Articles

OrigamiWhalesProject


A perfect storm and silver lining.

URGENT ACTION NEEDED


A picture can say a thousand words.

In the course of collecting signatures on the 10,534 letters delivered to Palace Entertainment and Miami Seaquarium from our “16,425 Days A Slave” campaign, this aerial photo has been the most compelling.


Standing Rock, DAPL, and how #WaterIsLife for all Beings including Dolphins & Whales

#NoDAPL - All have come to stand in solidarity against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) which is currently under construction.


Letters of Love for Lolita from Aotearoa, and the Latest

People of all ages have been sending love from across the Pacific and Atlantic! Also we are sharing an update on the lawsuit for Lolita’s Endangered Species Act status, leading up to a press release yesterday (1 July 2016).


Urgent Action Needed!

Japanese Whaling fleet heading for Antarctica, expected to kill up to 333 minke whales by March 2016. The slaughter will occur in waters that have been declared a whale sanctuary by the International Whaling Commission (IWC)!


Miracle March for Lolita

I am excited to share with you that I've been invited to be a guest speaker at the Miracle March for Lolita in Miami (Florida) January 17, 2015! It is a huge honor to be able join in the walk and to stand before thousands at this historic event honoring Lolita and supporting her release from captivity.


15th annual exhibit at “the Sojourner Cafe”

Please join me in celebrating my 15th annual exhibit at “The Soj”!


Rakuten bans sales of whale and dolphin meat; notifies all sellers

More good news, and gratitude to EIA (Environmental Investigation Agency) and HSI (Humane Society International) for this campaign


Supporting AB2140 (The Orca Welfare & Safety Act)

Thanks to my friend Joyce for helping to fax (15 committee members!!) my 4-pg letter from the Origami Whales Project today


Whaling

During the 20th century alone, more than 1.4 million whales have been killed. In the process, commercial whaling systematically depleted whale population after whale population. Estimates indicate that the impacts of previous commercial whaling led to the reduction of whale populations, leaving species such as the Humpback Whale down to 10%, the Blue Whale down to less than 4% from "pre-exploitation numbers", the Gray Whale down to 12%, the Right Whale down to 6%. All of these whales are among at least 7 whale species listed as Endangered. These numbers may be shocking, but also disturbing is the fact that scientists from outside of Japan have purchased whale meats from Japanese markets to find DNA results indicating that Humpback, Blue, and Sei whale meats are still being sold.


South Korea unveils 'scientific' whaling proposal

"South Korea is proposing to hunt whales under regulations permitting scientific research whaling, echoing the programmes of its neighbour, Japan. ...There are several different stocks, or groups, of minke whales in the region, and one of the them, the so-called J-stock, is severely depleted."


Whales Urgently Need You To Act Today!

The latest news from Peggy Oki, "Let's Face It" Visual Petition campaign coordinator, Origami Whales Project Founder & Director...


"Whaling quotas for indigenous groups...renewed at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting."

"...despite questions over whether the bid from St Vincent and the Grenadines qualified under IWC rules."


Whale Meat Doesn't Sell: The ICR Reports Miserable Result of Auction

"900 tons, an astonishing 3/4 of JARPN II meat, is left unsold from the auction. Nisshin-Maru returns from Antarctica (whose “mission was cut short by SS”) bringing back over 1000 tons. Now with the whale meat silently mounting in their warehouses, the future of the ICR is uncertain…"


Push for law change to track Japan whalers

"Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has proposed a simple amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, requiring a patrol vessel to monitor..."


Save the Whales by Hunting Them?

Twenty-five years later, the “temporary ban” is still in place, but three whaling nations -- Japan, Norway, and Iceland -- keep hunting whales anyway, selling them commercially.


Whale back on the menu

Nakao says whale is back on the menu at schools in Shimonoseki and nearby cities, which means 100,000 schoolchildren are having it for lunch every school day.


Maori hint at interest in whaling

"...shareholding in Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd which in turn owns Maori's 50 per cent share in Sealord. Until 2005 Sealord's other owner, Japan's Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd owned the Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Ltd. It no longer owns it."


International Reaction to Japan's Misuse of ($30 million) Earthquake Relief Funds

"...increase whaling budget by almost 600%"


"A Defender of World’s Whales Sees Only a Tenuous Recovery"

with Roger Payne, one of the earliest heroes bringing voice, literally by sharing Humpback Whale songs, to raise awareness about whaling.


Earthquake Relief Funds 20 December 2011 "...increase whaling budget by almost 600%" Japanese whaling gets (an additional) $28m in earthquake cash

“Japan’s whaling fleet has left its home port for another turbulent season in the Southern Ocean, this year courtesy of extra money from the nation’s earthquake recovery fund.”


No Fin Whales Caught in Iceland This Year

"...will start preparing for the next season; we haven’t given up on whaling,”


Actor Pierce Brosnan Speaks Out Against Icelandic Whaling

Courtesy of The Natural Resources Defense Council


Secretary Locke certifies that Iceland’s whaling undermines the International

"U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke certified to President Obama that Iceland’s commercial whaling and international trade in fin whale products is diminishing the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)"23.08.2011 "...will start preparing for the next season; we haven’t given up on whaling,”


Walkout Sours Global Whaling Conference

"A meeting of the International Whaling Commission ended in disarray on Thursday when Japan and its allies used the most basic of procedural maneuvers to kill a proposal to protect whales in the southern Atlantic: they walked out."


