CHESTERFIELD MP PAUL HOLMES ADOPTS A HUMPBACK WHALE UNDER THREAT FROM JAPANESE HARPOONS

12.00.00am GMT Tue 4th Dec 2007

Chesterfield MP Paul Holmes has adopted a humpback whale to show his opposition to Japanese whaling.

Paul Holmes accepted an invitation from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), to adopt humpback whale Lolita to demonstrate his support for IFAW's efforts to protect this vulnerable species, now being targeted by Japan's whaling fleet in an internationally recognised whale sanctuary.

The threatened humpback has been protected from whaling for more than four decades after being driven to near extinction by commercial whaling during the last century. Despite this, Japan has now added 50 humpbacks to its target list as it sails towards the Southern Ocean Sanctuary in Antarctica to hunt the humpbacks plus almost 1,000 other whales.

Japan claims its expanding annual whale hunts are for "scientific" purposes, but little science has been produced and the whale meat is put on sale in restaurants and supermarkets.

Robbie Marsland, Director of IFAW UK, said: "IFAW is very grateful to Paul Holmes for showing his support for the whales. Whaling is inherently cruel - there is simply no humane way to kill a whale.

"Our scientists have analysed footage of Japanese whaling which shows whales taking over half an hour to die a very slow and agonising death. We urge the UK Government and other anti-whaling nations to take diplomatic action at the highest levels to protect whales."

Paul Holmes MP said: "I am very happy to support IFAW's campaign to protect the whales by adopting Lolita. Whaling is cruel and unnecessary."

New findings from international legal experts in recent weeks have challenged Japan's claim that its expanding whaling programme is legal under international law. Legal analyses by international panels of independent legal experts convened in Paris and London have found Japan's expanding whaling operations to be in violation of International Whaling Commission (IWC) regulations and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

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For more information please contact Clare Sterling in the IFAW Press Office on 020 7587 6708, mobile 07917 507717, or email csterling@ifaw.org

Alternatively visit www.ifaw.org

Notes to Editors: A global moratorium on commercial whaling was adopted by the IWC in 1986. Japan's self-allocated "scientific" whaling quota for 2007/8 includes more than 1,400 whales of seven different species: Antarctic minke, common minke, fin, sei, Brydes, sperm and humpback whales from the North Pacific and the waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica, established by the IWC in 1994.