SeaWorld's corporate parent wants President Barack Obama and the U.S. government to put pressure on Japan to shut down the commercial whaling industry in that country.
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment President and CEO Joel Manby and Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of
The Humane Society of the United States, signed a letter sent to Obama.
"During the last several years, Japan has flouted international law and world opinion concerning whaling, without any meaningful diplomatic consequences, and the situation is getting worse," the letter says.
"The United States is well-positioned to lead a comprehensive effort to persuade Japan to abandon commercial whaling as an anachronism that is imprudent, unnecessary for food security and economically unsound."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in Washington, D.C., for the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit.
In the letter, Manby and Pacelle recommend that the U.S. government take a stronger stand against whaling during the International Whaling Commission meeting in October; advance the case against whaling in all trade agreements; and that the U.S. Commerce Department carry out an extensive survey of Japan's assets to prepare for a new certification in relation to the federal Pelly Amendment, which involves fish protection.
SeaWorld announced last month that it will no longer breed killer whales in captivity.
