World body moves to curtail Japan's 'science' whaling

Yahoo – AFP, Mariëtte Le Roux, October 27, 2016

Japan cancelled its 2014/15 whale hunt, only to resume it the following year,
killing an estimated 300-plus animals  (AFP Photo)

The world's whaling watchdog moved Thursday to curtail Japan's annual whale hunt, conducted under scientific licence but blasted by critics as a commercial meat haul.

A resolution on "improving" the review of deadly research programmes, which Japan alone conducts, split the 70-year-old International Whaling Commission (IWC) into familiar camps -- pro- and anti-whaling.

Just two days earlier, the pro camp defeated a bid to create a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic, which had required 75 percent of IWC member votes.

Thursday's resolution, however, needed a simple majority to pass. It garnered 34 "yes" votes to 17 cast by the camp that includes Japan and commercial whalers Norway and Iceland.

Championed by Australia and New Zealand, it will lead to the creation of a permanent "working group" to assist the IWC and its expert scientific committee to assess whaling programmes conducted in the name of science.

The outcome was hailed by conservation groups which accuse Japan of abusing an exemption for research hunts under a 30-year-old moratorium, which also allows controlled aboriginal subsistence whaling.

"Today’s vote shrinks the... loophole that Japan has exploited ever since the global moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect," said Kitty Block of the Humane Society International.

Endangered whales (AFP Photo/Gustavo Izús, Esther Poveda, Anella Reta)

"In defiance of the ban, Japan has issued itself a license to kill more than 15,000 whales under the guise of science" since 1986.

Resolutions are not legally binding on members of the commission, which has no policing function and cannot impose penalties.

"We will abide by the convention itself," Japan's commissioner to the IWC, Joji Morishita told AFP after the vote, referring to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, the IWC's founding document.

Japan's whaling is a deeply divisive and recurring quarrel at the IWC's biennial meetings.

Under the scientific exception, national governments determine their own catch limits and issue whaling permits.

'Not justified'

In 2014, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that permits issued by Japan were "not for purposes of scientific research" and instructed the country to halt its JARPA II programme.

Japan cancelled its 2014-15 hunt, only to resume it the following year under a new programme called NEWREP-A (New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean).

Japan's International Whaling Commissioner Joji Morishita (L) and the International 

Whaling Commission's Executive Secretary Simon Brockington talk on October 24, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Jure Makovec)

It killed 333 minke whales in the Southern Ocean that year -- many of them pregnant, according to observers.

The Southern Ocean hosts one of two whale sanctuaries in the world.

The meat from Japan's hunts ends up on supermarket shelves and in restaurants, in line with an IWC stipulation that whales taken for research must be eaten.

Morishita defended Japan's whaling, insisting it was to gather science data, and did not violate the ICJ judgment.

In its ruling, "it is clear that the ICJ assumes there can be future research activities," the commissioner told fellow delegates.

"The ICJ also said... that the use of lethal sampling per se is not unreasonable in relation to the research objectives."

But his New Zealand counterpart, Amy Laurenson, insisted that NEWREP-A was clearly "not in fact for purposes of scientific research.

"Japan has still not justified the use of lethal sampling," she said.

Under the new resolution, a working group will be appointed to consider the reports of the IWC's scientific committee on all new, ongoing and completed scientific whaling programmes.

It will report to the commission, which will express itself on the validity of every programme.

Protesters demonstrate during the 66th International Whaling Commission (IWC) 

meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia, on October 24, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jure Makovec)

The International Fund for Animal Welfare welcomed the move as a further obstacle to Japan "unilaterally" issuing its own permits.

"We all know that scientific whaling is sham science, and simply commercial whaling by another name," said the organisation's Matt Collis.

IWC members put their differences aside just long enough on Thursday to pass a separate resolution on trying to save the critically endangered vaquita -- a small porpoise sometimes called Mexico's "panda of the sea".

There are fewer than 60 known individuals left in the Gulf of California, the vaquita's only home.

They perish in illegal nets used to catch totoaba, large fish whose swim bladders are believed in China to hold medicinal powers.

The vaquita decision urges IWC members to provide financial and technical assistance for Mexico to police a permanent gillnet ban, compensate affected fishers, and replace outdated fishing gear with safe alternatives.

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The Celebration! - What's next? –  Dec 8, 2002 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll - (Text version)

“… The Circle of Responsibilities

The age of responsibility. There are many who don't even like that word. They don't want to be responsible. Yet it's a word dripping with truth and joy. The Human Being who is responsible is the one who knows their God! Let's give you some of these responsibilities. They exist in a circle, with one not taking precedence over the other. 

To God

What is your responsibility to God? Whatever that word means to you - Spirit, Source, Family? What is your responsibility to God? It's easy, yet so difficult. It's easy for the feminine Kryon to invite you to see the wings, yet so hard for you to believe that such a thing could be. What's your responsibility to God? I'll tell you what it is: It's to understand that you're it. It's the responsibility to seek out that part of you that will finally acknowledge that you're divine. Do you think that it's some kind of mysterious error that most of humanity believes in eternal life after death? Do you think that's it's just mass wishful thinking? It isn't. It's intuition! It's knowing! Let me give you another "accident." What do you think about one mammal on the planet, only one - the whale - that has treaties around it signed by hundreds of countries - even ones that have no water - to protect it? Do you think that's an accident? When all humanity is gathered together, despite all the differences and the fights and the religious ideas, they vote to protect one mammal. You want to know why? Because the whales carry the storehouse of knowledge on how to change the past! Humanity at the cellular level knows it.

