A Cure for What Whales Ya

Five major food firms dump shares in whaling operator

The Gorton's fisherman is going cold turkey on whale meat. Five major food companies, including Japanese seafood giant Nissui -- the owner of Gorton's -- announced that they are ending support for Japanese whaling by dumping their one-third share in Kyodo Senpaku, the largest operator of whaling ships in Japan. Nissui says the divestment is just a reorganization of assets, but the move is coming in the wake of an intense anti-whaling campaign by Greenpeace, which included organizing thousands of protest emails to the companies, as well as confronting whalers at sea. "After only a few months of consumer protest, the fragile commercial interest in whaling has collapsed," exulted Greenpeace. The picture still seems dicey for the hunted cetaceans, however: apparently Japan's government-backed "scientific whaling" operator, the Institute of Cetacean Research, is buying up many of the shares and has vowed to keep up the kill.