Category: Animal Rights/Liberation

Japan Confirms Sea Shepherd Success in the Southern Ocean

Operation Zero Tolerance has been Sea Shepherd’s most effective campaign to date.

The Japan­ese Insti­tute for Cetacean Research, the front organ­i­sa­tion for Japan­ese ille­gal whal­ing activ­i­ties has released their kill records for 2012/

Operation Zero Tolerance has been Sea Shepherd’s most effective campaign to date.

The Japan­ese Insti­tute for Cetacean Research, the front organ­i­sa­tion for Japan­ese ille­gal whal­ing activ­i­ties has released their kill records for 2012/2013.

They want­ed 50 Hump­backs. They took none.

They want­ed 50 Fin whales. They took none.

They want­ed 935 Minke whales. They killed 103.

832 Minke whales not slain! 50 Hump­backs and 50 Fins not slaugh­tered!

Dur­ing the 2010–2011 Oper­a­tion No Com­pro­mise, the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet took 17% of their ille­gal self-allo­cat­ed quo­ta. Dur­ing the 2011–2012 Oper­a­tion Divine Wind, the Japan­ese whalers took 26% of their ille­gal self-allo­cat­ed quo­ta.

 103 Minke whales and zero Fin whales and zero Hump­back whales trans­lates into 9.96% of their com­bined quo­ta. The whalers took only 11% of their Minke whale quo­ta and zero per­cent of their Fin and Hump­back quo­ta.

These per­cent­ages trans­late into a finan­cial dis­as­ter for the Japan­ese whalers. The over­haul of Nis­shin Maru alone cost $24 mil­lion dol­lars. Out­fit­ting, fuelling and oper­at­ing costs added an addi­tion­al esti­mat­ed $11 mil­lion dol­lars. That fig­ure may be much high­er. Going on the con­ser­v­a­tive esti­mate of $35 mil­lion dol­lars, means that it cost the whalers a min­i­mum of $340,000 per whale. There are only two words to describe this, “eco­nom­ic luna­cy”. In addi­tion there is the loss of pres­tige and the anger of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty direct­ed at the Japan­ese peo­ple.

Sea Shep­herd would have reduced the killing much low­er if not for the suck­er punch deliv­ered at the eleventh hour by the Ninth Dis­trict Court of the Unit­ed States that effec­tive­ly knocked Sea Shep­herd USA out of Oper­a­tion Zero Tol­er­ance by grant­i­ng the Japan­ese whalers an injunc­tion against inter­ven­tion by Sea Shep­herd USA.

Sea Shep­herd Aus­tralia imme­di­ate­ly swept up the ban­ner, car­ried it down to the South­ern Ocean and deliv­ered the most deter­mined cam­paign ever mount­ed to shut down the unlaw­ful poach­ing activ­i­ties of the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet in the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary. Sea Shep­herd Aus­tralia pre­dict­ed that the take would not exceed 10% and the over­all take was indeed just under 10%.

“Sea Shep­herd Aus­tralia is elat­ed that we have deliv­ered the worst sea­son to date to these whale poach­ers from Japan. These poach­ers have shown a com­plete dis­re­gard for cetacean life, human life and Aus­tralian and Inter­na­tion­al law. By tar­get­ing pro­tect­ed and endan­gered whales in a whale sanc­tu­ary and risk­ing mas­sive oil spills in the pris­tine Antarc­tic wilder­ness, they are show­ing the world their con­tempt for ocean life and for the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty who has con­sis­tent­ly called for an end to whal­ing,” said Jeff Hansen, Sea Shep­herd Aus­tralia Direc­tor.

“One whale killed is still one whale killed too many. How­ev­er, today we cel­e­brate the fact that with courage and con­vic­tion in the face of great dan­ger and adver­si­ty, the brave crews of the four Sea Shep­herd ships were able to suc­cess­ful­ly pre­vent the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet from reach­ing more than nine­ty per­cent of their self-allo­cat­ed quo­ta. This has meant sav­ing the lives of 932 threat­ened, endan­gered and pro­tect­ed whales,” said Cap­tain Peter Ham­marst­edt.

