Auckland, 18 February 2011 - Greenpeace is demanding that Japan’s Government finally end its commercial whaling programme and re-open an investigation into corruption scandals inside the industry, following today’s announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries that it has recalled its Antarctic whaling fleet from the Southern Ocean, marking the fleet’s shortest ever season [1].

Greenpeace New Zealand Oceans Campaigner Karli Thomas said the early return of Japan's whaling fleet was good news for whales and conservationists.

“It’s not over yet, but, today’s announcement by Japan is rewarding news for the many organisations, governments and people around the world that are working to end commercial whaling,” she said.

Junichi Sato, Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan said; “This historic announcement confirms what we all know: that Japan’s whaling serves no purpose whatsoever and the fleet has no business in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.”

“All the whaling programme has produced is a stockpile of thousands of tonnes of frozen whale meat, the waste of billions of Japanese taxpayer’s yen, and a culture of corruption and scandal. An early return of the whaling fleet is not enough – Japan’s whaling ships should never leave port again.”

Polls show that over 70 per cent of Japanese people do not support distant water hunting of whales far from Japan [2] Greenpeace has been working to expose the corruption that has helped sustain its commercial whaling programme, conducted under the guise of scientific research for years.

Following a Greenpeace investigation into whale meat embezzlement the Fisheries Agency of Japan recently admitted that five of its officials, who sailed with the whaling fleet to oversee its activities, had accepted expensive gifts of whale meat from the fleet’s operators.

“The Japanese public doesn’t want to be force-fed whale meat or be forced to bankroll a corrupt and dying industry,” added Sato. “Greenpeace is urging the Japanese Government to not only investigate the whale meat scandal we exposed three years ago, but also start taking real action towards protection of the world’s oceans”.

Greenpeace is opposed to all commercial whaling in all of the world's oceans and is working to end whaling in Japan by raising public awareness of the whaling industry's corruption.

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