Britain's 'regret' at Maori killings when Cook landed

Yahoo – AFP, October 2, 2019

A statue of Captain Cook stands in Sydney's Hyde Park (AFP Photo/WILLIAM WEST)

Britain's top diplomat in New Zealand made a low-key "expression of regret" to Maori on Wednesday over deadly clashes that occurred when Captain James Cook's arrived in New Zealand 250 years ago.

British High Commissioner Laura Clarke travelled to the North Island town of Gisborne for a ceremony with the Maori iwi, or tribes, who Cook met when he landed in October 1769.

The explorer's arrival sparked a series of skirmishes in the following days that resulted in nine deaths and is still recalled with anger by locals.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust said the ceremony with Clarke was to acknowledge the hara, or atrocities, committed 250 years ago.

"Cook and his crew landed on the banks of the Turanganui river at 4pm, within 30 minutes they had opened fire and (local chieftain) Te Maro was dead," it said.

"Our whanaunga (relative) was the first casualty of The Collision."

It added: "After only being here for two hours, Cook and his crew had trespassed, terrorised, killed and stolen from us."

The British High Commission issued a brief statement about the event but refused to provide further details, saying it was a "private dialogue between the envoy and the iwi.

"The expression of regret responds to a request from the local iwi for this history to be heard and acknowledged," the statement said.

"The British High Commissioner will acknowledge the pain of those first encounters, acknowledge that the pain does not diminish over time, and extend her sympathy to the descendants of those killed."

Local media reported British officials had "sworn the iwi involved to secrecy" and carefully avoided framing the statement as an apology.

However, New Zealand's race relations commissioner Meng Foon, a former Gisborne mayor, had no such qualms.

"It's a significant day today... I hope that the apology or message will acknowledge the murder of nine Maori from Turanganui-a-Kiwa (Gisborne)," he told Radio New Zealand.

"I hope they both can move forward and tell our history."

On three epic voyages, Cook helped chart the vast Pacific Ocean more than any other, making him one of the most celebrated explorers of his era.

But his legacy has been questioned by many modern scholars amid accusations that his "discoveries" led to colonialism and the devastation of the traditional societies he encountered.

Alaska's indigenous people feel the heat of climate change

Yahoo – AFP, Jocelyne ZABLIT, May 2, 2019

City council member Walter Nelson walks in a cemetery that has been relocated
twice and is now a mass grave because of severe erosion of the permafrost in the
village of Napakiak in Alaska (AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON)

Napakiak (United States) (AFP) - The cemetery has already been moved twice, the old school is underwater and the new one is facing the same fate as erosion constantly eats away at the land in Napakiak.

The tiny village located in southwestern Alaska, along the meandering Kuskokwim River, is one of dozens of coastal indigenous communities across the state that are on the front lines of climate change, their very existence and way of life threatened by the warming temperatures.

"The shoreline keeps eroding much faster than predictions and we are continuously having to move back from the river to higher ground," city council member Walter Nelson told an AFP team on a recent tour of the isolated village of 350 residents, most of them Yupik Eskimos. "Here, we are dealing with climate change on a daily basis."

Waving his hands left and right, he points to houses and other structures, most of them on stilts, that are affected by rapid coastal erosion and thawing permafrost -- a once-permanently frozen ground on which many Alaska native villages are built.

"It's a constant race against time and right now the local grocery store, the fire station and a city building are top of the list for relocation," Nelson said. "The school will be next but we won't be able to move it. We will have to tear it down and build a new one."

Severe erosion of the permafrost threatens the school in the village of Napakiak 

in Alaska (AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON)

The same drama is playing out across all of Alaska's coastal communities, many of which are not accessible by road, except in the winter, when the rivers freeze and turn into ice roads that are increasingly non-existent because of the warming temperatures.

According to a 2009 report by the Government Accountability Office, the majority of the state's more than 200 native villages are affected by erosion and flooding, with 31 facing "imminent threats."

Among those in danger of going underwater is Newtok, located near Alaska's western coast, where all of the roughly 350 residents should complete the daunting task of relocating this summer to a new village about nine miles away.

