WikiLeaks releases documents about anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd
Japanese and American officials discussed taking action to weaken a prominent anti-whaling group, with Tokyo insisting that Sea Shepherd's confrontations on the high seas actually hurt efforts to reduce whaling, U.S. diplomatic cables show.
The U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission, Monica Medina, discussed revoking the U.S.-based conservation group's tax-exempt status during a meeting with senior officials from the Fisheries Agency of Japan in November 2009, according to the documents released by WikiLeaks on Monday.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's yearly protest campaigns -- which chase Japan's whaling fleet in boats trying to disrupt the hunt by fouling fishing lines and throwing rancid butter at whalers -- have drawn high-profile donors and volunteers, and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars." In Japan, the harassment is seen by some as foreign interference in national affairs, making politicians wary of getting involved.
Action against Sea Shepherd would be a "major element" in achieving success at international negotiations on the number of whales killed each year, the cables cite the director general of Japan's fisheries agency, Katsuhiro Machida, as saying.
Referring to Sea Shepherd, Medina said "she believes the USG [U.S. government] can demonstrate the group does not deserve tax exempt status based on their aggressive and harmful actions," according to the cables.
Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd, said Japan has previously pressured foreign governments to take action against the group, such as revoking the registration of its ships. He said the organization had last been audited about two years ago, which is before the exchanges detailed in the cables.
"We have had our tax status since 1981, and we have done nothing different since then to cause the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] to change that," he told the Associated Press by telephone from his ship.
The diplomatic cables, posted on WikiLeaks' secret-sharing website early Monday but dated New Year's Day, show Japanese officials repeatedly told U.S. counterparts that the group's actions were making whaling a political issue and hurting any chance of a compromise on the numbers of whales killed each year.
Sea Shepherd vessels are currently chasing Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean in the hopes of interrupting its hunt, which kills up to 1,000 whales annually and typically lasts from December to February.
Japan hunts whales under the research exemption to a 1986 worldwide ban on commercial hunts. Critics say there is no reason to kill the animals, and the research program amounts to commercial whaling in disguise because surplus meat from the hunt is sold domestically.
Protest ships harass the whaling fleet, and clashes between the sides often take place. On Saturday, Watson said that whalers had shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists nearby.
In January 2010, a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling vessel and a New Zealand protester was later arrested after he boarded a Japanese whaling ship. He was taken to Tokyo and later deported.
The cables are dated before an International Whaling Commission meeting last year that was seen as a major chance to end a decades-long stalemate. They show the U.S. worked with Japan in late 2009 to reach a deal on the issue, calling it an "irritant" in international relations.
The meeting ended without a major agreement.
"Action on the SSCS [Sea Shepherd Conservation Society] would be a major element for Japan in the success of the overall negotiations," a Japanese official said, according to one cable.
Watson said Monday that his group was against anything less than a complete stop to Japan's whaling program in Antarctica. The activists hope to block whaling activities for the Japanese fleet so it incurs deep financial losses.
"I don't think a solution is going to come through politics, it's going to come through economics," Watson told the AP by telephone from his ship while pursuing the Japanese fleet.
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-- Jay Alabaster, Associated Press
Top photo: The Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin pursues the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica on Saturday. Credit: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society / Barbara Veiga / AFP/Getty Images
Bottom photo: Capt. Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, on his ship in Cannes during the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Credit: Stephanie Cornfield / For The Times
The Ady Gil was Not sunk by its collision with the Japanese ship. It suffered major damage, but was repairable. It was very repairable. Paul Watson scuttled it as should be expected by any who have watched his long-established destructive way of doing business.
I have been watching this movement since the early '70's. They should not have tax exempt status.
Posted by: jerry | January 04, 2011 at 01:26 AM
To steal a great line..."Extremism in the defense of whales is no vice".
AHF
Austin
Posted by: AHF | January 04, 2011 at 06:28 AM
What most people don't know is...
This conflict did not start a few years ago with activists throwing stink bombs on television. Japan has been violating and subverting international whaling regulations since the 1930s.
Japan has historically violated size limits, species protections, sanctuary boundaries, seasonal limits, all manner of quotas and even facilitated pirate whaling all over the world (that's front companies with foreign labor killing whales in secret with no respect for regulations and then smuggling the unreported meat back to Japan - so much for tradition).
Today, Japan justifies a continuation of this long history of violations with a loophole, intended for scientific research, despite an internationally established moratorium on commercial whaling. The whalers kill endangered Sei whales, endangered Fin whales, vulnerable Sperm whales, Bryde's whales, common minke whales (many from the vulnerable J-stock), and Antarctic minke whales. Japan also imports the meat of endangered Fin whales from Iceland making it the world market for whale meat in defiance of other international treaties like CITES.
In 1988 Reagan enacted sanctions against Japan over its bogus "scientific" whaling programs. Several international legal panels have concluded the whaling violates international treaties. Australia has filed against Japan's whaling with the International Court of Justice. The International Whaling Commission has made repeated calls for Japan to stop killing whales.
These poachers have no right to kill protected whales in an international sanctuary. Thankfully, Sea Shepherd is taking action!
The leaks merely revealed that when Japanese officials are not busy buying votes from Caribbean IWC representatives, they're trying to manipulate the USA into doing their dirty work.
Posted by: AnimuX | January 04, 2011 at 01:33 PM
Who appointed this Monica Medina as the U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission?
It is clear that she, as a Federal employee, is seeking to interfere with a large number of Americans' First Amendment rights. By large number, I refer to Americans who contribute to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Just because we do not like the public policy message of certain organizations (e.g. the Roman Catholic church) why should they lose their tax exempt status? The constitutional basis for not taxing non profit groups which articulate a public policy message and take action is because "taxing the message and the action" is an unconstitutional prior restraint of Free Speech activities.
As a result this Monica Medina person is a heinous illiterate, in terms of Americans' First Amendment rights. Was she appointed by the Barack Obama Administration, perhaps through the Hillary Clinton run State Department? If the answer is yes, then we see, once again that the institutional Democratic party is run by hypocritical corporate pigs.
And oh by the way, in Nevada and Utah, the Obama Administration run BLM is killing hundreds of wild mustang horses, to pander to the cattle industry. (Google mustang and Pickens for details.)
Ms. Medina's "constitutionally illiterate" suggested action against Shepherd Conservation Society once again illustrates the hypocrisy of President Obama, "Mr. Hope and Change."
You can tell by his body language that he doesn't even like his kids' dog. As a result of Ms. Medina's words as well as the BLM's heinous actions, it's clear President Obama has no regard for preservation of wild species, be they whales or Americas's wild horses. This woman's words are just another illustration of why President Obama and his administration are an embarrassment to the Democratic Party's base.
Posted by: Jennifer555 | January 04, 2011 at 02:58 PM
Sea Shepard is RIGHT. Japan just wants the meat. We should boycot anything from Japan.They are breaking the law. If I was down there by myself I would sink their damn ships.
Posted by: Sandi Shocket | February 17, 2011 at 10:08 PM