During the first week of July, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is set to meet in Panama. At the IWC meeting last year, a measure was passed that makes it much more difficult for Japan to keep paying small, developing nations to vote with them on their agenda to restart commercial whaling. While a noteworthy achievement, whale conservation overall has gained a little momentum.

At this year’s meeting, the IWC can give new life to the effort, passing a proposal to designate the entire South Atlantic Ocean as a whale sanctuary (SAWS).

From the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the warm waters of the equator, this area of the Atlantic is vital to total and true whale conservation and protection. Most of the great whales are highly migratory, feeding in the nutrient-rich waters of the Antarctic before traveling to tropical waters where they give birth and suckle their young. These incomparable animals then make the long migration back to their feeding grounds. Continue reading →

This is a poor pun, but I can’t resist — I had a whale of time last Wednesday night at the DC premiere of Big Miracle, the new Drew Barrymore movie that features a family of grey whales as her co-stars. This whale of a tale (sorry, I can’t help it) is based on a true story that took place about 20 years ago. Greenpeace activist Cindy Lowry, played by Ms. Barrymore, worked to free an unfortunate whale family that didn’t leave its Arctic summer feeding grounds before the ocean began to freeze over. The whales became trapped five miles from open ocean — a fate that would have meant certain death in the face of the approaching Arctic winter.

The movie is the inspired telling of how Cindy gets a lot of usually at-odds folks to cooperate: The US government, the Soviet Union, Big Oil, the townspeople of Barrow, Alaska, and the indigenous Inupiat community all set differences aside and quite literally save the whales. And while I may be giving away the ending, the real story is just how tough it is to get so many groups of people to find those precious points of understanding that allow them to come together for something greater. It gave me hope that we can certainly do it again.

Ms. Barrymore does a commendable job stepping in to Cindy’s role. My favorite scene is when she uses a bit of clever PR to corner both the US military and a big oil exec, a classic David vs. Goliath moment. That spirit of brains over brawn resonates through the film, which refreshingly reveals Greenpeace as an organization that understands the art of intelligent persuasion. I was half expecting the stereotypical “reckless activist” portrayal, but the film balanced our determination with our compassion; of course we love whales, but we also understand people.

That’s not to say there weren’t a few appropriately firey moments within the frozen landscape. An early scene features Cindy getting kicked out of an oil-lease auction after she demands that the Greenpeace bid be read. That kind of treatment still takes place today as our activists fight climate change, and look for opportunities to speak out wherever they can.

And while this is a heart-warming movie, I hope everyone who sees it leaves the theater with an awareness of some chilly reality. Most of the issues this film introduces are still very much at the top of our agenda today.

Greenpeace tirelessly fights against any and all drilling, and though we don’t object to native communities in the far north taking of a few whales for their survival, we continue to work toward ending all commercial whaling. You can join us by taking action now and asking President Obama to Save the Whales.

This film did a praiseworthy job demonstrating the positive power we, as humans, can generate when we work toward a greater good. It also made it clear that protecting those majestic animals is really a reflection of our commitment to our environment, to our planet, and — ultimately — to ourselves.

“This is Campbell Plowden, Whale Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace.  I’d like to let you know that the Soviet Union is going to send two icebreakers to help clear a path for the whales trapped in Alaska.”  

 24 years ago Greenpeace found itself caught up in the midst of a Cold War drama, as the American and Soviet governments came together to rescue three gray whales trapped in the sea ice off the Alaskan coast. The amazing story has been transformed into the feature film ‘Big Miracle’ by Universal Studios, starring Drew Barrymore as a Greenpeace activist.

To get the inside story on what really happened we got in touch with Campbell Plowden, who, in 1988 was head of the Greenpeace USA Whales Campaign. In a fascinating extended account, Campbell, now working to protect the Amazon with Amazon Ecology  describes one of the craziest weeks in his 14 years with Greenpeace, and puts the Alaskan drama in the context of a wider campaign to end Icelandic whaling.

“I realized on the spot that we had no choice about whether or not we wanted to accept this incident as a natural event or ignore it as a distraction.  Dealing with it had just become our mandate;  I had to give it my best shot and try to use the opportunity to also save a lot more whales around Iceland.”

While the movie focuses on Barrow Alaska, Campbell’s account takes us behind the scenes. He describes how Greenpeace engaged the Soviet Union, and how we pressured the Reagan Administration to put the health of the whales ahead of national politics.

“President Reagan was not known for his love for the Soviet Union, and the idea of asking this Communist giant to send one or more of their ships into U.S. waters to help save whales seemed absurd. ” …  “Greenpeace, however, had its own channel into the Evil Empire“

The rescue ended up requiring the combined efforts of the Alaskan National Guard and Coast Guard, the Inuit community in Barrow Alaska, Greenpeace, oil company Veeco, the Reagan Administration and the Soviet Union.

If you’re planning to see the film – and don’t want to know what happens in the story, be warned, Campbell’s account contains plenty of spoilers.

Also: here’s a video report from James, our man at the movie premiere:

Blogpost by Martin Lloyd

“This is Campbell Plowden, Whale Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace.  I’d like to let you know that the Soviet Union is going to send two icebreakers to help clear a path for the whales trapped in Alaska.”  

