WHALING: Whether you see whales as serene and spiritual or a good source of sushi may depend on your cultural background, as propaganda for both sides of the debate raging at the IWC meeting showed.
"These peaceful animals that embody huge amounts of the history of humanity must be respected, must be allowed to have the same right to life as us 'humans'," said Brigitte Bardot in a brochure aimed at IWC delegates.
The view of the French film star-turned-animal rights activist contrasts starkly with those of Japanese hunters who are trying to overturn an 18-year-old ban on commercial whaling.
"Wow! Whaling vessels are cool!" proclaims a cartoon Japanese boy in a pro-whaling leaflet. On another page, the boy is shown crying in pain as a Pokemon-style monster representing the IWC taunts him with an anti-whaling resolution and a picture of a piece of whalemeat on a rice cake.
"See how tasty it looks? But I'm not going to give you any!" says the demon. "How can you be so cruel?" sobs the boy.
A Japanese poster available for delegates to take home pinpoints the tastiest parts of whales used to make such delicacies as "pickled cartilage", "jellied fluke" and "whale bacon".
A leaflet from the Humane Society of the United States offers a less appetising picture, of whalers clad in rubber boots, overalls and helmets cutting up a whale carcass on a ship's deck drenched in blood.
