Glenn Inwood

Glenn Inwood is the founder of Omeka Public Relations, a small PR firm based in Wellington, New Zealand. He is the spokesperson for the Institute of Cetacean Research, a Japanese government created entity which promotes the resumption of commercial whaling.

Background
A biographical note on his company's website states that he "has written and edited for newspapers that include the Christchurch Star, The Press in Christchurch and the Evening Post in Wellington, and produced Radio New Zealand's flagship programme Morning Report".

It also states that in 2000 he won an award from the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand for "Stop The Wall", "a campaign on behalf of Waterfront Watch, Wellington. (Winner of PRINZ Crisis Communications Award and PRINZ Supreme Award 2000)".

Inwood and the World Council of Whalers
In September 2000 Inwood was working four days a week as a press secretary for Lianne Dalziel, who was Immigration Minister in the New Zealand Labour Party government. The other day a week it was reported that Inwood worked for Morris Communications, where he was working on the account of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission. The Fisheries Commission was hosting the 3rd Annual General Assembly of the World Council of Whalers in Nelson in November 2000. After Inwood's dual role as a Ministerial press adviser and speaker at a pro-whaling conference was raised in parliament, Prime Minister Helen Clark directed that Inwood not attend. On September 28, 2000 Inwood resigned his position as Dalziel's press adviser.

One of the other speakers at the WCW conference was Eugene LaPointe, from the International Wildlife Management Consortium. In conjunction with the WCW conference, an inaugural general assembly of the Sustainable Use Parliamentarians Union (SUPU) was held and chaired by then U.S. Congressman Richard Pombo.

Working for the whalers
In March 2003, Inwood was the organiser of a tour of Australasia by the former secretary of the International Whaling Commission, Dr Ray Gambell, who was urging an end to the moratorium on commercial whaling. The tour was sponsored by the World Council of Whalers. The New Zealand Herald identified Inwood as a PR consultant to the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission and Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), the Japanese agency which is responsible for its commercial whaling operations.

In January 2006 the New Zealand Herald reported that Inwood also works for Te Ohu Kaimoana, "the sole voting shareholder in Aotearoa Fisheries (AFL), which owns a 50 per cent shareholding in Sealord. The other half-share in Sealord is owned by the Japanese company, Nissui, which is a major shareholder in Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet.

Ady Gil v. Shonan Maru No. 2
In early January 2010, Sea Sheperd Conservation Society filed a piracy complaint in the Netherlands against the captain and crew of a Japanese whaling vessel. The filing came after the bow of the Sea Sheperd Conservation Society’s Ady Gil was sheared off in a collision with a far larger Japanese whaling vessel, Shonan Maru No. 2. Sea Shepherd also filed a charge of attempted murder in New Zealand as that is where the Ady Gil is registered. Inwood, the New Zealand-based spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, which oversees the whaling fleet, dismissed the filing as a publicity stunt: "They have no real basis here for filing any claims at all, especially of piracy," Inwood told the AP. "The chances of them winning anything, the odds are well against it -- noting that they were in the wrong for the incidents to start with."

Contact details
Omeka Public Relations PO Box 12-490 Thorndon, Wellington New Zealand Phone: +64 21 498 010 Fax: +64 21 787 570 Email: omeka AT omeka.com

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Omeka Public Relations

External articles

 * Press Secretary Banned from attending Whaling Conference, September 29, 2000.
 * Ainsley Thomson and Ruth Berry, "Sealord's whaling link 'could harm NZ stand'", New Zealand Herald, January 16, 2006.
 * Simon Collins, "NZ out to counter Japanese 'vote buying", New Zealand Herald, March 18, 2003.
 * Dave and Sara, on the Esperanza, "Sorry Mr. Inwood, could you say that again?", Greenpeace Defending Our Oceans Crew and Activist blog, February 22, 2007.
 * Ben Cubby, "A Maori voice for a Japanese cause," Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, 2008.
 * Captain Paul Watson, "A Kiwi Corporate Whore in the Land of the Rising Sun," Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, February 9, 2009.