Revealed: UK fish and chips linked to Icelandic whale slaughter

"Iceland's biggest whaling company Hvalur has killed 273 endangered fin whales and exported more than 1,200 tonnes of fin whale meat and blubber to Japan since 2008, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), in a trade worth estimated US$17 million."


Japanese Whalers Set Sail In North Pacific

...looking to kill as many as 260 whales, ...Minke whales,...Bryde's and Sperm whales, and Sei whales


UK leads battle to clean up whaling commission

Japan accused of buying the support of members of the IWC with aid and bribery.


Japan coy over pro-whaling strategy conference

...pro-whaling nations are to discuss their future strategy and direction at a closed-door conference in south-western Japan next week.


Whalers Using Whale Oil to Fuel Whaling Boats

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society: Whalers Using Whale Oil to Fuel Whaling Boats Highlights the Confusing State of a Dying Industry Says WDCS


Japan's mighty whale mountain

Stocks of frozen whale meat in Japan have reached 4,000 tons - that's 4 million kg.


Iceland Whaling Season Begins Amidst Controversy

In this video from Reuters, Iceland's 100 day whaling season has begun amidst international condemnation and the outcry of environmental conservationists.


Save a Whale, Save a Soul, Goes the Cry

WHEN the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission ended on Friday with the 24-year ban on commercial whaling still intact, however tenuous its hold and leviathan its loopholes, sighs of relief issued from many quarters — along with, no doubt, a volley of whistles, clicks and proudly parochial squeals.


2010 IWC Commercial Whaling Compromise News

Thank you! ...to everyone who participated in making it clear that the proposed compromise on commercial whaling is unacceptable*. While this was good news, today, it was announced authorization for Greenland to kill 27 Humpback Whales in a 3 year period. Please consider the update and take action at left hand column. The whaling nations continue slaughter of over 1,800 whales annually, including recent escalation of Icelandic whaling which included the slaughter of 125 endangered fin whales last year.


IWC rejects commercial whaling bid

Negotiations on the future of commercial whaling have collapsed, with pro- and anti-whaling nations unable to break a decades-long deadlock.


For Iceland's whaling king, they're 'just another fish'

AGADIR, Morocco — Kristjan Loftsson, Iceland's millionaire whaling king, doesn't really see the difference: "whales are just another fish," he said at a crunch meeting of the International Whaling Commission.


Whaling talks move into hiding

...that (standing in as chairman of meetings) Mr Liverpool's own flights and accommodation to the Agadir meeting were being paid for by Japan.


Purchase sent papers Korean manager, Wakayama smuggling whale meat provided

South Korean police said the manager offered whale meat smuggling...as secretly brought to Korea from Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture


Whale meat restaurants top 100 in Ulsan ...Illegal trading of the endangered species is the reason behind the mushrooming restaurants selling whale meat.

If the IWC compromise proposal, still currently supported by the Obama administration, would have been accepted at the meetings last month, South Korea surely would have been the next to demand legitimized commercial whaling.


Worldwide resumption of commercial whaling

In 2009, 1,163 Minke whales were reported killed by Japan, Norway, and Iceland. Since 1986, nearly 38,000 Whales (5 different species) have been reported killed. The fate of thousands of these Minke Whales are at stake as of this morning, the 64th annual International Whaling Commission meetings begin in Panama City.


Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are

As the annual International Whaling Commission meeting stumbles to a close, unable to negotiate a compromise between whaling opponents and people who’ve killed more than 40,000 whales since 1985, scientists say these aquatic mammals are more than mere animals. They might even deserve to be considered people.


Is the circus coming to your town?

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) opposes the use of wild animals in circuses and other traveling acts. Because cruelty to animals is inherent to such displays, we seek to end such uses of wild animals.


The Makah Hunting Gray Whales

Commercial whalers hunted the gray whale to near extinction by the 1920s. In recent years, gray whale stocks have rebounded, leading federal officials to remove them from the Endangered Species List in 1994. The gray whale remains threatened with populations worldwide estimated at only 23,000.


Japan Plans to Hunt Endangered Sei Whales

Four Japanese whaling vessels have set out on an expedition which will target a whale species environmentalists say is in danger of extinction.


Japan admits buying allies on whaling

Japan uses overseas aid to buy support for the resumption of commercial whaling, a senior government official admitted yesterday in unusually frank comments that have provoked fury among anti-whaling groups.


Defiant Whalers Take to the High Seas

The United States again is urging Japan not to take sperm and Bryde's whales for its expanded lethal scientific whaling program, the State Department said Monday.


Norway Commercial Whaling

Since Norway's resumption of commercial whaling in 1993, a total of 2,238 Minkes in the Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea and North Sea. Norway's self-created kill quota has increased from 600 to up to 711 whales for the year 2003.