comparison (a 'test' sample) is at the discretion of the member nation holding the register [...]This offers considerable protection (to the hunting nation) from 'fraudulent claims' but not much protection to the whales."
Added Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare: "The language on a DNA database in the draft proposal is written to reassure, but in truth would allow whales to be killed and sold, and enable governments to cover their tracks. Instead of devoting their energies and resources in ending the trade in whale meat, our formerly conservation-minded governments are trying to rush through a compromise that asks us to ignore the whale meat behind the curtain."
Image: Stefan Powell (Whale meat on sale in Tsukiji fish market, Japan)
Original source:
http://news.discovery.com/earth/sei-it-aint-so-japanese-whale-meat-found-on-black-market.html
Date: April 15, 2010
Police in South Korea reportedly raided a Japanese restaurant in Seoul today, the latest development in a widening scandal involving illegal trade in whale meat. The raid comes a day after a new study established that the whale meat that was served to customers in a Los Angeles sushi restaurant came from a whale that was killed as part of Japan's "research whaling" program. The lead researcher in the study says that the findings underline that provisions in a draft "deal" being negotiated by members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are inadequate to prevent illegal trade in the future.
A team of undercover activists, working with an associate producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, documented late in 2009 that an upscale LA sushi restaurant, The Hump, was selling whale meat - a violation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. (Prosecutors have brought charges against the chef and the owners, who have since closed the restaurant).
The scientist who determined that the meat in question was from an endangered sei whale, Scott Baker of Oregon University, is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Biology Letters on Wednesday. Using DNA analysis, Baker and colleagues determined that the genetic sequences of the meat were identical to those in whale meat products purchased in Japan in 2007 and 2008, "consistent with an origin from a whale killed in the JARPN II (Japanese scientific hunt) in the North Pacific." The Biology Letters paper also identified samples of whale meat served in a Seoul restaurant as being Antarctic and North Pacific minke whale, sei whale, fin whale, and Risso's dolphin. Baker and his team noted that several of those samples were "inconsistent with local origin":
The Antarctic minke whale is not found in waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The sei whale has not been found in previous surveys of Korean markets or reported in the 13 years of official record of bycatch submitted by the Government of Korea to the IWC. The fin whale has not been found previously in surveys of Korean markets and only twice as bycatch in Korea records, once in 2002 and once in 2004.Antarctic minkes are hunted only by Japan, and the fin whale sample also matched meat purchased in Japan in 2007, strongly suggesting it came from the same whale.
The findings come as IWC member countries seek to finalize a controversial deal that would essentially legitimize continued whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland in exchange for agreed restrictions on that whaling. Advocates of the proposed agreement argue that inclusion of a provision for a DNA database of whale meat is a defense against illegal trade, but Baker says that, as presently drafted, that provision is wholly inadequate.
"We have argued that an acceptable scheme must be robust, transparent and independent and, if possible, efficient and economic. Unfortunately, the current proposal does not fully satisfy any of these criteria," he wrote in an email. For example, he says, the present draft "makes it quite clear that the submission procedure for a comparison (a 'test' sample) is at the discretion of the member nation holding the register [...]This offers considerable protection (to the hunting nation) from 'fraudulent claims' but not much protection to the whales."
Added Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare: "The language on a DNA database in the draft proposal is written to reassure, but in truth would allow whales to be killed and sold, and enable governments to cover their tracks. Instead of devoting their energies and resources in ending the trade in whale meat, our formerly conservation-minded governments are trying to rush through a compromise that asks us to ignore the whale meat behind the curtain."
Image: Stefan Powell (Whale meat on sale in Tsukiji fish market, Japan)
Original source:
http://news.discovery.com/earth/sei-it-aint-so-japanese-whale-meat-found-on-black-market.html
Date: April 15, 2010
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