David @ Tokyo

Yet more propaganda from the New Zealand government and Greenpeace, and coincidently on the same day (obviously to create a larger media fuss)

"New Zealand is deeply alarmed at news Japan's whaling fleet has sailed to commence its newly expanded scientific whaling programme, Conservation Minister Chris Carter said today."

Chris Carter's feigned alarm is a joke considering he's known about this for months.

What's far far worse is his total lack of knowledge with regard to conservation issues. He's supposed to be the Minister for Conservation.

He is uninformed:

He compares hunting "whales" with hunting tigers, gorillas, or kiwi. It's time he showed that he understands his portfolio:
a) there is not a "whales" species, but 10's of them, of which very few are actually endangered (and not targetted by humans where this is the case, such as for the Blue whale)
b) the species targetted by Japan are in no way going to be at risk from the meagre numbers that the Japanese plan to take. Australian scientists have admitted as much, in addition to recognising the "booming" stock growth of 10%.

He is deceptive:

"New Zealand is very worried about the impact of further hunting on their numbers,"

he says of the Humpback species. Well sorry Chris, but "further" implies they are already being hunted, or that they are not replenishing, and clearly neither is the case.

He shouldn't be representing New Zealand internationally:

His lack of understanding of New Zealand's obligations as a responsible world citizen under the ICRW is shocking. He laments that the Japanese are hunting whales in the Southern Ocean - International waters. If Carter has a problem with this (as he does with other aspects of the ICRW), why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is and propose New Zealand's withdrawal from the convention instead of whinging about it all the time? He needs to wake up and recognise the ICRW with the importance that it deserves. International documents should not be footballed around like this.

He's plain dopey too:

Whoops! He even let this slip out:
"Scientific whaling is only legal because ... "

Exactly. It IS legal. So one wonders why Carter was mouthing off about taking Japan to the World Court earlier this year. Perhaps, just to get a headline?

He is just completely off his rocker:
"... because the provisions in the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (IWC) are out of step with modern conservation approaches. "

Since when have science based management methods of the ICRW such as the RMP been out of step with modern conservation approaches? Perhaps poor Chris is just confusing his protectionist position for a conservation position. There is a huge difference.


As I noted, Greenpeace also timed their propaganda with that of Mr Carter:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0511/S00071.htm
Too much nonsense here for me to bother to deal with - and it's bedtime :-)