The Pacific Ocean is not what divides Pacific Islanders but instead what unites us and the Pacific Islands as a bloc needs to stand together now more than ever.
Once again the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets. This global forum meets to decide the fate of the last great marine mammals - whales. Last year's meeting in Alaska saw the importance of the ban on commercial whaling confirmed by a 40 to 2 vote that condemned Japan's so-called 'scientific' whaling program, and a bid by Japan to undertake coastal whaling withdrawn.
Unfortunately, a proposed whale sanctuary for the South Atlantic was also defeated aided by some Pacific Island members of the IWC.
The Japanese government's campaign to continue its whaling has reached the Pacific.
At last year's IWC meeting, five of the six Pacific Island member countries did not only let whales down but also refused to help preserve a big part of the Pacific Islands' regional culture.
The six member countries of the IWC are Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Republic of Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Palau and Nauru.
On a more positive note, six Pacific Island countries and regions have made their territorial waters whale sanctuaries, including Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue, Fiji and Australia.
In addition to these sanctuaries, New Zealand and Vanuatu have legislations in place that protects whales within their territorial waters while whales in the Kingdom of Tonga are protected by a Royal decree from the King.
To Japan, we say we love you but whaling breaks our heart. In Japan, after World War II whales were an important source of animal protein as meat was very scarce. These beautiful mammals saved the Japanese population from starvation and provided an important source of protein. Today the whales need Japan for its survival.
The Japanese government considers this an issue of national interest. But what is public opinion in Japan on the issue?
Most people outside of Japan tend to think the Japanese public supports whaling. And indeed, the Japanese government sometimes claims that 90 per cent of Japanese people want commercial whaling to resume. However, this is not true.
The Japanese public knows very little about its government's whaling program. A 2006 survey commissioned by Greenpeace Japan shows 92 per cent of the Japanese public do not know their government is killing more than 900 whales, some of which are endangered, in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Also, more than 95 per cent of Japanese people either have never eaten or very rarely eat whale meat. This is particularly true of younger Japanese people. And when asked about whaling in the future, 69 per cent people surveyed said they do not support whaling in the high seas.
The Japanese government's propaganda about the public's support for whaling is usually only communicated in English and to those outside of Japan. Just as we have the Southern Oceans Whale sanctuary in the Antarctic to protect whales, there is a "whalers sanctuary" within Japan that protects its own vested interests in whaling. The whalers sanctuary is a small group of nationalistic bureaucrats, whalers and elite politicians that keep Japan's whaling program going.
The whalers sanctuary is small. It is virtually unknown to the Japanese public. When it does attract some attention, which is often in the lead up to, or during, IWC meetings, it is well protected by a wall of nationalism. The Japanese government has cast the international community's criticisms of Japan's whaling program as attacks on Japanese culture by foreigners who are trying to tell Japan what to do. This propaganda works quite well for the Japanese media and the public.
As Japanese people remain indifferent to the issue, and as people outside of Japan get more furious, this wall of nationalism gets stronger.
The strong criticism from outside Japan, and the fact that there is virtually no market for whale meat within Japan, is not a problem for the whalers sanctuary. If, however, scrutiny and criticism from inside Japan were added to this mix, this small elite group would be in deep trouble.
The Japanese government has consistently claimed the whaling program, which has been going on for more than 20 years, is a lawful activity. Each year, it invests more than 500 million yen worth of Japanese tax dollars (approximately $US5million) in whaling. The government department responsible for the whaling program (the Fisheries Ministry), the body that manages the program's research activities (the Japan Institute of Cetacean Research) and the whaling vessels' charter company (Kyodo Senpaku) all claim this research is not only legal, but also based on credible science.
A recent Greenpeace undercover operation has further undermined the program's credibility. Greenpeace found evidence of the systematic, large scale smuggling of whale meat by crew on board the whaling factory ship, the Nisshin Maru.
During the course of the investigation, Greenpeace obtained a box of stolen whale meat as proof of corruption. The box contained 23.5kgs of salted whale meat. It was one of four, claimed to be "personal baggage" sent to a home address by a crew member on board the Nisshin Maru during the 2007/2008 Southern Ocean expedition. This box of whale meat was worth between 100,000 yen ($US1000) and 300,000 yen ($US3000). Further investigations established that more than 23 crewmembers sent at least 93 boxes of "personal baggage" to at least 30 destinations.
From the evidence and testimony of this investigation, it appears the theft of whale meat has been openly taking place over many years. When enquiries were made to the Fisheries Agency of Japan, which has jurisdiction over whale meat distribution, it claimed only officially sanctioned whale meat is offloaded from the Nisshin Maru. Given the scale and organised nature of the illegal activities uncovered by Greenpeace, it is not credible for officials from Kyodo Senpaku, the Institute of Cetacean Research and even the Fisheries Agency to deny knowledge of the fraud.
Greenpeace has filed a complaint with the Tokyo district Public Prosecutor's Office. In addition to the complaint, Greenpeace has demanded the Government of Japan begin an immediate investigation, remove the whaling permit and subsidies given to the Institute of Cetacean Research and issue no new licences to the whaling fleet operator, Kyodo Senpaku.
The Japanese government's relentless promotion of whaling is impacting Pacific Island countries. More than half of the world's whale species are found in the Pacific Ocean.
In the summer, the great whales in the Southern Hemisphere, including those of the South Pacific, migrate to the Antarctic to feed on plankton and small prawn-like creatures called krill. And during winter, they migrate to the warmer waters of the South Pacific to breed.
Here, many go for months without feeding, living on the stores of energy in their blubber. Only two great whales feed in the Pacific: Brydes whales that eat krill, and Sperm whales that mainly eat squid. Despite these facts Japan claims whales eat tuna, prompting some Pacific Island countries to fear for their principal resource. In actual fact whales do not pose a threat to tuna. Other fish and humans are tuna's two main predators in the Pacific.
Today, many whale species number only a fraction of what they once did. We must reverse the destruction of the past and coexist in a way that can benefit both whales and Pacific people. Whale species including the humpback, sperm, and right whales number only a quarter of what they once did and this decline in population must be brought to an end once and for all.
Pacific Island countries can also generate income from whale watching.
In Tonga alone, the total economic benefit from whale watching is estimated at more than $1million TOP a year.
Each humpback whale in Tonga's waters brings $30,000TOP in whale watching earnings each year, equaling about a whopping $1.6 million TOP during its 50-year lifetime.
It is important to remember that the Japanese government's policy on whaling cannot be viewed in isolation.
It is in fact part of a larger effort to secure unlimited access to global marine resources, in particular fisheries, and whaling is inextricably tied to the international fisheries agreements on which Japan so strongly depends.
Just as Forum Island countries have united on the regional tuna fishery, they must do so again not only for the benefit of the threatened whales stocks but in order for our oceans to maintain equilibrium in its biodiversity.
In complex marine ecosystems, removing whales could result in decreased fisheries capacity.
And Japan, if it is indeed a friend of the Pacific, must support more convincing scientific evidence.
Greenpeace's whale tagging results in the Cook Islands are a good starting point.
