Australia hits back over pro-Japan whaling video
Monday, January 14th, 2008Australia’s government Monday sharply condemned a popular Internet video claiming its citizens oppose Japanese whaling because of racism, while brutally killing animals such as kangaroos and dingoes.
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Foreign Minister Stephen Smith criticised the video as he announced that Australia would this week deploy a ship to the Southern Ocean to gather evidence for possible legal action against Japan over its whaling programme.
The 10-minute video, which has recorded more than 100,000 hits since being posted anonymously on the YouTube website, shows graphic images of Australians killing animals and of infamous racial riots at Cronulla beach in 2005.
It says Australians are opposed to Japanese whaling because of a racist ideology, and claims in English, with Japanese subtitles, that Australia holds the world record for mammal extinction.
“It is un-tasteworthy in the extreme, that’s the kindest thing I can think to say about it,” Smith told reporters. “Its general overtone, its general content, I absolutely condemn.
“It’s anonymous, so that tells you something before we even start.”
The video would not change Australia’s opposition to Japanese whaling, but neither would it “in any way disturb or affect the very good relationship with Japan,” he said.
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Smith announced that the Oceanic Viking customs ship would leave Australia this week on a 20-day mission to monitor the Japanese whaling fleet in the icy waters of the Antarctic.
The ship’s mission would be coordinated with aerial surveillance and aimed to gather video and photographic evidence for a potential international court case against Japan, he said.
Japan exploits a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling to kill whales for what it calls scientific research, while admitting that the meat from the hunt ends up on dinner plates.
The Japanese bowed to pressure last month by abandoning plans to kill around 50 humpbacks, which form the backbone of Australia’s lucrative whale-watching industry, but still aim to slaughter about 1,000 other whales this year.
Two environmental activist groups, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, have ships already searching for the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean to engage in their annual protests against the hunt — so far without success.
Greenpeace on Monday criticised the YouTube video as a distraction from the real issue — “that Minke whales and endangered Fin whales are being killed in the name of fake science.”
“Being anti-whaling does not mean being anti-Japanese,” Greenpeace campaigner Rob Nicoll said in a statement.
He urged the Australian government to get its aircraft and the Oceanic Viking involved in the search for the whalers as soon as possible.
“Since mid December the whalers have been unobserved and unhindered in their hunt of up to 935 Minke and 50 endangered Fin whales. The sooner they are under scrutiny, the better,” he said.