The Japanese fishing company which half owns Nelson-based Sealord fishing says it is getting out of the whaling business.
The move follows a campaign launched by Greenpeace in January pressuring Sealord to urge Nissui, Sealord's co-owner, to stop leasing vessels to the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR).
ICR is funded by the Japanese ministry of fisheries and Nissui has gifted all aspects of its operation involved with whaling to the Japanese government.
But Greenpeace is still not happy.
Nissui not only leased fishing vessels to whalers but it also processes and distributes whale meat, something a company representative says will end when present stocks are gone. But a spokesman for the Japanese whaling industry says Nissui bowing out will not affect Japan's plans to carry on whaling.
And while Greenpeace's latest advance in the war on whaling is cause for celebration, their campaign is not over yet.
