Japan bolts whaling commission, but tensions may ease

Yahoo – AFP, Shaun TANDON, 28 December 2018

Japan has put a halt to its most provocative whaling -- annual expeditions to
the Antarctic

Japan has made good on years of threats by bolting the International Whaling Commission, but its decision may also offer a way out of tensions that looked inextricable.

Japan, which calls whaling part of its cultural heritage, said Wednesday it would withdraw from the seven-decade-old commission which since 1986 has banned commercial killing of the ocean giants.

But while Japan vowed to forge ahead with full-fledged commercial hunts off its coast, it put a halt to its most provocative whaling -- annual expeditions to the Antarctic which use an IWC loophole that permits whaling for scientific research.

Australia and New Zealand have been outraged by Japan's incursions into waters they consider a whale sanctuary and activists harassed the whalers in often dangerous chases.

Patrick Ramage, a veteran watcher of IWC negotiations, called the announcement an "elegantly Japanese solution" that looks on the surface like defiance but will likely mean a much smaller hunt.

"What this provides is a face-saving way out of high seas whaling. And it is difficult to see that as anything other than good news for whales and the commission established to manage and conserve them," said Ramage, program director for marine conservation at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Ramage said that the IWC, where Japan will now have observer status, can focus on increasingly serious threats to whales such as climate change, plastic pollution, ship-strikes and accidental net entanglement from the soaring fishing industry.

"It will be a net positive to allow the commission and its member countries to move beyond what has been a disproportionate and warping debate on whaling," he said.

Norway and Iceland also hunt whales but remain within the IWC, instead formally registering objections to the ban.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which opposes any killing of whales and attempted to stop Japan's fleet forcibly in the Antarctic, declared victory over Tokyo's announcement but vowed not to accept any whaling by the three countries.

Mounting obstacles

For Japan, which generally prides itself on its contributions to international organizations, whaling has been a rare space in which it confronts its usual Western allies, with Japanese officials at IWC meetings railing against what they see as cultural imperialism.

While whale meat is rarely eaten in modern Japan, whaling has become a matter of principle for the powerful fishing business and port cities such as Shimonoseki, the home base of conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Japan, which calls whaling part of its cultural heritage, said it would withdraw 

from the seven-decade-old International Whaling Commission, which since 1986 

has banned commercial killing of the ocean giants

But Japan's whalers also faced serious obstacles outside the IWC. The Nisshin Maru, the world's only remaining whaler factory ship and flagship in the "scientific" expeditions, is 31 years old and set for replacement.

Japan -- adamant that it has always followed the letter of the law -- also in 2014 lost a lawsuit filed by Australia at the International Court of Justice, which rejected Tokyo's argument that its whaling was for science, although the narrow ruling allowed Japan to reconstitute its program.

And CITES, the global conference that governs wildlife trade to protect endangered species, in October reprimanded Japan for shipments of meat of sei whales, the main type it kills on the high seas.

Japan's coastal whaling is expected to focus on minkes, the smallest of the great whales whose stocks are widely considered healthy.

Latest shift for IWC?

The Cambridge, England-based IWC was established after World War II to manage whaling, seeking to ensure meat for a hungry Japan and, less successfully, to contain the Soviet Union's prolific slaughter of whales.

After the IWC voted for the moratorium, Japan sought to pack the commission with allies -- often small developing countries with no whaling tradition -- but has continuously failed to reach the two-third threshold it needed.

As one of the earliest results of international environmental diplomacy, the IWC has advocates who say it must be preserved.

Peter Stoett, a professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology who has written a book on the IWC, said Japan's withdrawal marked a setback for the commission which will no longer have universal membership.

But he said Japan's absence could reorient the IWC once again to focus on science and diplomacy to address climate change and other urgent threats to whales and other cetaceans.

"As dramatic as this is, the major threat to cetaceans today is not coming from harpoons," Stoett said.

"The end of all whales could come, but that would be because the oceans are just too warm for the ecosystem support structure that they need," he said.

In departing the IWC, Japan says it will end its annual hunts in the Antarctic, instead it will restrict its whaling to Japanese coastal waters and is expected to focus on minkes, the smallest of the great whales pic.twitter.com/jpj3iCgMVj

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 28, 2018

AFP map locating the main whaling nations and different species of whales caught around the world in 2017, after Japan announced it will resume commercial hunts@AFPgraphics pic.twitter.com/qa9RqzDXfC

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 27, 2018

Related Articles:

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. ...."

Japan mulls next steps after whaling defeat in Brazil

Yahoo – AFP, September 14, 2018

"Japan was expecting something positive happens at this meeting," said
Joji Morishita, who chaired the meeting of the deeply divided 89-member
body and now reverts to being Japan's commissioner (AFP Photo/Jure MAKOVEC)

Florianopolis (Brazil) (AFP) - The International Whaling Commission's rejection Friday of Japan's proposal to resume commercial whaling "is not the end of the story," Tokyo's whaling commissioner said at the end of a divisive meeting in Brazil.

