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New government marine wildlife code to help reduce dolphin disturbance

The launch today by UK Government of new guidance on how to act responsibly around...

UK government to extend ivory ban to stop the sale of orca teeth

Following the UK ban on the import, export and dealing of elephant ivory in 2022,...

Dead whale beauty products to be sold in Japanese vending machine stores

Antarctic minke whale alongside Japanese whaling ship. Photo © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert Japanese whale hunting company,...

Arrests made following illegal whale meat smuggling from Japan to South Korea

Customs authorities in Busan, South Korea, have arrested six people for allegedly smuggling at least...

WDC briefs IWC Commissioners on whale meat discovery

Days before The 66th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)  opened in Slovenia, we exposed the illegal sale of canned whale products by Japanese online company, Japan Trend Shop, to overseas customers, including in the UK, EU and USA.  The shop’s website promises worldwide express shipping, incredibly even telling buyers ‘If you still have some environmental concerns, rest assured that the meat contained in this product comes from animals that have been killed as part of scientific research.’

Two days later, we discovered the same canned whale meat product was listed on EBay US as recently as 06th October 2016. (The item is listed as ‘no longer available’ but if you scroll down, the original listing is clearly visible.)

This discovery is especially timely as IWC Commissioners are today discussing Japan’s so-called ‘scientific’ whaling and the discovery will put extra pressure upon Japanese delegates since once again, it lays bare Japanese assertions that their whaling is not for commercial purposes. WDC staff attending the IWC meeting were able to give a short verbal presentation of our findings to assembled Commissioners and other delegates.

Full details of our findings can be found here 

About Vanessa Williams-Grey

Policy manager - Stop Whaling and Responsible Whale Watching