Author Archives: Jeonghee Han

A day to celebrate – South Korea abandons ‘scientific’ whaling plan

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It’s been a turbulent five months for the future of whales in South Korea after the Seoul government made a shock statement in July at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Panama, announcing that it was planning a ‘scientific’ whaling programme.

There was an uproar – ‘scientific’ whaling is just an excuse to kill whales for meat. Two weeks later, the day before my wedding, I was still doing media interviews about the plan and one of the guests brought a picket sign reading ‘No Whaling!’ to my wedding. Continue reading →

Help end South Korea’s whaling before it starts

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Last summer Korea shocked the international community by announcing it would start ‘scientific’ whaling. Surprised by the controversy, our government took a step back and told the media that they will consult with the various stakeholders such as fishing community, NGOs, and the concerned governments and make a decision whether to submit the scientific whaling proposal. The South Korean government also made it clear that if there are other means to achieve our research goals without killing whales, we could consider not going for scientific whaling. Continue reading →