“Nine years ago on Sea Shep­herd’s first Whale Defense cam­paign the lives of 85 whales were saved. At the con­clu­sion of the 9th Antarc­tic cam­paign, that num­ber has increased 11-fold to 932. Oper­a­tion Zero Tol­er­ance is by far Sea Shep­herd’s most suc­cess­ful cam­paign with the kill num­bers being the low­est since the ille­gal research-whal­ing pro­gram start­ed. It is a def­i­nite­ly an epic moment in Sea Shep­herd’s his­to­ry, how­ev­er it is an even big­ger one for the whales. Nev­er has the sanc­tu­ary been more peace­ful. While the crews and the ships bore the brunt of the vio­lence at the hands of the Japan­ese Whal­ing Fleet, the whales were spared the har­poons,” said Cap­tain Sid­dharth Chakravar­ty.

 

Whaling fleet in chaos as scattered Japanese poachers abandon harpoon ship dangerously low on fuel.

MELBOURNE, Aus­tralia  — An anony­mous source with­in Korea has report­ed that the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet is in total dis­ar­ray, with Sea Shep­herd Australia’s ship the SSS Sam Simo

MELBOURNE, Aus­tralia  — An anony­mous source with­in Korea has report­ed that the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet is in total dis­ar­ray, with Sea Shep­herd Australia’s ship the SSS Sam Simon tail­ing the refu­elling tanker for the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet, the Pana­man­ian-reg­is­tered and South Kore­an-owned ves­sel Sun Lau­rel.  The Sam Simon plans to fol­low the Sun Lau­rel in hopes to track them straight to the Nis­shin Maru.

The source detailed that the Sun Lau­rel was only con­tract­ed to refu­el the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet until mid-Feb­ru­ary, but because Japan’s Whal­ing Pro­gram is so close­ly con­nect­ed to their com­mer­cial fish­ing inter­ests, they are using their clout with­in the fish­ing indus­try, attempt­ing to pres­sure the Sun Lau­rel to refu­el the whalers below 60° in Aus­trali­a’s Antarc­tic Ter­ri­to­ry, with the threat of black­list­ing the Sun Lau­rel from future con­tracts if they don’t abide.

Sea Shep­herd Aus­tralia Direc­tor, Jeff Hansen states, “The Yushin Maru is in a des­per­ate sit­u­a­tion, quite pos­si­bly unable to get to safe­ty in the event of an emer­gency. The Japan­ese whal­ing fleet would­n’t be in this predica­ment if they weren’t pari­ahs for their ille­gal whal­ing; unwel­come to refu­el in any land-based port with­out scruti­ny and banned from Aus­tralian ports, they must hire a refu­elling ves­sel sim­ply to be fuelled for their ille­gal poach­ing.  These poach­ers are in con­tempt of an Aus­tralian Fed­er­al Court rul­ing and should not be in the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary in the first place. The South Kore­an ves­sel, the Sun Lau­rel is sup­ply­ing fuel to the ille­gal oper­a­tions of the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet, which is akin to sup­ply­ing equip­ment to ele­phant poach­ers in Africa.”

Oper­a­tion Zero Tol­er­ance Co-Cam­paign Leader, Bob Brown stat­ed, “Once again, Japan’s whal­ing fleet is flout­ing inter­na­tion­al law. Now it is draw­ing in the Gov­ern­ment of South Korea, which so wise­ly decid­ed against whal­ing last year. South Korea should order this tanker to turn around and go home. Oth­er­wise it invites world con­dem­na­tion instead of the praise it so recent­ly enjoyed.”

The source report­ed that the Yushin Maru is sep­a­rat­ed from the fleet by hun­dreds of miles, very low on fuel and unable to pro­ceed unless refu­elled.  This indi­cates that the Yushin Maru has been total­ly aban­doned by the Nis­shin Maru and the rest of the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet in their hour of need.

Cap­tain of the SSS Steve Irwin, Sid­dharth Charkravar­ty recounts: “While in pur­suit of the Nis­shin Maru, the Steve Irwin picked up the Yushin Maru as a tail­ing ves­sel, rid­ing extreme­ly high out of the water, indi­cat­ing that they were very low on fuel.  A few days lat­er when the whalers tried to swap the Yushin Maru with a ful­ly fuelled Yushin Maru No. 3, the Steve Irwin instead chased the Yushin Maru in the oppo­site direc­tion of the whaler’s fac­to­ry ship for 150 miles.  Dur­ing this chase, the Yushin Maru was unable to reach their full speed of 20+ knots, but was bare­ly able to eke out 16–17 knots, con­firm­ing that they were low on fuel and hence run­ning at a more fuel-sav­ing speed.”  Since then, this Kore­an source reports, the Yushin Maru is con­serv­ing their mea­gre fuel stores and is unable to cov­er the ground between them and the Nis­shin Maru.

