Just another dent in the damage...

Once again whilst enjoying our Christmas break, eating til we explode (that wasn’t just me was it?), Captain Paul Watson and his Merry Men set sail on this year’s mission to save the whales. Operation Musashi launched and I think it’s about time I gave y’all an update.

Leaving Brisbane, Australia on December 4th (with a brief fuel and oil stop in New South Wales and Tasmania) the crew headed off to the Ross Sea with one sole purpose – to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet. Operation Musashi is in fact Sea Shepherd’s fifth Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign aimed to tackle illegal whaling activities committed under the guise of ‘research’. Following the success of last year’s campaign (Operation Migaloo), which saw the Japanese fleet return home 484 whales ($70 million) short of target, Captain Watson intends to further undermine their profits and expose the true damage of violating the international moratorium on commercial whaling. For Watson, in targeting endangered whales for the sale of its meat this fleet threaten ‘the diversity of life and thus the future of our own kind upon this planet’ and it is up to us as human beings to ‘risk all to protect diversity and the right of other species to live unmolested by the rapacious greed of humankind’.

Fast forward to December 20th 2008 and the crew aboard the Steve Irwin have their first encounter with the Nisshin Maru.

On Saturday morning, we spotted a moving target on the radar. The entire area was shrouded in thick fog and dense ice as we moved towards the ship. It could only be a whaler in this area and we could only assume that they thought we were part of the fleet. They did not alter course nor did they attempt to speed up. – Captain Paul Watson

Then out of the fog, emerging on Steve Irwin’s port side, came the Yusshin Maru No 2 sporting a new device – a large net rigged to draw across the entire side of the vessel on a high wire between the fore and aft mast – to stop the Sea Shepherd crew from boarding. And so the inflatable Delta was launched armed with rotten butter bombs as foul props. But with high winds and a malfunctioning GPS system the Delta was called back and the Irwin moved on to seek protection against the blizzard conditions from a nearby iceberg – where they remained for the next 12 hours before pursuing open water. This time the whalers escaped fleeing eastward, putting 50 miles between themselves and the whale protectors. Being more concerned with running from the Sea Shepherds than killing whales meant that for now the whales were safe.

Unbeknown to the crew they’d only have to wait another nine days until their next encounter. Quartermaster Jeff Hansen ‘noticed something on the radar that warranted first mate Peter Brown’s attention’. With the fog clearing Emily Hunter (daughter of the late Robert Hunter) later confirmed this ’something’ to be the Kaiko Maru, one of the fleet’s spotter vessels. And so the chase continued and the Japanese were unable to continue whaling in Australian waters. However,

‘What is now good news for the whales in Australian waters is now bad news for the whales in the waters south of New Zealand,’ said Captain Watson. ‘They are still targeting endangered and protected whales in the waters of an established international whale sanctuary and thus they are still in violation of international conservation law and acting under the principles of the United Nations World Charter for Nature, we will continue to pursue, harass and intervene against their blatantly illegal lethal assaults on the whales.’ – Sea Shepherd News.

Fast forward again to January 6th 2009 and three whaling vessels (spotter vessel the Kyoshin Maru No. 2 and the two remaining kill ships, the Yushin Maru No 1 and No 3 – No 2 had headed off for mechanical repairs) lay on the horizon engaged in a search for the missing whaler Hajime Shiraskai, thought to have fallen overboard the night before from the Kyoshin Maru No.2.

Out of respect for the lost whaler and his family, we all stood down as an offer of assistance was put forward to the whaling fleet to help in the search. Our Japanese crew member radioed the Japanese fleet with our offer which resulted in almost 15 minutes of silence before we finally got a response. – Crew Blog.

And that response was to inform Paul and his crew that the fleet were not willing to accept any help from ‘Eco-Terrorists’. Yet with Paul being Paul they launched two boat crews and a helicopter to search the area, aiding the search nonetheless. But not for long, the ship is in need of fuel to continue with the Operation’s second leg. After a stop in Hobart they’ll be back in the dangerous waters to continue our battle for the seas. Please support this mission!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Conservation and tagged as animal rights, sea shepherd, whales, whaling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.