"Japan was expecting something positive happens at this meeting," said Joji Morishita, who chaired the meeting of the deeply divided 89-member body and now reverts to being Japan's commissioner.

"But that's not the end of the story. That's the beginning of the story of the next steps," Morishita told AFP.

Anti-whaling nations led by Australia, the European Union and the United States, defeated Japan's "Way Forward" proposal -- to return to whaling for profit -- in a 41 to 27 vote.

The vote was followed by threats of a withdrawal by Japan and left the 72-year old organization at a crossroads.

Morishita said that despite a "very strong sense of dialogue," the differences between pro- and anti-whaling nations were "very clear"

"I don't like to look at this as being failure or success, or the end. This is always the beginning of something new, and that's very important for the parties involved."

Morishita had told the close of the meeting that member countries should ask themselves what kind of an organization they wanted it to be.

It "needs to address conservation issues, climate change, pollution and all that stuff....and there are needs for management too," he told AFP.

"So how do you address this? Through the IWC or through a different organization or a combination of different organizations?"

"I think that's what we would now like to look at," he said, "not just concentrating whether IWC can survive or continue, or fail doing a job. To look at the larger world."

Pro-whaling states say the IWC's mandate is both to conserve and manage -- meaning to sustainably hunt -- recovering whale stocks, but that the emphasis within the organization has leant too far towards conservation, leaving them without a voice.

The large Japanese delegation here would "assess the result of this meeting very carefully back in Japan," said Morishita.

While Japan would maintain its commitment to international cooperation "as a whole" he said, "but how they like to do this from here is something they will discuss back home."

Asked if that would involve Japan inviting like-minded states to join them in a new pro-whaling organization, Morishita said: "I simply don't know. I have no basis to answer this question."

And asked if the world had seen the last of Japan at the biennial IWC meetings, he said: "I have no comment to make on that."

Japan whalers return from Antarctic hunt after killing 333 whales

Yahoo – News, 31 March 2018

Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission moratorium on hunting,
but exploits a loophole that allows whales to be killed for scientific research

Japanese whaling vessels returned to port on Saturday after catching more than 300 of the mammals in the Antarctic Ocean without facing any protests by anti-whaling groups, officials said.

A fleet of five whalers set sail for the Southern Ocean in November, as Tokyo pursues its "research whaling" in defiance of global criticism.

Three of the vessels, including the fleet's main ship, the Nisshin Maru, arrived in the morning at Shimonoseki port in western Japan, a port official said.

The fleet caught 333 minke whales as planned without any interruption by anti-whaling campaigners, the Fisheries Agency said in a statement.

Japanese whalers have in the past clashed at sea with animal rights campaigners, particularly the Sea Shepherd activist group, which last year announced it had no plan to make offshore protests this season.

Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission moratorium on hunting, but exploits a loophole that allows whales to be killed for scientific research.

Tokyo says the slaughter is necessary for in-depth knowledge of whale behaviour and biology, but it makes no secret of the fact that whales killed in the hunts often end up on dinner plates.

International call for Japan to halt Antarctic whaling

Yahoo – AFP, 18 December 2017

Japan's fisheries agency says the hunt is needed to study whale behaviour
and biology

The European Union and 12 other nations condemned Japan's Antarctic whaling programme Monday, rejecting Tokyo's argument that the annual slaughter is for scientific research.

Japan's whaling fleet left for the Southern Ocean last month, planning to kill 333 minke whales over a four-month period.

Its fisheries agency says the hunt is needed to study whale behaviour and biology, but critics say such lethal research is unnecessary and acts as a cover for commercial whaling.

"(We) jointly express... opposition to Japan’s continued so-called 'scientific' whaling in the Southern Ocean," the EU and its allies said in a statement.

"We remain resolutely opposed to commercial whaling, in particular in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary established by the International Whaling Commission (IWC)."

In addition to the EU, the letter was signed by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

Japan cancelled its 2014-15 hunt, only to resume it the following year under 

a new programme

Japan is a signatory to the IWC's moratorium on hunting, but exploits a loophole that allows whales to be killed in the name of scientific research.

In 2014, the UN's International Court of Justice ordered Tokyo to end its regular hunt in the Antarctic waters, saying the project did not meet conventional scientific standards.

Japan cancelled its 2014-15 hunt, only to resume it the following year under a new programme -- saying the fresh plan had genuine scientific value.

The joint statement noted that the IWC ruled last year that the new research programme was not scientific and should be halted.

"Japan's decision to return to the Southern Ocean this year is contrary to the commission's requests," it added.

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.

Related Articles:

Whaling nations sink bid for South Atlantic sanctuary

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. ...."

Whaling nations sink bid for South Atlantic sanctuary

Yahoo – AFP, Mariëtte Le Roux, Oct 25, 2016

The main detractors of the proposed South Atlantic whale sanctuary were
 Japan, Norway and Iceland, with backing from a number of African, Asian and
island states (AFP Photo/Luis Robayo)

Portorož (Slovenia) (AFP) - Whaling nations defeated a renewed bid Tuesday by southern hemisphere states to create an Atlantic sanctuary for the marine mammals hunted to near extinction in the 20th century.