Rather than remain with their sis­ter ship, or even trans­fer fuel to them, the Yushin Maru No. 3 instead chose to aban­don the Yushin Maru in the treach­er­ous waters of the South­ern Ocean in order to chase the Sea Shep­herd ship Steve Irwin.

Sea Shep­herd Founder, Paul Wat­son says, “This action shows the neg­li­gence of the whal­ing com­man­der, not only for the sanc­ti­ty of the whales of the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary, but an utter and total dis­re­gard for the life and safe­ty of the crews who work on these death ships.  Last year, on Oper­a­tion Divine Wind, when one of Sea Shep­herd’s ships, the Brigitte Bar­dot, was com­pro­mised, we stopped our entire cam­paign to escort them to port and ensure their safe­ty.  It’s not sur­pris­ing that the whalers share no such cama­raderie for one anoth­er, since their entire motive for being in these waters is ruth­less greed.”

Cap­tain Peter Ham­marst­edt, aboard the SSS Bob Bark­er said, “Oper­a­tion Zero Tol­er­ance has had vic­to­ries in so many forms, from inter­cept­ing the whalers’ fuelling ves­sel, and thus cut­ting their sea­son, to pulling two-thirds of the fleets’ har­poon ships entire­ly out of oper­a­tion, and keep­ing the sole remain­ing har­poon­er with the fac­to­ry ship run­ning, stunt­ing their progress, and severe­ly lim­it­ing their abil­i­ty to poach Antarc­ti­ca’s pris­tine waters.  We also inter­cept­ed the whal­ing fleet before they had a chance to fire a sin­gle har­poon.”

The Bob Bark­er con­tin­ues to chase and hunt the whalers’ butcher­ing ship, the Nis­shin Maru, unen­cum­bered by a tail, and aid­ed by a fleet of aer­i­al scout­ing drones.

http://www.seashepherd.org.au/news-and-media/2013/02/10/japanese-whaling-fleet-abandons-harpoon-vessel-nearly-empty-on-fuel-1491

Sea Shepherd Activists Make January a “No Kill” Month

The month of Jan­u­ary, usu­al­ly the prime whale catch­ing month for the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet in the South­ern Ocean, has come and gone with­out the death of a sin­gle whale, says Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety Aus­tralia Direc­tor Jeff Hansen.

The month of Jan­u­ary, usu­al­ly the prime whale catch­ing month for the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet in the South­ern Ocean, has come and gone with­out the death of a sin­gle whale, says Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety Aus­tralia Direc­tor Jeff Hansen.

It is the inter­na­tion­al organization’s ninth Antarc­tic Whale Defense Cam­paign, Oper­a­tion Zero Tol­er­ance. This season’s cam­paign is under the direc­tion of Sea Shep­herd Aus­tralia, now that found­ing pres­i­dent Paul Wat­son has hand­ed author­i­ty to Hansen and for­mer Aus­tralian Greens leader and sen­a­tor Bob Brown.

Author­i­ty was trans­ferred in Decem­ber in com­pli­ance with a U.S. court restrain­ing order and after Watson’s escape last sum­mer from Ger­many, where he was detained on bail for pos­si­ble extra­di­tion to Cos­ta Rica.

The Sea Shep­herd fleet of four ships, one heli­copter, drones, and more than 120 vol­un­teer crew from around the world has to date suc­ceed­ed in keep­ing the four-ves­sel Japan­ese fleet of “research” whalers sep­a­rat­ed on the run, mak­ing it impos­si­ble for them to catch whales, Hansen says.

As an observ­er, Wat­son remains aboard the Sea Shep­herd ves­sel SSS Steve Irwin, named in hon­or of the late Aus­tralian nat­u­ral­ist and broad­cast­er.

Wat­son says he will “doc­u­ment the cam­paign” against Japan­ese whal­ing in Antarc­tic waters. The Steve Irwin is cap­tained this sea­son by for­mer first offi­cer Sid­dharth Chakravar­ty of India.

Now two inter­linked bat­tles are under­way – in the courts and at sea, where ships from both sides are maneu­ver­ing to block each oth­er.