 24 years ago Greenpeace found itself caught up in the midst of a Cold War drama, as the American and Soviet governments came together to rescue three gray whales trapped in the sea ice off the Alaskan coast. The amazing story has been transformed into the feature film ‘Big Miracle’ by Universal Studios, starring Drew Barrymore as a Greenpeace activist. Continue reading →

For decades, Greenpeace has led the fight to protect whales and the oceans in which they live. We led successful efforts to ban “wall of death” high seas drift nets, which killed huge numbers of marine mammals each year. We successfully campaigned for bans on dumping sewage sludge and toxic and nuclear waste, which has kept millions of tons of waste out of our oceans each year.

And we helped secure the moratorium on commercial whaling, which – despite continued whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland, has been instrumental in bringing several whale species back from the brink of extinction.  Today, whaling is no longer the biggest threat to whale populations – but it is certainly the most inexcusable, wasteful, and unacceptable.

That’s why we will not rest until Japan, Norway and Iceland end commercial whaling once and for all.

We made some real progress in 2011, which gives us new hope for the future. Responding to huge numbers of requests from people like you, the US Government stepped up pressure on Iceland. Next year, we’ll be working with coalition partners to complement the Obama administrations efforts by hitting the Icelandic whalers where it hurts – in their bank accounts.  We are confident that few US businesses will be willing to buy seafood from Icelandic companies that profit from whaling, and will keep you posted on what you can do to help spread the word.

Two of our activists faced felony charges and long prison sentences for their role in exposing the black-market whale meat trade in Japan, creating a public discussion in the Japanese media about the future of whaling. We have worked with members of Japan’s parliament to raise questions about government subsidies for the uneconomical and unpopular whaling operation. We expanded on this work in 2011, building a coalition of strong Japanese voices that will be increasingly difficult for the Japanese government to ignore.

Perhaps the best news for whale conservation in the last decade came out of the International Whaling Commission. After years of buying enough votes to keep the international community from closing the loophole on “research” whaling, the IWC passed a new reform package which will make it much more difficult for Japan to continue to manipulate votes. We will be working to take advantage of this change over the next couple years.

Unfortunately, commercial whaling isn’t quite gone yet. As I write, Japan’s fleet is headed for the Southern Ocean to slaughter minke and fin whales, and our work is not done. We are making progress, though, and the whalers are on the ropes. The fleet this year will be smaller, and the whaling season will be shorter. Opposition in Japan – and from the US government – is getting louder. The IWC is not quite as friendly to the last of the commercial whaling operations as it was last year. And Icelandic whalers have a lot to be nervous about right now as well.

Together, we can make my New Year’s wish – finally, an end to commercial whaling – come true at last.

Gearing up to kill over 1,000 whales in internationally protected waters, Japan’s senior vice-minister announced that Japan is “determined to continue the [whaling] program until it leads to the resumption of commercial whaling.”

But we can help stop it by asking President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to protect whales. We need the help of whale protectors like you to send 50,000 letters to President Obama this week.

Tell President Obama: There’s no more time to delay on your word. Stop the brutal slaughter of whales now.

It can take over an hour for a harpooned whale to be dragged until it dies. We can’t let it continue.

Now, in light of Japan’s declaration that it intends to kill even more whales, President Obama must make good on his promise. As the President himself put it, “allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable.”

We need the President to act before another whale is killed – and that means he needs to hear from you today. Thanks to your letters, the Obama administration has already taken important steps to save whales this year, standing up against vote-buying in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and imposing diplomatic sanctions on Iceland.

Starting today, the United States must help turn the IWC into a conservation body that protects whales, not whaling. The Administration needs to have bilateral talks with nations who are stalling reforms and work with other conservation-minded nations. It’s time to take a stand.

Please remind President Obama of his promise and ask him to save the whales.

We’ve made remarkable strides to save whales this year, and we’re not going to slide backward now and let Japan resume commercial whaling. We can end this senseless practice once and for all, but we need to stand together and speak up.

Thank you for protecting whales and the planet.

Philip Radford

Executive Director

Greenpeace USA

Yesterday we learned that once again Japan’s whaling fleet has left port and is heading to the International Whale Sanctuary in the Southern Ocean to continue its annual whale slaughter. With Japan still reeling from their recent earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disasters — to spend more taxpayer money to support their whaling program is nothing short of shameful. My Japanese colleague, Junichi Sato (Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan) had this to say as the fleet departed –  

“Not only is the whaling industry unable to survive without large increases in government handouts, now it’s siphoning money away from the victims of the March 11 triple disaster, at a time when they need it most. This is a new low for the shameful whaling industry and the callous politicians that support it. Japan’s whaling program is already a black mark on the country’s international reputation; the government should focus on recovery at home rather than continuing this shameful Antarctic whale hunt. It is time for the Japanese government to do the right thing by its people, the international community and the environment by committing to drop its financial support for the whaling industry for once and for all.”  

I fail to see how wasting taxpayer money on hunting whales in an International Whale Sanctuary can be seen as anything other than an international embarrassment.

Japan’s politicians that again supported increased subsidies to fund yet another year of needless whale slaughter have turned their backs on their own citizens and their ability to recovery from multiple disasters – their behavior is nothing short of shameful.

Photo: The Nisshin Maru factory ship, of the Japanese whaling fleet, departs Japan to head to the Southern Ocean to begin the whaling season of 2010-2011.

Yesterday President Obama took a step in the right direction to meet his campaign promise to work to end commercial whaling.

The President imposed diplomatic sanctions on Iceland over their commercial Fin whale hunting as recommended in July by the Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.

Together we can help save the whales – take action right now.