These mammals also know how to work with the Indigos. Did you ever think about that? And who are the whale's first cousins? The dolphins. Let me tell you about the dolphins and the Indigos. These new children are going to bring you the potential of peace on Earth, and it may not be fast enough for some of you, but believe me, it's in the works. Someday Indigos will stand up in that troubled area called the Middle East and cause a real stir. Palestinians and Israelis will look at each other and say, "It's about time to drop the past. Let's talk about now. Let's talk about what can happen now, away from anything that was on the old track that your parents traveled."

We made the statement long ago: "As go the Jews, so goes Earth." Let's be very clear that we include the Palestinians in the Jewish attribute. Same father. We see them as one family. We also don't see Earth's destruction. Perhaps there are those who would say, "Well, you know you're on the other side of the veil, Kryon. You don't have to walk in Human's shoes." Oh, are we aware of that! That's why we love you so much. Blessed is the angel pretending to be Human. He gets out of bed in the morning and stumbles to the mirror and doesn't see the whales...doesn't think about them. Instead, he wonders how his day is going to go. He worries about the processes within his body. He worries about his society, his lack of abundance, and about the things that are in the dark that he can't see. He seldom sees the angel in the mirror. Well, we have some advice for you: Perhaps it's time to turn on the light! And when you do, all of those things you've been stumbling over will be your treasures. Some of you have done that. We know who's hearing and reading. Some can look backwards and say, "I've changed my past. I've changed my past." Blessed are those who are moving into that dimension! ….”

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Two: What happens when you die?

This is so complicated, but I'm going to divide it into two parts, both spiritual. The death of a Human, which all of you in the room have experienced, is not the end. This is intuitive within you, because you've gone through it before. But the truth of it hides just under the surface. You're not really quite sure what will happen to you, but your intuition tells you it's not the end.

There is no sting in death. Not for you. But for the ones around you, there is. So the first thing I want to tell you about death is that those around you often suffer. Sometimes that is appropriate, for it brings them to their knees, especially when you leave too soon. Sometimes, because of that, they will discover what is inside of them, incredible spiritual solace, and then realize that your death was the catalyst for their enlightenment. Do you understand that process? Sometimes you are partners in this, with agreements in advance for potentials to help each other even through Human death. So it's not something to mourn at all. Often, it's the completion of a beautiful arrangement.

What happens when you die physically? That's easy - you return to the dust of the planet. What more do you want to know? Corporeal? Easy. That's just part of the Gaia process. But let me tell you about the moment of transition. You lose three ounces of something that no one knows about. The three ounces is quantum information. It's the quantum part of your spiritual core, everything that ever was of you, and it doesn't go up, it goes down. It goes back to the Cave of Creation and beyond.

We've told you this before. Part of it also goes to the Crystalline Grid. Some of it even goes to the cetaceans of the earth. There is a system here that allows Gaia to remember your life, and it's stored in the planet. Your spirit comes home, but not your Akashic Record. It stays on the planet because the planet owns it. You have changed the planet by what you've done, but you don't bring it home with you. When you come home, however, we have a party. I've told you that before. Oh, dear one, there's no sting in death. Not your own. You will know it right away, within three days. By then, you are "fully aware" that you're a piece of God. You remember. You hear the music again.

Then soon, you come back here (Earth), and when you do, it's sometimes faster than you've been told, for things are speeding up. Sometimes you come back born into your own family as grandchildren within your same karmic group. That's a process of the Lightworker so that your grandparents can teach you things that only they can teach you.

And when you take your first breath, you pick up something. You pick up all of the soul energy from the Cave of Creation and the Crystalline Grid that you stored there when you left. That is called Akashic inheritance. Artists become artists. Policemen become policemen. It's in your genes. It's in your DNA, who you used to be. Even the proclivities for the things you like and don't like - like food, choices - come in with you from the past Akashic inheritance.

Sometimes the question is asked, "Should I be a vegetarian? What is correct for my body spiritually?" I will tell you what is correct for your body spiritually - the thing that makes sense to you! If you've spent lifetimes in Tibet or India, you're probably craving different foods than that which is in the United States. That's how it works, dear ones. Your body reacts to what it remembers, and if that serves you by not eating meat, then that is what you should do for your health. Do not project it onto your friends, for they have their own Akashic health remembrance. They have their own system that works for them.

Humans love to compartmentalize everything and, therefore, when someone finds something good for them, they wish everybody to do it. Do not criticize others because they don't have your unique remembrance. This also applies to the belief systems of others. The ones who have found God or have found joy in a system that works for them is because they are tuned to it. Perhaps they were the very disciples of the masters! They're tuned to it and they want for everyone what works for them. Much of it has integrity, but it may not be for you.

What happens at death? It's a system - beauty, honor, and you become the piece of God that you know you are. When Elijah ascended, you got to see it through the eyes of Elisha. Elijah turned into a light so bright that Elisha couldn't even look at it. Then it split into parts. Elisha saw the Merkabah, the field around the Human, the chariot that Elijah rode in. He saw it and reported it. What do you think it was? The Human got to see ascension. That's death. ...."