On Jan­u­ary 31, the Japan­ese whal­ing secu­ri­ty ship Shonan Maru No. 2 entered the Aus­tralian Eco­nom­ic Exclu­sion Zone around Mac­quar­ie Island, chas­ing the Sea Shep­herd ship, the SSS Bob Bark­er.

The Bob Bark­er head­ed for World Her­itage list­ed Mac­quar­ie Island to lose the Shonan Maru No. 2 and escaped the Japan­ese ves­sel on Fri­day.

Cap­tain of the Bob Bark­er Peter Ham­marst­edt said, “The Shonan Maru No. 2 is an inte­gral part of the Japan­ese whal­ing pro­gram. On board are armed storm troop­ers from the Japan Coast Guard whose sole mis­sion is to vio­lent­ly pre­vent my crew of whale defend­ers, many of whom are Aus­tralian cit­i­zens, from uphold­ing Aus­tralian domes­tic law and inter­na­tion­al law pro­tect­ing whales.”

The Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment offi­cial­ly noti­fied the Japan­ese gov­ern­ment to order the Shonan Maru No. 2 to remain out­side of Aus­tralian ter­ri­to­r­i­al waters, includ­ing the waters around Mac­quar­ie Island.

Since 2008, the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet has been in con­tempt of an Aus­tralian Fed­er­al Court order that pro­hibits them from killing whales in Aus­tralian ter­ri­to­r­i­al waters. Despite the rul­ing, Japan’s Insti­tute for Cetacean Research announced that it intends to kill near­ly 1,000 minke and 50 endan­gered fin whales dur­ing its 2012/2013 whale-hunt­ing sea­son in the South­ern Ocean.

Only the Yushin Maru No. 2 remains with the fac­to­ry ship Nis­shin Maru and both ves­sels are far north of the whal­ing area and run­ning from con­ser­va­tion­ist ves­sels.

Co-Cam­paign Leader Bob Brown said, “The first 24 hours of con­tact with the whale poach­ers have been a vic­to­ry for Sea Shep­herd and a com­plete loss for the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet. I am delight­ed to report that not a sin­gle whale has been harmed so far.”

The speedy Sea Shep­herd ship Brigitte Bar­dot has chased the Japan­ese whaler Yushin Maru No. 3 some 300 miles to the south.

Today, a lawyer for the whalers is threat­en­ing the Sea Shep­herd with con­tempt of court action, claim­ing the Brigitte Bar­dot breached the order grant­ed by a U.S. appeals court that restrains Sea Shep­herd ves­sels from approach­ing with­in 500 yards of Japan­ese whalers.

The Decem­ber 17, 2012 injunc­tion issued in Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton by U.S. Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals states, “Defen­dants Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety and Paul Wat­son, and any par­ty act­ing in con­cert with them, are enjoined from phys­i­cal­ly attack­ing any ves­sel engaged by Plain­tiffs the Insti­tute of Cetacean Research, Kyo­do Sen­paku Kaisha, Ltd., Tomoyu­ki Ogawa or Toshiyu­ki Miu­ra in the South­ern Ocean or any per­son on any such ves­sel, or from nav­i­gat­ing in a man­ner that is like­ly to endan­ger the safe nav­i­ga­tion of any such ves­sel.”

Kyo­do Sen­paku Kaisha oper­ates the whal­ing fleet for the Insti­tute of Cetacean Research, a gov­ern­ment agency, while Ogawa and Miu­ra are believed to be senior offi­cers.

The injunc­tion responds to an appeal by the Insti­tute for Cetacean Research against the deci­sion of a U.S. Dis­trict Court judge, who refused to grant an injunc­tion.

The injunc­tion will remain in place until the court decides on the mer­its of the Japan­ese case oppos­ing Sea Shep­herd in Wash­ing­ton State, where the U.S. chap­ter of the group is based.

The whalers’ lawyer claims that, in vio­la­tion of the injunc­tion, the SSS Brigitte Bar­dot came with­in 20.25 yards of the Yushin Maru No. 3 on Jan­u­ary 29.

Today “The Age” reports that the group’s Mel­bourne lawyer takes the posi­tion that Sea Shep­herd Aus­tralia is respon­si­ble for the group’s Antarc­tic cam­paign and the Aus­tralian chap­ter is not sub­ject to the restrain­ing order of the U.S. court.