Further south, in Quinhagak, which sits along the Bering Sea and near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, local leaders are also mulling moving the entire village of 700 people to safer grounds.

"We've already moved twice and the last time was in 1979," said Warren Jones, president of the local Yupik corporation known as Qanirtuuq, Inc. "But the erosion is happening too quickly and now we're preparing land for the new site which will be further inland."

'Existential threats'

According to scientists, Alaska has been warming twice as fast as the global average, with temperatures in February and March shattering records.

According to scientists, Alaska has been warming twice as fast as the global 

average (AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON)

"From 1901 to 2016, average temperatures in the mainland United States increased by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (one degree Celsius), whereas in Alaska they increased by 4.7 degrees," said Rick Thoman, a climate expert at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy.

"This is disproportionately affecting rural communities in Alaska, many of which are facing long-term existential threats," he added. "Some communities are one storm away from not being habitable."

In Napakiak, which is surrounded by miles and miles of flat tundra dotted with small lakes, and is only accessible by small plane or by boat, Harold Ilmar's full-time job for the last decade has been to protect the village from storm surges, flooding and the river constantly eroding large chunks of land.

On average, he moves about five structures a year to higher ground and, with the meager means at his disposal, tries to push back the waves chiseling away at the banks with sandbags and plastic sheeting.

'Metal coffins'

"It's non-stop and during emergencies, I even work weekends," he says.

Harold Ilmar's full-time job for the last decade has been to protect the village of 

Napakiak from storm surges, flooding and the river constantly eroding large chunks 

of land (AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON)

"I think it would be better if we just moved the whole village to higher ground, right up there," he adds, pointing to a bluff about a mile away from the shore.

Like their counterparts in other native communities, Napakiak officials in recent years have been making the rounds, travelling to conferences across the country to sound the alarm about climate change and their sinking villages.

"We keep telling people to come out here because seeing is believing," said Nelson. "They're not going to understand what's happening over the phone."

He said the village has even started using more sturdy metal coffins instead of wooden ones for burials, as many bodies could not be recovered intact when the two previous cemeteries washed away.

"We have two mass graves now filled with the remains of people we couldn't identify," he said.

Nelson acknowledged that in the long-term, given the speed of erosion and increased flooding, Napakiak may end up underwater with its residents possibly joining the growing number of climate refugees forced to abandon their land.

"We thought that 2016 and 2018 were the warmest but 2019 is breaking all records," he sighed. "Every year it keeps getting warmer.

"Who knows what we are going to face in the next 10 years."

Pacific's Cook Islands mulls new name

Yahoo – AFP, 5 March 2019

Dancers from the Cook Islands perform during a ceremony in the capital,
Avarua. The government is considering changing the name of the tiny nation to
something more traditional

The tiny Pacific nation of Cook Islands is considering changing its name to something that reflects its Polynesian culture, rather than honouring the British explorer James Cook.

The government set up a committee in January to find a new indigenous name for the grouping of 15 islands, about 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) northeast of New Zealand.

Initially the idea was to have the indigenous moniker feature alongside the existing Cook Islands name, in the same way that its larger neighbour is sometimes known as Aotearoa-New Zealand.

But committee chairman Danny Mataroa said Monday that once discussions began it became apparent there was support for dropping the Cook Islands name altogether in favour of one in the local language, known as Cook Islands Maori.

Map showing the Cook Islands

"When the committee members, which include Cook Islands historians and people with deep traditional knowledge, met we decided it was time we change the name of the country," he told AFP.

Mataroa said the new name should reflect the country's heritage, its people and its strong Christian belief.

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown backed the move, but said there was still a long way to go before the nation of 12,000 people changed its name.

"I'm quite happy to look at a traditional name for our country which more reflects the true Polynesian nature of our island nation," he told Radio New Zealand.

It is not the first time the issue has surfaced, with a 1994 referendum to change the name to Avaiki Nui resoundingly defeated.