A proposal by Argentina, Brazil, Gabon, South Africa and Uruguay, which needed a 75 percent majority, mustered only 38 votes in favour with 24 against at an International Whaling Commission meeting, an outcome lamented by conservationists.

Its main detractors were whalers Japan, Norway and Iceland, with backing from a number of African, Asian and island states.

"With all the problems currently facing whale populations that have previously been devastated by commercial whaling, it is clear they need a protected zone where they will be able not just to survive, but to rebuild and thrive," said Greenpeace whale expert John Frizell.

"What is the most disappointing is that all these efforts are ultimately being undermined by IWC member countries (which) are thousands of miles away, not even in the southern hemisphere and some even on the other side of the world."

The proposal, backed by countries which depend on whale-watching tourist dollars, has been shot down at every IWC meeting since it was first introduced in 2001.

"It's a disappointment that the proposal for a South Atlantic whale sanctuary has again been defeated by those nations with a vested interest in killing whales for profit," Humane Society International vice president Kitty Block said.

"The whales have lost out and so too have local communities who stand to gain so much from booming ecotourism such as responsible whale watching."

The scheme is to create a whale sanctuary of 20 million square kilometres (eight million square miles) in the South Atlantic ocean.

Backers say about 71 percent of an estimated three million whales killed around the world between 1900 and 1999 were taken in southern hemisphere waters.

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

'Some kind of security'

The most targeted species were fin, sperm, blue, humpback, sei and minke whales, they say -- and many populations are still recovering under a 30-year old moratorium on all but aboriginal whale hunting.

According to the proposal, a sanctuary would "promote the biodiversity, conservation and non-lethal utilisation of whale resources in the South Atlantic Ocean".

But Japan, under fire for its annual whale hunts in the name of science, which critics say is a cover for commercial whaling, expressed vehement opposition.

Tokyo argues that stocks of some species have recovered sufficiently to make them fair game for hunters, and that simply declaring all whales off-limits did not address environmental imperatives.

"Sustainable use of marine living resources, including whales... is perfectly consistent with environmental protection," Japan's IWC commissioner told delegates on Monday.

"This proposal is against the principle of sustainable utilisation of marine living resources," he said of the sanctuary.

Two other sanctuaries exist today, in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean -- where Japan conducts some of its hunts.

An outstanding issue on the agenda of the five-day IWC meeting, running in the Adriatic resort town of Portoroz until Friday, is a proposal by New Zealand and Australia for scientific whaling, such as Japan says it conducts, to be much more closely scrutinised.

Country representatives are trying to fine-tune the wording of a consensus document to this effect -- failing which the proposal will be put to a vote, possibly on Wednesday.

While there are no reports of hunting in the South Atlantic today, Brazil's IWC commissioner Hermano Ribeiro told AFP a sanctuary would provide "some kind of security".

"There is a whale killing and catching in the (Southern Ocean), who may tell us that if a particular species begins to be depleted the whale-catchers for science will not come to the South Atlantic?

"We want to avoid that," he said.

Whale-watching is an estimated $2 billion (1.8-billion-euro) a year industry employing some 13,000 people around the world.

There are an estimated 51 species of cetaceans -- whales, dolphins and porpoises -- in the South Atlantic.

Japan's whaling fleet sets sail for the Antarctic

In spite of global outrage, Japan's whaling fleet has set out for the Antarctic to resume a decades-old whale hunt. Japan aims to take more than 300 whales in its "scientific whaling" program.

Deutsche Welle, 1 Nov 2015

Last year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean should stop, and an International Whaling Commission (IWC) panel said in April that Japan had yet to demonstrate a need for "lethal sampling" as part of scientific research.

However, Tokyo, which vowed at the time to resume its "scientific whaling" program starting with the 2015/2016 season, retooled its hunt plan to cut the number of minke whales it intends to take to 333, down by two-thirds from previous hunts.

Japan has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its traditional food culture. Making use of a loophole in international whaling regulations, it began what it calls "scientific whaling" in 1987, a year after a global whaling moratorium took effect.

'A happy day'

"Last year, regrettably, the ICJ made its ruling and we were unable to take whales," said Tomoaki Nakao, the mayor of the western city of Shimonoseki, which is both home to much of Japan's whaling fleet and part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's election district.

"There's nothing as happy as this day," he told the fleet's crew at a ceremony prior to their departure.

The ships set sail shortly before noon, with family members and officials waving from shore. The hunt is expected to last until March.

Conservationists' anger

Australia and New Zealand have led criticism of the resumption of Japan's whaling operations, with both expressing disappointment.

Sea Shepherd activists have in the past clashed with Japanese whaling ships

"It's not scientific research, it's straight up commercial whaling, and it's been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice," said Nathaniel Pelle from Greenpeace Australia.

Environmentalists from Sea Shepherd Australia, a conservation organization dedicated to protecting marine wildlife and habitats, have said they will pursue the Japanese fleet and will attempt to intervene in any slaughter of the animals.

av/tj (AFP, Reuters)