Rewilding Institute Wilderness and Wildlife Conservation Blog

No More Whales Will Die This Season.

Finally, the burnt out hulk of the whale killing floating factory called the Nisshin Maru is limping out of the Antarctic treaty zone, the stench of rotten whale meat lingering in its wake. The whale killing fleet is now slowly heading north to Japan. There will be no stopping in New Zealand for repairs. A stop there will result in legal issues that could tie the ship up for years and the whale meat onboard would be confiscated.

The whaling fleet has a long way to go to reach Tokyo and the crew will be mourning the loss of one crewmember and remembering the opposition by Sea Shepherd that left their decks reeking of rotten butter and awash with the blood of the whales caused by Sea Shepherd crew sealing the bloody deck flensing outlet drains. It is a ship that reeks of death, burnt flesh, gore and blood, and it looks and smells like the Death Star that it is.

The image of the Nisshin Maru retreating from the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary is joyous news for all people who love whales. This ship is the single greatest whale killing machine of all time and the only thing more pleasing to us would be to see its total destruction. Fortunately this did not happen, because the sinking of the ship would have been an ecological disaster.

Whaling is now officially ended for the 2006/2007 season and the unofficial final whale body count appears to be less than 500 whales of their 960 targeted Piked whales. It is not known how many of the targeted Fin whales were killed.

The Nisshin Maru is severely damaged. The main engine was started but electrical systems are barely functioning. The whale processing equipment is ruined. The winches used to haul up the whales are inoperable. The cargo of whale meat onboard has been partially if not completely spoiled by loss of refrigeration and intense heat. In addition the whale meat has been contaminated by chemicals used to fight the blaze and spilt during the fire.

The disaster has highlighted the fact that the Nisshin Maru is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. This year, Antarctica’s wildlife was spared the tragedy of an oil and chemical spill that would have occurred if the 8,000 ton ship had sunk with hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and an unknown amount of chemicals like ammonia and chlorine.

This is the second serious fire on the Nisshin Maru in 10 years. The vessels are not ice-class. Japan has put their pride before any concern for the protection of Antarctic eco-systems and wildlife. Their lust to kill whales has become obsessive and is blinding their common sense.

“What Japan has just demonstrated over the last 10 days,” said Captain Paul Watson, “is a total contempt for international concerns for the environmental protection of Antarctic wildlife. This whaling fleet is an ecological time bomb and the potential for disaster is a real and ever present danger when they are down in the Whale Sanctuary illegally slaughtering endangered whales.”

The whaling fleet spotting vessel the Kaiko Maru is also heading home marked with the scars of their deliberate collision with the Sea Shepherd ship Robert Hunter. The Japanese crew on both the Nisshin Maru and the Kaiko Maru saw first hand the dedicated courage of our international volunteers in action during the confrontations. They were days they will not soon forget.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is already preparing to return to the coast of Antarctica in December 2007 to once again intervene against illegal Japanese whaling activities.

“We have discovered weaknesses with the Japanese ships that can be exploited given the right equipment. We learn more about these ruthless killing machines every year.” SaidFarley Mowat Captain Alex Cornelissen. “Next year if they return to kill Humpbacks and Fins, we will have to take a more aggressive stand to stop these poachers.”

The targeting of 50 Humpbacks and 50 Fin whales for the 2007/2008 season is a line in the sand where the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is prepared to take a stand.

“We cannot abide, tolerate or ignore such a blatant slaughter of the highly endangered Humpbacks.” Said Captain Paul Watson. “The Humpback is the symbol of our organization and a part of our logo and we will defend this species as aggressively as we can. Our position on the Humpbacks and the Fins is zero tolerance”

The 2006/2007 campaign is now officially over. The efforts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have highlighted the on-going illegal activities of the Japanese whaling fleet. Our message was that the Japanese whalers were killing highly endangered whales in an international whale sanctuary in violation of the global moratorium on commercial whaling. Japan is engaged in numerous international crimes and they must be opposed and they must be shut down.

This year, call it fate, call it karma, or call it the will of God but whatever it is, the results have been wonderful for the whales and all of us at Sea Shepherd are extremely satisfied with the ignoble retreat of the ruthless killers of the gentle giants as their disgraced and damaged ships limping shamefully home stinking with the corpses of their innocent victims.

Our message to the Japanese whalers. “We hope your damages are so severe you will not be back next year but if you are, we will be there waiting for you and we will not be as polite as we were this year.” Said Captain Paul Watson.

The Sea Shepherd ships Robert Hunter and Farley Mowat are now docked in Melbourne. Preparations have already begun to outfit a campaign to intervene against the possibility of a return of the whaling fleet in December.

Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org

“Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.”
- Walt Whitman

By Captain Paul Watson

Elliott Ness had it easy taking on the Capone Gang. The Mafia, forget about it.

The Russian mob are pussycats compared to the Criminal Syndicate that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is now fighting.

The Japanese Whaling Industry that masquerades under the guise of the Japanese Cetacean Research Institute makes Murder Inc. look tame by comparison.

You see every year they head out to the North Pacific or down to the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary where they murder over a thousand intelligent and innocent whales. Some of their victims are endangered. In doing so they are violating a long list of international conservation laws and they are blatantly violating the sovereign territory of Australia by killing whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

They have been slaughtering whales with impunity for twenty years ever since the International Whaling Commission invoked the global moratorium on commercial whaling.

Some moratorium! In addition to the 18,000 whales the Japanese have murdered since then, their partners in crime, the Norwegians and the Icelanders have slaughtered thousands more.

What is the point of having the Antarctic and Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary if whales can be illegally slaughtered within the Sanctuary without any interference by governments or international regulatory bodies?.

The task of defending the whales from these pirate whalers has fallen to non-governmental organizations whose only authority lies with the United Nations World Charter for Nature that allows for non-governmental intervention to uphold international conservation law.

Australia even threw out the right to challenge Japanese invasion of sovereign territorial waters on the grounds it would be contrary to trade interests with Japan.

And what Japan wants, Japan is used to getting as a leading global economic bully.

And Japan wants to kill whales, moreso as a matter of pride than anything else, although they make a tidy profit from marketing the flesh of these gentle social creatures to people with gourmet whale meat fetishes in Tokyo sushi bars.

There is really very little difference between Japanese whalers and elephant poachers or bush meat sellers in Africa but whereas the Africans are frowned upon for indulging in such savage trades, the Japanese are left to munch blubber unmolested by the law.

If a Uruguayan fishing boat is caught in the Australian Antarctic Territory with lines in the water illegally poaching toothfish, the Australian authorities will be merciless in their apprehension and prosecution and rightfully so. Yet when a Japanese harpoon rips open the flesh and shatters the organs of an endangered Fin whale, Australia does - nothing!

And when the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society volunteers dare to oppose this criminal activity, the world’s governments rally to Japan’s commands and unleash their bureaucrats to punish us for our compassion and concern.

Thus since opposing the Japanese whale killers, I have had my ships stripped of their flags by Canada, Britain, Belize and the Cayman Islands. Countries that have no problem with flagging illegal fishing vessels are now indignant that their flag would be used to save whales and not to kill them.

Belize took our flag away from the Farley Mowat after we departed for Antarctica effectively making us a pirate vessel and subject to legal assault on the high seas. When we return to any port we will be seized. We only had the flag for 10 days before it was taken away. Our ship Robert Hunter has been put on notice that our flag will be removed on February 12 although the ship has not committed a crime or broken any navigational rules. This is power and there is no doubt that the pressure is coming from Tokyo.

Canada has now charged me under the Canada Shipping Act and is threatening me with jail and fines for operating my vessel in opposition to whaling which according to Canada is not the proper use of a pleasure vessel. You can fish from a yacht, you can race around the world and rack up expensive rescue operations, you can treasure hunt from a yacht but apparently you cannot defend whales from a yacht. As volunteers who take pleasure from protecting whales, we believe that such an activity falls within the definition of a yacht. In fact we have been doing this for thirty years and now it suddenly is no longer acceptable.

The Japanese whalers have even enlisted the help of the U.S. Navy Intelligence office to track our ships and report our coordinates to them. They have also this year purchased an expensive Satellite tracking system from Vexcel-Microsoft to track our movements. This of course leaves us at a great disadvantage when the criminal whalers can have access to powerful government assistance and technology.

We do not have their money, their technology or their political pull. We are armed only with our compassion for the whales and the environment.

When Australian Environmental Minister Ian Campbell spoke out against the Japanese whalers, he found soon after that he would no longer be Environment Minister. It is becoming a commandment of government that one must not oppose Japanese interests. Let them overfish tuna and illegally kill whales just so long as they continue to buy uranium, timber, and assorted commodities. The customer is always right it appears and Japan is a big spender.

Japan intends to escalate their kills and will this year begin slaughtering the endangered and much loved Humpback whales.

Will this illegal carnage continue unabated and will tens of thousands of whales be condemned to death, or the species driven to extinction because the governments of the world have not got the backbone to stand up against the perverse desires of Japan to slaughter whales?

