Adrian Sanders

MP for Torbay Adrian Sanders has today written to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) demanding that the Government raises the findings of a report on the legality of recent Japanese's whale hunts.

The Japanese currently defend their whale hunting by arguing that it is done primarily for 'scientific purposes'. However, a panel of legal experts was recently assembled in London by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to examine the legality of killing those whale species included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The panel reported that Japan had, in its hunting of Sei Whales in the North Pacific and its proposed hunt of humpback whales in the Southern Ocean, contravened a number of its obligations under the CITES Convention . Furthermore the Panel found that the hunting of these and other whales was for primarily commercial purposes, undermining Japan's claim that they only hunt whales for primarily scientific reasons.

Adrian has written to the DEFRA Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, asking that the Government raise the reports findings at this years annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission in June. He has also asked Mr Benn to push for a formal investigation by the standing committee of CITES into Japan's breaches of the convention.

Adrian commented:

"This Government has a duty to exert all possible pressure to prevent the Japanese hunting whales for commercial gain. The International Whaling Convention is the ideal place for the UK Government to raise this reports findings and to ensure that this barbaric practice is halted once and for all".

Sanders: 'Government must Pressure Japanese on Illegal Whaling'