Activists in Ulsan protest
Korean plans to return to whaling.
08/04/2005 — Ulsan, host city of this year's
International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting,
is enthusiastically building a whale museum
and a brand new marine park in anticipation.
But we have uncovered plans, noticeably absent
from the Ulsan council's bright and cheery
website, that include a whale meat factory
and whale burial ground. Is this the "city
for whales", as they like to say, or
the "city for whaling"?
We have set up a protest camp, or 'Whale
Embassy', at the proposed whale meat factory
site, working together with activists from
the Korean Federation for Environment Movement
(KFEM). The whale museum with its prominently
displayed harpoon boat, and a street of whale
meat restaurants, overlook the site which
is covered in piles of rocky soil, since the
marine park is still under construction. A
12 metre high beacon towers above the camp
as a symbol of the danger for whales. Scattered
around the rocks are large wooden whale flukes
symbolising gravestones in the "whale
burial ground".
The Embassy itself consists of a large green
dome, inside of which we have information
on the plight of whales and our own alternative
"whale museum". The dome is flanked
by two huge inflatable whales, which have
drawn a lot of bemused stares from local joggers
and restaurant-owners across the street.
For their part, officials say that Korea
has not yet decided whether or not it will
vote to resume whaling at this years' IWC.
"Why would the South Korean government
invest in a brand new whale and dolphin meat
processing factory unless it's already decided
to rebuild its whaling industry? Let them
deny it if it's not true," said Jim Wickens,
our oceans campaigner, from the protest camp.
The hunting of whales is banned internationally
but the South Korean government currently
sanctions a national trade in the meat of
whales and dolphins that are caught accidentally
in nets. However, government statistics show
around a hundred times more whales are "accidentally"
caught in Korea than in countries that do
not have a domestic whale meat market. Scientists
believe that even the most populous whale
species in Korean waters, minke whales, are
in serious decline because of this trade.
It's not just foreigners to Korea who feel
that it's time for whaling to be put in the
past for good. Ye-Yong Choi, from KFEM, said:
"Whales in Korea's oceans, like whales
everywhere, need urgent protection. History
shows us that killing them in the name of
science or commerce will lead to their demise.
Instead of repeating the mistakes of the past,
let's protect our ocean life and make our
seas a whale sanctuary, instead of a whale
cemetery."