The U.S. Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety has no shares in, nor con­trol over, the Aus­tralian chap­ter, which is now run by Aus­tralians – Hansen and Bob Brown, the for­mer sen­a­tor and leader of the Aus­tralian Greens.

Wat­son was arrest­ed in Ger­many last May on a 10-year-old Cos­ta Rican war­rant, issued after a Sea Shep­herd ves­sel he com­mand­ed inter­cept­ed a Cos­ta Rican shark-finning ves­sel and was escort­ing it to a Cos­ta Rican port. The Guatemalan gov­ern­ment sent a gun­boat to force release of the shark fish­ing ves­sel, while Cos­ta Rica charged Wat­son with attempt­ed mur­der. Cos­ta Rica has since banned shark finning.

Wat­son jumped bail and left Ger­many on July 22, 2012, say­ing that the Cos­ta Rican war­rant was a maneu­ver intend­ed to deliv­er him to Japan.

At the request of Cos­ta Rica, Inter­pol has issued a Red Notice ask­ing for infor­ma­tion about the where­abouts of the 62-year-old who holds dual cit­i­zen­ship in the Unit­ed States and Cana­da.

Brown has been a con­ser­va­tion­ist for decades, both before and dur­ing the time he rep­re­sent­ed the state of Tas­ma­nia in Par­lia­ment.

“I am hon­ored to serve the great whales of the South­ern Ocean and Sea Shep­herd in this way,” Brown said. “My admi­ra­tion for Paul Wat­son is inverse­ly pro­por­tion­al to the Japan­ese government’s anger at Sea Shepherd’s suc­cess at pre­vent­ing the slaugh­ter of almost 4,000 whales in recent years.”

The Dis­cov­ery Channel’s Ani­mal Planet’s Emmy-nom­i­nat­ed show “Whale Wars” has doc­u­ment­ed the Sea Shepherd’s whale defense cam­paigns for the past five years and is also onboard this sea­son.

ALF/ELF sabotage road construction at Combe Haven

report­ed anony­mous­ly:

“Combe Haven. 7th-8th Jan­u­ary 2013.

Act­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the cam­paign against the Bex­hill-Hast­ings link road, activists sab­o­taged con­trac­tors attempts to force local wildlife to migrate away from the site of the pro­posed road.

report­ed anony­mous­ly:

“Combe Haven. 7th-8th Jan­u­ary 2013.

Act­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the cam­paign against the Bex­hill-Hast­ings link road, activists sab­o­taged con­trac­tors attempts to force local wildlife to migrate away from the site of the pro­posed road.

Wire mesh and wood­en doors cov­ered all but one entrance to each bad­ger sett in the area, in an attempt to encour­age the bad­gers to move into human-built setts pri­or to mat­ing sea­son. The mesh and doors sur­round­ing the bad­ger setts have since been dis­man­tled to encour­age the bad­gers to stay in their habi­tat of choice.

Newt-nets have also been set up by con­trac­tors with the same goal in mind, plas­tic sheet­ing staked along the route of the road a foot below and above ground, forc­ing newts, insects and oth­er small ani­mals out of the area. Thus these nets have also been attacked, torn out of the ground and
smashed.

Not only do these actions allow wild crea­tures to exist where they choose, but slows the build of the road, as the con­trac­tors attempt to green­wash their mind­less destruc­tion of ani­mal habi­tats and local nat­ur­al envi­ron­ments by ‘spar­ing the ani­mal’s lives’ in this man­ner and can­not pro­ceed with the road build­ing until they say they are cer­tain that the local wildlife has migrat­ed away from the site of eco­log­i­cal destruc­tion.

After wit­ness­ing the sur­vey­ors dis­may upon notic­ing the trashed nets, these acts of sab­o­tage will only con­tin­ue and increase in their sever­i­ty until those who choose con­ve­nience and prof­it over life have suf­fered at least equal­ly in their fight for the absolute con­trol and destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world.

ALF/ELF.”

OVER 50 PARTRIDGES FREED

“Over 50 par­tridges were boxed up from a breed­ing facil­i­ty and tak­en to a pub­lic wildlife reserve where shoot­ing is banned. Their release was quick and they all flew off into the night.

Until all are free! — Ani­mal-Lib­er­a­tion-Front”

“Over 50 par­tridges were boxed up from a breed­ing facil­i­ty and tak­en to a pub­lic wildlife reserve where shoot­ing is banned. Their release was quick and they all flew off into the night.

