BERLIN, Germany, March 18, 2002 (ENS) - Anti-whaling demonstrators are making their views known at the International Tourism Exchange ITB Berlin taking place this week. From March 16 to 20 more than 10,000 exhibitors from around the world showcase their offerings to tourists and the industry at the leading trade fair for the global tourism industry.

The European Community on Protection of Marine Life (ECOP) is asking the tourists of the world not to visit the tourist attractions of whaling nations. The group is engaged in an email campaign to gather support a boycott of holiday visits to whaling nations.

Japan's booth at ITB Berlin (Photo courtesy Asia Travel Tips)

They will be demonstrating at ITB Berlin and are asking for public support.

"This also should be the message from you, which the representatives of Japan, Norway and Denmark (Faroe-Islands) should - together with empty order books - carry home to their states. Again and again everybody has to do this and as long as the slaughter of the whales is not stopped," the group says in its email appeal.

"All whaling nations have one common denominator," ECOP says. "They ignore the wish of the vast majority of the world population, which demands to just leave the whales in peace."

ECOP is outraged by the behavior of whaling nations, particularly Japan, which it terms the Whale Killer No. One, the "world-wide the driving force behind the ongoing whale slaughter."

The Japanese exhibit at ITB Berlin can be found at Hall 26a, Stand Nr. 19, and ECOP wants demonstrators to show up there to express their opposition to whaling.

"The international prohibition to kill whales is circumvented by Japan under the disguise of 'science,'" ECOP says. "The Japanese just laugh about the International Whaling Commission, while they are shooting these peaceful sea mammals by firing explosive harpoons from high-tec cannons into endangered whales."

"Every year Japan does send its floating slaughterhouses into the internationally recognized protection areas of the Antarctic. Even there the Japanese kill hundreds of protected whales and show no respect whatsoever for the calls by the international community to protect the whales. Japan shows clearly that it simply doesn't care about what the humane global community wants," ECOP warns.

The Faeroe Islands, exhibiting at ITB Berlin in Hall 18, Stand Nr. 08, are responsible for "the most cruel whale massacres" in the world, ECOP says. "Every year more than 1,000 pilot whales are slaughtered around these islands without any need or necessity."

Pilot whale hunt in the Faeroe Islands, Denmark (Photo courtesy ECOP)

The Faeroe Islands are a semi-autonomous protectorate under the European Union State of Denmark.

"Whole family pods of whales are driven by motorboats into flat bays, where their heads are severed with long machetes, while the whales are fully conscious. Though such cruel deeds are strictly prohibited in any state of the European Union, the government of Denmark does simply nothing to stop that blood bath," the group charges.

Norway, exhibiting in Hall 18, Stand Nr. 31/1, "continuously ignores since 1986 the internationally agreed moratorium to stop any commercial whaling and slaughters every year hundreds of minke whales. Norway just permits itself and determines its own whaling quota,"ECOP points out. "International agreements are pushed aside by Norway without any hesitation."

ECOP is pleading with tourists everywhere to, "Show your outrage to these countries and to their associates in tourism concerning the continuous slaughter of the whales, those gentle and intelligent giants of the marine world and please let these states know your clear opinion. Please do show also your responsible position as visitor, travel agent, tourism promoter or as head of a tourism corporation with your boycott of these states. Just throw the destinations Japan, Norway, Faroe, and Denmark out from your travel program."

ECOP is one of the groups affiliated with EcoTerra International, a non-governmental organization registered in Kenya.

EcoTerra's mandate is to care for the natural environment and to improve environmental, nature's, human and civil rights. "We act in the spirit of the consequent realization of the World Charter for Nature, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as other international conventions caring for life on earth."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved.