Posted by kelphead on August 01, 2001 at 15:04:23:
got this forwarded to me in my e-mail the other day. the source is DENlines Issue #45, Friday July 27, 2001, Defend Environment Network (DEN):
"The Japanese government is standing by its fisheries chief's description of minke whales as "cockroaches" of the sea. Fisheries Agency counselor Masayuki Komatsu made the comment in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. as he denounced efforts to curb Japan's whaling industry. For the second year in a row, meanwhile, the International Whaling Commission rejected pleas to create new whale sanctuaries. The proposals for a South Pacific and a South Atlantic sanctuary failed again by a wide margin.
Japan came under fire again for "vote buying" - essentially bribing
impoverished Caribbean nations with aid money so they will vote
against protections for our vanishing whales. Japan slaughters hundreds of whales every year in defiance of international law.
Japanese whalers claim they kill whales for "scientific research,"
but the whale meat ends up on dinner plates in Tokyo's finest restaurants."