Weightlifter Sam Pera parades the Cook Islands flag during the opening ceremony 

of the 2004 Olympic Games. The tiny Pacific Ocean nation is considering a name 

change to something more traditional

The Cook Islands were a British protectorate from 1888 until 1900, when they came under New Zealand's jurisdiction.

The Cooks gained independence in 1965 but maintains close ties to Wellington, which takes responsibility for the Cooks' external affairs and allows its citizens to live and work in New Zealand.

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

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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. ...."

Hawaiian canoe comes home after epic round-the-world odyssey

Yahoo – AFP, 18 June 2017

Hawaiian canoe comes home after epic round-the-world odyssey

Los Angeles (AFP) - A traditional double-hulled canoe has returned to Hawaii after concluding a three-year epic journey around the globe, the first trip of its kind by such a boat.

The Hokule'a vessel and its crew entered the marina at Honolulu's Magic Island peninsula on Saturday after sailing more than 40,000 nautical miles (74,000 kilometres) since its departure from the island of Oahu in 2014.

Large crowds gathered for the homecoming celebration to commemorate the end of the odyssey, which intended to "weave a lei of hope around the world through sharing indigenous wisdom, groundbreaking conservation and preservation initiatives," according to voyage organisers.

The goal was to use only ancient methods of wayfinding -- reading the stars, winds and waves -- to guide the journey, just as the first Polynesian settlers who reached the archipelago did hundreds of years ago.

The Hokule'a -- the Hawaiian name for "star of gladness" -- was the first traditional double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe built in 600 years, according to the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

The canoe's maiden voyage in 1976 was to Tahiti in French Polynesia.

Crews of some dozen people rotated at major ports of call throughout the round-the-world journey after undergoing training.

The homecoming celebration kicked off a three-day summit to celebrate the journey and discuss future sailing plans.

"Through her voyages, Hokule'a has sparked a reawakening of Hawaiian culture, language, identity and revitalised voyaging and navigation traditions throughout the Pacific Ocean," voyage organisers said.

Himalayan glaciers granted status of 'living entities'

Yahoo – AFP, April 1, 2017

The status of "living entity" was given to two glaciers as well as swathes of
the Himalayan environment, including waterfalls, meadows, lakes and forests

An Indian court has recognised Himalayan glaciers, lakes and forests as "legal persons" in an effort to curb environmental destruction, weeks after it granted similar status to the country's two most sacred rivers.

In a decision that aims to widen environmental protections in the mountainous region, the court granted the legal standing to glaciers Gangotri and Yamunotri that feed India's venerated Ganga and Yamuna rivers, which won the status in a landmark judgement in March.

"The rights of these entities shall be equivalent to the rights of human beings and any injury or harm caused to these bodies shall be treated as injury or harm caused to human beings," the highest court in Himalayan state of Uttarakhand said in its ruling on Friday.

It said Yamunotri glacier, which is the source for Yamuna river was shrinking at an alarming rate.

Gangotri, which feeds the river Ganga and is one of the largest glaciers in the Himalayas, is also "receding fast", the court said.

"In over 25 years, it has retreated more than 850 meters (2,800 feet)," a two-judge bench of justices Rajeev Sharma and Alok Singh said.

The court also extended the status of "living entity" to swathes of the Himalayan environment, including waterfalls, meadows, lakes and forests.

On March 20, the same court ordered that both Ganges and Yamuna rivers should be given "living entity" status to conserve them, in a decision cautiously welcomed by activists who expressed hope that it would signify more than just a symbolic gesture.

Both rivers are considered holy by millions of Hindus, who ritualistically bathe, drink and scatter the ashes of their dead in the water.

The rivers which criss-cross most of the country before flowing into the sea have witnessed massive pollution near human habitations mainly due to dumping of untreated sewage and industrial waste.

The court argued the unusual step was necessary because the hallowed rivers upon which Hindu rites are conducted were "losing their very existence".

New Zealand earlier last month recognised its third-largest river, ancestral and spiritual waters for its Maori people, as a living entity.

Successive governments in India have attempted with limited success to clean up the Ganges, which snakes 2,500 kilometres (1,553-mile) across northern India from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal.

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. ...."