NISSUI SURRENDERS TO ANTI-WHALERS (Good news)

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ISSUI SURRENDERS TO ANTI-WHALERS

Sat, 1 Apr 2006 17:35:01 -0800

 

 

NISSUI SURRENDERS TO ANTI-WHALERS

 

 

 

The boycott of Sealord products in New Zealand and

Gorton Seafood products in the United States has paid

off.

 

 

 

Nissui, the Japanese company that owns both Sealord

and Gorton also owns 50% of Kyodo Senpaku which owns

and operates the Japanese whaling fleet.

 

According to a report by Andrew Darby in the Melbourne

Age, Kyodo Senpaku has announced that it will get rid

of the ships, " in view of the scientific and

public-interest nature of the activities now carried

out by our company " .

 

These are the six ships that Sea Shepherd chased and

harassed in December of 2005 and January of 2006.

 

Conservation groups led by Earth Island Institute

stepped up a consumer campaign against fishing

companies owned by Nissui, which has been whaling for

72 years. New Zealand-based international fisheries

company Sealord, half-owned by Nissui, came under

attack, as did the United States company Gorton's,

which is fully owned by the Japanese company.

 

40,000 emails went to Sealord's chief executive, Doug

McKay, alone.

 

In Argentina, a local seafood company cancelled

contracts with Nissui after cyber-activists downloaded

stickers to put on its products on supermarket

shelves, and 21,000 emails went to the company

headquarters.

 

Again according to the Melbourne Age, the shares will

be transferred to a series of public interest

corporations. They include the Institute of Cetacean

Research, but the rest are as yet unidentified.

" Present shareholders will eventually be completely

divested of their ownership, " the statement said.

 

Nissui had also undertaken to stop processing and

distributing whale meat in Japan.

 

Although this decision will not shut down the Japanese

fleet, there is no doubt that it is a significant blow

to the industry.

 

 

 

“Whaling is becoming a taboo industry and the taint of

blood and suffering associated with it, will pollute

any product of any company associated with the

slaughter of whales.” Said Captain Paul Watson.

“People around the world have spoken with their power

as consumers and it is a language that corporations

understand. Whaling has no place in the 21st Century

and civilized people everywhere are opposed to it.”

 

 

 

Nissui made the decision not because of concern for

the whales but because hundreds of thousands of people

made Nissui aware of their concerns and their refusal

to support companies that support whaling.