29 March
2008 - International — The international
convention that helped save the elephant
and rhino from extinction at the hands of
poachers is now being ignored by the Japanese
Fisheries Agency to continue whaling in
the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
On January 22nd 2008,
we documented with photographs and video
the transfer of whale meat from the Japanese
registered factory whaling ship, the Nissin
Maru, to the Panamanian registered cargo
ship, the Oriental Bluebird.
Under the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), it is illegal
to trade animals and plants listed on Appendix
1 across international borders.
The Oriental Bluebird
has now docked in Tokyo Bay to unload it's
cargo of minke whale meat, completing the
international trade that started in the
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary over two
months ago.
Appendix 1 of CITES
lists nearly 900 plant and animal species
and includes all the 'great' whales like
humpback, fin and minke whales.
Japan has filed what
is known as a 'reservation' to the listing
of many whale species on Appendix 1, which
allows it to ignore some restrictions on
trade in minke whales. But, because Panama
has ratified the treaty without reservations,
it cannot commercially import or export
minke whale.
Transfering the whale
meat from the Japanese registered Nissin
Maru to the Panamanian registered Oriental
Bluebird, which then unloads the meat in
a Japanese port is therefore illegal under
both the rules of CITES and Panamanian law.
"Japan's research
whaling programme is a national embarrassment,"
said Greenpeace Japan Whales Project Leader
Junichi Sato, "it is riddled with illegalities
and instances where international law has
been bent, broken, and bypassed; it continues
to strain relations with our allies around
the world and tarnish Japan's reputation.
It's time for Japan to stop whaling in the
Southern Ocean forever."
The Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES) was set up in 1973 to
protect animals and plants against over-exploitation
through international trade.
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Lyle Thurston 1937 -
2008
31 March 2008 - Vancouver,
Canada — Lyle Thurston, one of 12 crewmembers
on the original Greenpeace campaign, died
of pneumonia at the age of 70 in Victoria,
BC, Canada, March 26, 2008. "Doc"
Thurston - a medical doctor, patron of the
arts, and lifetime environmental advocate
- served as medic on the Phyllis Cormack
in 1971, the first Greenpeace campaign,
a protest against the US nuclear test in
the Aleutian Islands.
Thurston first met fellow
Greenpeace founder Bob Hunter in 1969, when
Hunter wrote a newspaper column about Thurston's
free medical services to Vancouver youth
who had overdosed on drugs. Thurston would
set up a medical tent at outdoor rock concerts,
staffed with nurses and doctors. He became
known in the community, and people would
bring drug overdose cases to his office
or home at any time of night or day. He
closed his medical practice for two months
in 1971 to join Hunter and the others on
the first Greenpeace campaign.
Thurston grew up in
Yorkton, Saskatchewan, earned a medical
degree at the University of Saskatchewan
in Saskatoon, and began his practice at
a clinic on a native Cree reservation. He
learned sign language to communicate with
deaf and mute children in the rural community.
He had a life-long love for classical music
and ballet, and was a generous patron of
the classical arts.
Thurston, a serious
environmental activist, also knew how to
make protest fun. He became famous for hosting
extraordinary parties, during which he would
recruit volunteers for his public projects.
He attracted many others to Greenpeace,
including Davie Gibbons, Greenpeace's lawyer
in the 1970s; Dr. Myron Macdonald, a medic
on Greenpeace whale campaigns; and Bobbi
Innes, who later married Bob Hunter and
established the first public Greenpeace
office. Hunter once said of Thurston, "He
always made new recruits feel welcome, and
knew how to make protest fun. Thurston knew
how to lift people's spirits."
During the 1971 campaign,
Thurston's exuberance led to unexpected
good fortune. While taking wheelhouse watch
with Bob Hunter one night, Thurston brought
his tape deck and played Beethoven and the
Moody Blues through the night. Inadvertently,
Thurston set the tape recorder near the
ship's compass, throwing the compass needle
off. Throughout the night, with Thurston
conducting the music, Hunter unknowingly
steered the ship 90 miles off course. What
seemed at first to be an embarrassing mistake
turned auspicious because the US Coast guard
lost track of the Greenpeace ship and had
to scramble a C-130 Hercules aircraft to
find it.
During the second Greenpeace
campaign, to stop French nuclear testing
in the South Pacific, Thurston again closed
his medical practice and set up in Europe,
where he led rallies in London, Paris, and
Rome. He carried the Greenpeace flag into
the Vatican and serendipitously met Pope
Paul VI, who blessed the flag. He helped
established the first Greenpeace group in
London when he appeared on the BBC with
local supporters in a 3-way radio link with
Greenpeace Chairman Ben Metcalf in Vancouver
and skipper David McTaggart in New Zealand.
On the first Greenpeace
whale campaign, in 1975, Thurston flew to
Winter Harbour to attend to a crewmember,
who had experienced an emotional breakdown,
but refused to leave the boat. Thurston
recalled: "I laced a sandwich with
stelazine (a tranquillizer), and lowered
it into the hold, where Bob Hunter was attempting
to coax him out. The patient refused the
sandwich, so Hunter ate it and passed out."
Thurston then went into the hold and, with
his compassionate bedside manner, convinced
the troubled crewman to accept a tranquilizer,
and then accompanied him to the hospital.
Thurston was a co-founder
of Greenpeace International in 1979, as
he encouraged others to set aside the original
legal structure and adopt a new international
Board of Directors.
His friend of forty
years, Dr. Myron Macdonald, recalls, "He
streaked like a meteor through our lives
and by God it was never dull. He gave me
the gift of appreciation of classical music,
opera, and the fine arts. Looking back,
I realize that he was instrumental in putting
together almost all of my closest friendships."
Thurston suffered a
serious accident in 1980, when a bicyclist
hit him as he crossed the street in front
of his Vancouver office. He never fully
recovered and closed his medical practice,
but he continued offering free medical services
to those in need and working occasionally
with Greenpeace. He lived his life with
a sense of duty to serve others, and with
a sense of joy that roused others. He is
survived by his mother and missed by his
many friends and colleagues.
Rex Weyler
