14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday morning, four Greenpeace members climbed aboard a ship that was transporting whale meat to Japan. The activists had one goal in mind: keep the ship from continuing its journey while still carrying six containers filled with meat from fin whales.
Greenpeace explains that, due to overhunting, fin whales are presently listed as an endangered species.
Most countries have agreed to quit consuming their meat, yet a market for this “delicacy” is still up and running in Japan.
The meat shipped to this country often comes from Iceland, where whale hunting is not yet an illegal activity.
The ship that the Greenpeace activists boarded this July 10 was docked in Hamburg at the time when the peaceful protest began.
By the looks of it, the ship had already been given permission by local authorities to continue its journey towards Japan when the greenheads climbed onto its mooring lines and forced it to remain ashore.
“The authorities decided to let the shipment go. Activists had to take a stand, or stand by and let their country be used as a transit point for the commercial whale trade,” the organization details on its official website.
“That is why today, four activists climbed onto the ship's mooring lines. Activists in boats were also at the stern of the ship holding a banner which said: ‘Stoppt den Handel mit Walfleisch’ (Stop Trading in Whale Meat),” Greenpeace goes on to say.
When faced with this situation, Charter Unifeeder, the cargo company entrusted with transporting the whale meat to Japan, decided to cancel the shipment.
Greenpeace suspects that it did so not because the crew and their leaders had suddenly grown a consciousness, but because they were not in the mood to deal with the activists that had shown up aboard the ship.
“Suddenly, this was looking like more trouble than the cargo company, Charter Unifeeder, wanted. This shipment was canceled, the meat was not loaded, the activists came off the mooring lines, and the ship will leave port, short six containers of whale meat,” Greenpeace writes.
It appears that the whale meat that sparked this conundrum will be returned to Iceland.