"UNITED AGAINST WHALING"
"Over the last 20 years Greenpeace has been taking direct action to stop the barbarous slaughter of whales. Despite David Day's misleading article, Greenpeace's commitment to this cause is now stronger than ever. Greenpeace is opposed to all commercial whaling and would never support any system which would authorise quotas to kill whales, like the so-called Revised Management Procedure, which is due for discussion at this year's international Whaling Commission. Our objective is to ensure that the RMP can never be implemented. Instead Greenpeace wants the commission to consider threats to whales such as global warming and toxic pollution and to consider positive issues like the economic benefits of whale watching."
(Peter Melchett, Executive Director, Greenpeace UK, letter to the editor, DAILY MAIL, 19.05.94)

Greenpeace does not oppose subsistence hunts for seals by native Greenlandics. We do, however, continue to oppose commercial sealing. We understand that the seal garments worn by Danish athletes do not represent an effort to develop a commercial market, but rather are being displayed to promote the importance of Greenlandic culture to the Danish peoples.
(Statement form Greenpeace International January 1992)

"Greenpeace does not oppose sealing which is done primarily for subsistence purposes. We do, however, continue to oppose commercial sealing, and would oppose any attempts by the Danish government or the Greenland government to exploit this expression of cultural solidarity in order to develop a commercial seal hunt. Thus, we do not support the Danish Olympic team wearing sealskins coats."
(Letter from Greenpeace to the Danish ambassy in the US, Feb. 1992)

"At the time I'm sure growth was important to Greenpeace. Greenpeace was an insignificant organisation and I found it legitimate to use a sweet animal with big eyes."
(Wolfgang Fischer, Greenpeace Germany, leader of their seal campaign until 1987, Bayrischer Rundfunk, January 15, 1990.)

"As a natural scientist I cannot accept that Greenpeace is opposed to whaling. One must be allowed to harvest a renewable resource. To me, this is an important principle, and I have taken the consequences of it by resigning." (Leif Ryvarden, former chairman of Greenpeace Norway and Professor of Biology at the University of Oslo. From an interview in the newspaper Dagbladet, August 2, 1991.)

"No whaling, not now, not ever."
(Greenpeace press release, Glasgow May, 1992.)

"The 1993 minke whale harvest did not constitute a threat to the stock", proclaimed Greenpeace spokeswoman Ingrid Bertinussen to an incredulous Norwegian audience on Norwegian radio (NRK) on October 22, 1993. She repeated the statement in several newspaper interviews, this time insisting that should the harvest continue, Norway would press the quota up to an unacceptably high level. She also stated that Greenpeace would call off boycott campaigns against Norway in the event of the IWC granting Norway quotas.

"The history of whaling and all the IWC whaling procedures, until present, demonstrate that there are no systems that do not deplete and thus endanger the whale stocks. Commercial whaling will for the whaling nations only be profitable when conducted on a large scale, which might lead to the extinction of whole whale populations ..... Greenpeace demands that the discussion of a new managment system - and all plans for the resumption of commercial whaling - are halted once and for all."
(Greenpeace Germany, 1991, position paper in connection with the 43. conference of the International Whaling Commisson)

GREENPEACE - GENERAL SEAL POLICY

• Greenpeace is opposed to the killing of any seal from endangered or threatened populations.
• Greenpeace is opposed to the killing of any seal done primarily for sale to national and international meat (animal and human food), fur, leather, oil or other markets.
• Greenpeace is not opposed to the killing of seals done primarily for survival, i.e. that the meat is consumed and the pelt utilised by the family group or community, except from endangered or threatened populations.
• Greenpeace is opposed to the killing and bounty hunting of seals done in the name of protecting fish stocks.