Until all are free! — Ani­mal-Lib­er­a­tion-Front”

SEVEN MORE DUCKS SAVED

“ALF break into fac­to­ry farm and lib­er­ate 7 Ayles­bury ducks who had no access to water. All have gone to good homes.

Until every cage is emp­ty,

The Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Front”

“ALF break into fac­to­ry farm and lib­er­ate 7 Ayles­bury ducks who had no access to water. All have gone to good homes.

Until every cage is emp­ty,

The Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Front”

ALF FREE 123 DUCKS FROM FACTORY FARM

“In Nor­folk UK on the 26th of August 2012 a cru­el fac­to­ry farm breed­ing ducks for meat in which they were fed on growth exhil­a­rat­ing chem­i­cals and have no access to water for swim­ming and liv­ing in their nat­ur­al way, had it’s fence cut open, doors smashed in and 123 pris­on­ers freed and sent to lov­ing tem­po­rary homes, soon to be freed back into the wild.

“In Nor­folk UK on the 26th of August 2012 a cru­el fac­to­ry farm breed­ing ducks for meat in which they were fed on growth exhil­a­rat­ing chem­i­cals and have no access to water for swim­ming and liv­ing in their nat­ur­al way, had it’s fence cut open, doors smashed in and 123 pris­on­ers freed and sent to lov­ing tem­po­rary homes, soon to be freed back into the wild.

This is not hard, all of you com­pas­sion­ate peo­ple CAN JUST DO THIS! Take action tonight. Hit them hard and hit them often right where it hurts. You do not have to be a nin­ja to lib­er­ate, you just need good bolt cut­ters, some strong box­es and homes offered by peo­ple you can trust.

Until all cages are emp­ty and all pris­on­ers freed from abuse and exploita­tion, we will con­tin­ue the war.

For Lib­er­ty and Jus­tice for all

The ALF”

 

Japan Dolphins Day 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 100–150 pro­test­ers held a ral­ly out­side the Embassy of Japan in Lon­don yes­ter­day (31st August 2012) to send a clear mes­sage to Japan on the eve of the Tai­ji dol­phin slaugh­ter sea­son- END THE UNNECESSARY & CRUEL MURDER OF DOLPHINS IN THE COVE. Sim­i­lar events were held at Japan­ese embassies around the world, with thou­sands of pas­sion­ate  peo­ple from all walks of life and of all ages com­ing togeth­er for the cause and cel­e­brat­ing lives of the beau­ti­ful and intel­li­gent crea­tures on Japan Dol­phins Day. We made a lot of noise and got a lot of atten­tion from embassy staff, secu­ri­ty and impor­tant­ly the pub­lic.

 

For more infor­ma­tion-

http://thecovemovie.com/

http://www.seashepherd.org/

http://savejapandolphins.org/

The Whalers Head Home!

March 8 2012

The Japan­ese Whal­ing Fleet Leaves the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary

Oper­a­tion Divine Wind is over! The Japan­ese whalers are going home!

March 8 2012

The Japan­ese Whal­ing Fleet Leaves the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary

Oper­a­tion Divine Wind is over! The Japan­ese whalers are going home!

The Japan­ese whal­ing fleet has left the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary and they are head­ing home.  “Once Cap­tain Peter Ham­mer­st­edt and his crew on the Bob Bark­er closed in on the Nis­shin Maru on March 5th, the whal­ing sea­son was effec­tive­ly over for the sea­son,” said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son on the Sea Shep­herd flag­ship Steve Irwin recent­ly returned and now berthed in Williamstown, Vic­to­ria, Aus­tralia.

Since March 1st, the Bob Bark­er has fol­lowed the Nis­shin Maru as they head­ed steadi­ly north­west­ward. The Japan­ese har­poon ves­sels have stopped tail­ing the Bob Bark­er. The fleet has left the waters of the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary, accord­ing to Cap­tain Peter Ham­marst­edt. The Japan­ese gov­ern­ment secu­ri­ty ves­sel, Shonan Maru #2, has been spot­ted by fish­ing ves­sels at thir­ty degrees South, which is due east of Bris­bane, Aus­tralia indi­cat­ing that the ves­sel is well on its way back to Japan.

