20 June 2009 - New Zealanders are urging the Government to speak out against any proposal which would threaten the whaling ban, at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting which opens in Portugal on 22 June.

Whale Rider star, Keisha Castle-Hughes, said more than 13,000 New Zealanders have added their name to a statement telling the Government to reject any proposal which would effectively lift the moratorium on commercial whaling.

"We hope the Government will listen to this strong message from the New Zealand public. The whaling ban is one of the greatest conservation measures of our time, having prevented the extinction of several species and saved tens of thousands of whales from inhumane deaths. It must be protected!"

Keisha Castle-Hughes is the public face of the World Society for the Protection of Animal's (WSPA) anti-whaling campaign. WSPA believes the irrefutable fact that whaling is cruel is the key to stopping the suffering of whales and any proposal which condones this cruelty should be rejected.

Bridget Vercoe, WSPA New Zealand's Programmes Manager, explained at this year's IWC meeting, countries will decide whether to commit to a process that would allow Japan to hunt 750 coastal minke whales over a five year period. This is being considered as a trade-off to urge Japan to scale back its bogus 'scientific whaling' operations. However, any reduction would be non-binding and Japan has so far offered to cut its catch by only 29 whales. As an ominous but inevitable consequence, Korea has announced it will demand the same treatment if Japan is allowed coastal whaling.

"The IWC is on a very slippery slope, this deal would set an extremely dangerous precedent, paving the way for a global resumption of coastal commercial whaling," said Bridget Vercoe.

"The anti-whaling non-governmental organisation (NGO) community is united in believing that the IWC has lost its sense of perspective; just three countries want to go commercial whaling and yet the current 'Future of the IWC' process - under which the Japan deal has been conceived - is almost exclusively focussed on meeting their demands."

"Meanwhile whale watching, a $1.25 billion a year industry is being completely sidelined. The IWC is also largely failing in its duty to protect whales from an increasing raft of threats including climate change, pollution, ship strikes, and 'by-catch' in fishing nets."

Bridget Vercoe said, "the IWC has slipped into this insane situation whereby it's considering effectively rewarding Japan for its bogus `scientific' whaling by offering up 750 more whales. We sincerely hope the New Zealand Government will reject Japan's unreasonable demands and instead focus on protecting whales and the whale watching industries that depend upon them."