Dr. Seiji Ohsumi 28 December 1999
Director General
Institute of Cetacean Research
Tokyo Suisan Building
4-18 Toyomi-cho
Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0055
Japan

Dear Dr. Ohsumi:

We are in receipt of your letter of 27 December. As you acknowledge, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to which Japan is a Party obliges States to work with the appropriate international organizations for their conservation, management and study.

You claim that this obligation is "clearly met since Japan's research program is conducted in accordance with the terms of the ICRW and supported by the IWC's Scientific Committee." I am afraid that the facts do not support your interpretation. The IWC has repeatedly called for this program to be terminated, most recently at its 1999 meeting in Resolution IWC 1999 - 3, the operative part of which said: "REQUESTS that the Government of Japan refrain from issuing any permits in the 1999/2000 seasons for the take of minke whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and in the North Pacific Ocean." Far from supporting this program, when the Scientific Committee conducted a review of it in 1997 they found that the data produced by the program were 'not required for management'.

You are concerned that the Southern Ocean Sanctuary prohibits the commercial taking of whales 'irrespective of the conservation of status of baleen and toothed whales in this sanctuary'. It does so because a whale sanctuary, by its nature, prohibits all whaling within its limits. There is considerate precedent for this. The Indian Ocean Sanctuary, established in 1979 (which was respected by Japan) prohibited whaling 'irrespective of the classifications of baleen or toothed whale stocks in the Sanctuary'. When the IWC was established it inherited a sanctuary (called The Sanctuary) which covered 1/4 of the Southern Ocean where all whaling was prohibited. Its purpose was to protect healthy populations of whales and this was accepted by Japan.

Japan is thus flouting the requirements in Articles 65 and 120 not only that it co-operates with a view to the conservation of marine mammals but specifically that in the case of cetaceans in particular it works through the appropriate international organizations for the conservation, management and study. Your failure to observe and even accept the validity of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary as well as your continued hunting of whales shows that far from working through the IWC for conservation management and study, Japan is carrying out its whaling and its so-called scientific whaling program despite the IWC and its resolutions.

In fact, since the IWC has made this area a sanctuary, where commercial hunting is not allowed, your entire research program is without. foundation. Your claim that results from this program may have the potential to improve management of minke whales is thus irrelevant since what you mean by management is commercial hunting and the area has already been made a sanctuary from commercial hunting.

The illegal whaling activities have been compounded by poor seamanship. Already the Nisshin Maru has collided with the M/V Arctic Sunrise in breach of its obligations under the International Collision Regulations and Greenpeace holds the owners, charterers and all responsible parties liable for the consequences of the collision.

I note your statement that you are warning other vessels not to come within 2 miles of the Nisshin Maru. Our ships crew report that this message has been conveyed to them as the following throat broadcast over loudspeakers from the Nisshin Maru: "Stay 2 miles away for safety reasons or we will water you".

This represents an escalation in your willingness to breach maritime as well as international law and the basic tenets of seamanship. You have no right to declare an exclusion zone of 2 miles (or any other exclusion zone). All vessels enjoy the right of freedom of navigation on the high seas and any attempt to restrict this freedom would represent a breach of international and maritime law,

I note that these continuing violations are a result of your continued whaling activities. I call on you to immediately rescind this threat and cease and desist from your whaling activities forthwith,

Yours sincerely,
Thilo Bode
Executive Director
Greenpeace International

CC: Sanai Shida, Executive Director, Greenpeace Japan

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