It has been a long and dif­fi­cult cam­paign and although hand­i­capped by the tem­po­rary loss of the scout ves­sel the Brigitte Bar­dot, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Bark­er were able to chase the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet for more than 17,000 miles, giv­ing them lit­tle time to kill whales. In addi­tion, two of the three har­poon ves­sels spent more time tail­ing the two Sea Shep­herd ships than killing whales.

“The kill fig­ures will not be released by Japan until April, but in my opin­ion they will not get over 50% for cer­tain and my pre­dic­tion is it will not be above 30%. Not as good as last sea­son, but much bet­ter than all the pre­vi­ous years.”  Said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “It has been a suc­cess­ful cam­paign. There are hun­dreds of whales swim­ming free in the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary that would now be dead if we had not been down there for the last three months. That makes us very hap­py indeed.”

The Bob Bark­er will return to Hobart, Tas­ma­nia, the Brigitte Bar­dot is com­plet­ing repairs in Fre­man­tle, and the Steve Irwin is now berthed in Williamstown.

In Decem­ber 2012, if the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet returns to the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary the Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety will launch Oper­a­tion Cetacean Jus­tice with four ships, two heli­copters, four UAV (drones), and 120 vol­un­teers.

“If the Japan­ese whalers return, Sea Shep­herd will return. We are com­mit­ted to the defense of the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary.” Said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “No mat­ter how long it takes, no mat­ter how risky or expen­sive. The word “sanc­tu­ary” actu­al­ly means some­thing to us and that some­thing is worth fight­ing for.”

Eureka! The Whaling Fleet Has Been Found and Shut Down!

Cap­tain Paul Wat­son received a Sat phone call from Cap­tain Peter Ham­marst­edt, on the Bob Bark­er, at 2200 Hours (AEST) on March 5th.

“Eure­ka, Paul, we have the Nis­shin Maru in our sights!”

Cap­tain Paul Wat­son received a Sat phone call from Cap­tain Peter Ham­marst­edt, on the Bob Bark­er, at 2200 Hours (AEST) on March 5th.

“Eure­ka, Paul, we have the Nis­shin Maru in our sights!”

The Nis­shin Maru and her three dead­ly har­poon boats were found at 64 Degrees 59 Min­utes South and 130 Degrees 51 Min­utes East at Com­mon­wealth Bay, six­ty miles off the Antarc­tic Coast, inside the Aus­tralian Eco­nom­ic Exclu­sion Zone.

The Yushin Maru No. 3 had just arrived from tail­ing the Steve Irwin. Despite the three har­poon ves­sels deployed to inter­cept the Bob Bark­er, Cap­tain Ham­marst­edt slipped through their web and gained a visu­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion on the pri­ma­ry tar­get.

Two of the har­poon ves­sels were in pur­suit of whales. All whal­ing activ­i­ty stopped as the Nis­shin Maru began run­ning but the Bob Bark­er is faster and is gain­ing steadi­ly on the hat­ed fac­to­ry ship.

“We have her in our sights and she will not be able to out­run us,” said Bob Bark­er third mate, Vin­cent Burke, of Mel­bourne.

“We have kept them run­ning for two months and that has dis­rupt­ed their oper­a­tions con­sid­er­ably but now with the Bob Bark­er on their stern slip­way, whal­ing is effec­tive­ly shut down for 2012,” said Cap­tain Ham­marst­edt (27) from Swe­den.

The Japan­ese secu­ri­ty ship, Shonan Maru No. 2, is still tail­ing the Steve Irwin present­ly one day from the Bass Strait and is now 1600 nau­ti­cal miles away from the whal­ing fleet. The Steve Irwin suc­cess­ful­ly led the Shonan Maru No. 2 and the Yushin Maru No. 3 away from the Bob Bark­er to allow the Bob Bark­er to lose a tail­ing ves­sel. The key to find­ing the Nis­shin Maru was los­ing the tail­ing ship, and it worked.

“This has been a long and tough cam­paign, with the worst weath­er and ice con­di­tions that we have expe­ri­enced in the entire eight sea­sons we have ven­tured into the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary,” said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “But despite the tem­po­rary loss of our scout ship, the Brigitte Bar­dot, and our con­stant dogged pur­suit of the Nis­shin Maru, we have kept them on the run, tak­en two of their three har­poon ves­sels off the hunt for two months, severe­ly crip­pled their killing capa­bil­i­ties and now once again we have shut them down 100%. Oper­a­tion Divine Wind has been enor­mous­ly suc­cess­ful.”