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Best-of-the-Best Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award, 2007
Awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
 
Montreal Protocol Partners Award, 2007
Awarded by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in recognition of ten years undercover work on illicit trade in chemicals that damage the ozone layer.
 
BBC TV Lifetime Achievement Award, 2003
Awarded to EIA’s president for his work to protect whales.
 
Global 500 Roll of Honor, 2001
Awarded by the United Nations Environment Program for “outstanding contributions to the protection of the environment.”
 
Albert Schweitzer Award, 1991
Awarded by the late U.S. Senator John Heinz to EIA’s co-founders for exposing the trade in poached elephant ivory.
 

 

Despite a global whaling ban, the survival of whales, dolphins and porpoises continues to be threatened by commercial trade, pollution, over-fishing and depletion of the ozone layer.

Japan is the main trading culprit. The country’s government continues to authorize hunting of more than 1,000 great whales a year – under the guise of “scientific whaling.” It also has regularly authorized the annual killing of an estimated 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales – collectively known as small cetaceans – in poorly regulated and unsustainable coastal hunts. The meat is then sold to supermarkets and restaurants across the country.

EIA’s whales, dolphins and porpoises campaign focuses on bringing this cruel, unnecessary and ecologically unsustainable trade to an end. By persuading brand name U.S. frozen foods and major retail companies to put pressure on their Japan-based parent corporations to stop stocking whale meat, we have succeeded in significantly curbing cetacean products sale and consumption. In just six years, three of Japan’s four top supermarket chains, and the country’s three largest former whaling companies, have significantly reduced their role in the industry as a direct result of EIA’s investigative, public awareness and advocacy work. These whaling companies formerly churned out at least 30 million cans of whale meat a year.

For more than two decades, EIA also has campaigned internationally – working with sympathetic governments and at the International Whaling Commission – for new policies to end Japan’s commercial whaling and protect small cetaceans and threatened whale habitat.



Our approaches to the brand name, customer-sensitive U.S. subsidiaries of Japan-based whaling companies and supermarkets have produced spectacular results. In 2006, an EIA-led campaign focused on Gorton’s of Gloucester resulted in the U.S. seafood giant’s parent company, Nippon Suisan, ending all sales of whale meat. Nippon Suisan, a large Japan-based fishing company, had been involved in commercial whaling for nearly 70 years and had produced 20 million cans of whale meat a year.
[ read report ]

In April 2007, EIA revealed a partnership between True World Foods – a major U.S. sushi meat supplier – and Kyokuyo, a leading Japan-based whale meat trading company. Our report, Raw Deal, received widespread U.S. media coverage. We leveraged this publicity by pressuring True World Foods to persuade Kyokuyo to stop selling whale meat in Japan.
[ read report ]

We work closely in our whale conservation efforts with two major U.S.-based international animal protection organizations: the Humane Society International (the international division of the Humane Society of the United States); and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

     
       
   
     
You are on the EIA–Washington site. Please visit the EIA–London site for additional information on EIA's global work.

EIA – Washington, DC
PO Box 53343, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel: +1 202 483-6621
Fax: +1 202 986-8626
www.eia-global.org
EIA – London
62/63 Upper Street, London N1 0NY, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7354 7960
Fax: +44 (0)20 7354 7961
www.eia-international.org

   
     
   
     


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