As for us, we do what we can with the resources available for us and many have told us it is a lost cause. It may be a lost cause but lost causes are the only causes really worth fighting for and thus despite the opposition of politicians, bureaucrats, and whalers we will continue to defend the gentle giants of the deep from the merciless savageness of our own species.

For Immediate Release: January 9, 2007

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Operation Leviathan is underway to stop the Japanese whaling fleets’ illegal slaughter of over a thousand whales. With its newly acquired ship named the Robert Hunter, Sea Shepherd is on its way down to the Antarctic.

The Farley Mowat is expected to arrive in the whaling area during the second week in January where the flagship will rendezvous with the organization’s newly acquired faster ship, named the Robert Hunter. The two ships with over 60 international volunteer crewmembers, a helicopter, and numerous smaller vessels will confront the Japanese whalers on the high seas. The volunteers represent thirteen nations with crewmembers from Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary, Great Britain, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States.

The latest Sea Shepherd vessel is named after Canadian Robert Hunter, who along with Captain Paul Watson was a co-founder of the Greenpeace Foundation. Bob Hunter died in May 2005 and at his funeral Captain Watson pledged to name a ship in his honor. Robert Hunter’s daughter Emily Hunter has joined the ship’s crew for the campaign to defend whales in Antarctica. “Bob and I were in the very first inflatable that blocked the harpoons of the whalers in 1975,” said Captain Paul Watson. “He was my shipmate from 1971 onward with Greenpeace and later joined me on many Sea Shepherd campaigns. With this ship, he continues to be by my side in spirit and together we continue to defend life in the oceans.”

The Japanese whaling fleet is determined to illegally slaughter more than 1,000 whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. Japan has doubled its illegal quota of piked (Minke) whales to just over a thousand, and will be targeting endangered fin whales, and for the first time since the early eighties, 50 endangered humpback whales. “Sea Shepherd is the only organization in the world willing to go to the Antarctic to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet and shut them down,” said President and Founder of Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson. “This is an international effort to uphold international law against a pirate whaling operation.”

Thousands of Australian supporters have joined the Society in our fight to save the whales. Among them, advertising guru John Singleton and Bluetongue Brewery are supporting the campaign through the launch of their website www.whalesafebeer.com. The Farley Mowat flew the flag of Fremantle, Western Australia, when the ship departed. The flag had been given to the ship by Fremantle Mayor Peter Tagliaferri with the request that we fly it in the Southern Oceans.

For More Information Visit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

This video is getting a lot of attention. (Praise from most and the obligatory disgust from the usual suspects)

By Captain Paul Watson

Our new ship code named Leviathan is at sea and on the way south to the coast of Antarctica. Today they are battling a full gale but Captain Alex Cornelissen reports that the ship is extremely seaworthy and is pushing through the heavy swells and into the wind with ease.

In Melbourne, we have been delayed because of two things. (1) we need a replacement rotor blade for our helicopter and we are waiting for it to be shipped from the USA which we hope will arrive within a few days. (2) Because Canada suspended our registry due to pressure from the Canadian government, we have had to work quickly to re-register the ship under another flag which we are in the process of doing and hopefully this will not take more than a few more days.

It’s not unusual to fight our way out of obstacles posed by bureaucrats prior to departure on a campaign. The bureaucratic delays are just a part of the normal routine. This week even Homeland Security (USA) was making inquiries about our activities. It is amazing how governments are getting involved to try and stop interventions against illegal whaling activities.

The Farley Mowat is closer to the whaling fleet than the Leviathan so the delay should not delay the rendezvous between the two ships. Greenpeace announced that they would be sending two ships to the coast of Antarctica but we have heard nothing more. The Esperanza is in Baja and the Arctic Sunrise is in the Baltic so they are still quite some distance from the whalers.

As it looks we will be in a position to confront the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary during the last week of December or the first week in January. Last year we first confronted them on Christmas Day.

Evidence of climate change is certainly evident here in the State of Victoria where the Farley Mowat is presently berthed. This week one of our former helicopter pilots Gerry Nels dropped by the ship. He had just flown in to help fight one of the largest bush fires in Australian history. After years of drought the bush is erupting with hundreds of fires, mainly started by lighting strikes last week. The smell of smoke is everywhere today in Melbourne as over one hundred square miles of bush is ablaze not far from the city.

We have only two more days to give tours of the ship before we move to the fuel dock to take on the fuel for the campaign. The ship has had over 30,000 visitors since arriving in Melbourne and the support from Australias has been tremendous.

Follow Sea Shepherd’s progress at our website: www.Seashepherd.org

Check out our campaign with Bluetongue Beer and see the controversial commercial Bluetongue has produced: www.whalesafebeer.com.au
If you vist the whalesafe beer site be sure to leave a message in the bottle.