In November, 2006 , the Japanese whaling fleet will set sail for the icy waters of Antarctica. Their target - 50 Humpback Whales, 50 Fin Whales and almost l000 Minke Whales.

In the next l6 years, unless this obscene ' scientific whaling ' program, known as JARPA 2, is stopped, the Japanese whaling fleet will slaughter l7,000 Minke Whales, 800 Humpbacks and 800 Fin Whales.

The murder of these beautiful creatures spells the end of the global moratorium on the killing of whales as Japan's so-called 'scientific whaling' is nothing more than a commercial killing operation. The Japanese Government subsidises its whaling industry with thousands of dollars each year.

Japanese warehouses are piled high with mountains of unused whale meat. School children are given whale hamburgers and sausages in an attempt to turn them on to eating whale meat. The truth is that the market for whale meat in Japan is almost non-existent. Yet still the Japanese Government pursues its deadly agenda of turning the world's oceans into a slaughterhouse for whales.

Old whalers who worked in Antarctica in the fifties, when thousands and thousands of whales were killed, cannot wipe the memories of the hideous slaughter from their minds.
They say that whales suffer terribly, unable to lose consciousness until the moment of death.

Whales cry, whales struggle to protect their young, their kin. As the dreadful harpoon with its grenade head explodes as it pierces living flesh, their agony is unendurable. In the last whaling season just passed in Antarctica, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd reported that whales were deliberately drowned by Japanese whalers.

Sometimes, the whalers use electric probes. Blood pours into the ocean as the whales thrash in agony. In some cases the chase and death take hours. Every minute must feel like a lifetime.

At the International Whaling Commission (IWC) where many nations of the world meet each year to haggle over whether whales will be killed or not, the global moratorium on the commercial killing of whales which has held of whaling nations for 20 years is close to ending.

The IWC has no powers of enforcement. It has no navy. The IWC has no way to stop countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland from killing whales . In the past, the US government has threatened trade sanctions against these countries, and the threat has been reasonably effective.

When George Bush became President of the United States, the world's only super power and the strongest ally of the whales, changed its policy. Japan has been able to get away with murder because the Bush Administration has turned its back on the whales so that the world's oceans can be raped in the name of free trade.

The balance of power in the IWC has now changed. Japan has bribed poor and undeveloped countries with massive aid money to obtain their vote at the IWC. The anti whaling nations, USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand have done little more than make media statements and diplomatic protests.

Environmental groups have obtained legal opinions from some of the best legal experts in the western world. It is very apparent that Japan's obscene whaling program could be stopped in various international courts.

But no nation will take Japan to court because the anti whaling nations are members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and they will not jeopardize free trade. So the equation is quite simple - whales or trade. Unfortunately, trade is winning the game unless the people of the world rise up and protest against this deadly trade-off.

Oceans without whales are hard to imagine. But the grim reality is that there is no whale population, no whale species that is capable of withstanding slaughter. Millions of whales were killed in the last two centuries, their deaths creating profound impacts on marine ecosystems.

Many people ask why Japan persists in killing whales when there is no market for the meat. Japan is the world's greatest exploiter of the global marines. The Japanese appetite for fish, insatiable. Many conservation groups believe that if Japan is forced to stop whaling, the Japanese government believes that their fishing practices will soon be exposed to global scrutiny and their fishers forced to cut back.

It is also true that most Japanese people are completely unaware of the extent of whaling by their government, or the appalling cruelty involved - or the global protest as the Japanese media does not report on the killing orgies.

If commercial whaling begins again in the 21st Century, humanity will have taken a giant step backwards to the Dark Ages. People find it hard to believe that the fight to save the whales has begun again, and that unless there is massive global protest, the whales will die.

In buying this CD, you have made your statement of concern for the magnificent, highly intelligent whales. It is not enough. You must write to your politicians, to the religious leaders in your country, to newspapers and to radio and television stations making your protest.

Tell your family, friends, workmates that the whales will die unless we, the people act.
There is legal action which can be taken to stop the slaughter. There is hope. Miracles can happen, but we must create the magic.

The whales demand no less. The great mind in the waters is calling on caring humans to ensure their survival.

This call is nothing less than the crossroads of our humanity, our survival.

Do it ! / Sue Arnold /
australiansforanimals.org

special thanks to:
David Head stopwhaling.co.nz
Ron Hunter whaledive.net

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