tagged w/ Japanese Whaling
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Whaling ships from Japan left today for Antarctic waters on an annual five-month voyage in pursuit of about 1,000 minke whales and a small number of endangered fin whales.
The seasonal hunts, during the Antarctic summer, are highly controversial. They're carried out in the name of research but the meat is sold in Japanese markets and restaurants and whatever research is conducted has been deemed questionable and unnecessary by many scientists outside Japan.
Australia and New Zealand, closest to the whaling region, have spoken out against the hunts, but to no avail.
Enter the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its devoted captain, Paul Watson, who himself is controversial and labeled a terrorist by the Japanese. Sea Shepherd is making final preparations for "Operation Waltzing Matilda," its name for this year's harassment campaign against the whalers.
It will again involve a crew from Animal Planet for its popular "Whale Wars" series. The series has thrust Sea Shepherd into the spotlight and made a hero of Watson and his vegan crew, in the eyes of some. Watson has won many volunteer recruits because of the series.
But with another potentially violent and dangerous conflict soon to begin, Greenpeace International is claiming that an end to Japanese whaling is close on the horizon because of the bad economy.
It reports that a government review committee has proposed substantial cuts in subsidies to various programs, including the whaling research program. Without government subsidies, Greenpeace maintains, "the whaling program would be doomed."
Time will tell. Meanwhile, exploding harpoons will tear into the flesh of unsuspecting cetaceans, water cannons will blast from ship to ship, bottles full of rancid butter will be heaved aboard the whaling vessels, and collisions might occur.Whaling ships from Japan left today for Antarctic waters on an annual five-month... more
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Japan said Monday it has caught 59 whales — one short of the maximum allowed by international guidelines — under a research program that critics say is a cover for commercial whaling.
The annual expedition off the port city of Kushiro ended over the weekend after harvesting 59 minke whales, the Fisheries Agency said in a statement. A maximum of 60 is allowed under the research program authorized by the International Whaling Commission.
Japan and other pro-whaling nations have been pushing for the IWC to revoke the 1986 ban on commercial hunts amid arguments over the number of whales left in the world's oceans.
Japan also annually hunts about 1,000 whales in the Antarctic Ocean and the northwest Pacific Ocean under an IWC research program.
Critics say the expeditions are a cover for commercial whaling because the harvest is sold to market for consumption.
As in previous years, the Fisheries Agency said the hunt off Hokkaido was aimed at studying the whales' feeding patterns and their effect on fish stocks. Findings will be presented at next year's meeting of the IWC.
During the 12-day expedition, whalers caught 36 male whales and 23 females, the agency said. Examination of their stomach contents found that the minkes most commonly fed on pollack, krill and anchovy in the research area, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of Kushiro in the Pacific Ocean, it said.
Kushiro is 895 kilometers (556 miles) northeast of Tokyo.Japan said Monday it has caught 59 whales — one short of the maximum allowed by... more
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Japan's new government this week urged Australia to help thwart the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's effort against whaling and at the same time implied that it supports the nation's longstanding tradition of hunting whales.
The conversation Tuesday at the United Nations was between Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, who was appointed last week after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was sworn into office, and Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith.
As one might expect, Smith answered that he'd like to resolve the issue through dialogue without straining relations. That could be construed to mean Australia, which is a whale-friendly nation, will not physically prevent Sea Shepherd from using Australia as a base for pursuing Japanese whaling vessels into Antarctic hunting grounds this winter (their summer).
If in fact Japan's new government supports the annual slaughter of about 1,000 minke whales -- that was Smith's perception -- it comes as distressing news to environmental groups around the world. The hunt is carried out within a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium against whaling. The loophole allows whales to be killed for research purposes, but whale meat is sold commercially.
Meanwhile, Sea Shepherd is promising a stepped-up effort this season under the campaign slogan "Operation Waltzing Matilda." An Animal Planet crew will be aboard filming for a third season of the popular series, "Whale Wars."Japan's new government this week urged Australia to help thwart the Sea Shepherd... more
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September heralds the six-month dolphin-hunting season in Taiji, a small seaside town in Japan's southwestern Wakayama prefecture. And residents are sensing the attack on them has also begun.
The Cove — a U.S. documentary with the air of a spy thriller that has been called "advocacy filmmaking at its best" since its release on July 31 — depicts Taiji's centuries-old tradition of killing dolphins with an unflinching eye on the sometimes gruesome process.
The documentarians, led by photographer turned director Louie Psihoyos and dolphin trainer turned activist Richard O'Barry, have stirred both international outcry and acclaim at film festivals from Sundance to Seattle with their footage of the slaughter that takes place every year in a remote cove in Taiji.
Earlier this week, the town decided to release 70 of the roughly 100 dolphins from the previous week's catch. But Taiji fishermen aren't the only ones bowing to international pressure.
Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) chairman Tom Yoda announced on Sept. 16 that the festival will screen the film, after previously rejecting it for TIFF's official selection (the festival starts next month).
Having come under fire for initially rejecting the documentary, Yoda said the reasons for rejecting or accepting films aren't generally discussed, as the festival receives more than 700 entries each year.
No film festival has a moral obligation to accept a film, but TIFF's slogan of "Action! For Earth" raised more than a few eyebrows when the widely lauded eco-documentary didn't make the cut. In the end, Yoda said, the festival "decided to take The Cove due to international attention worldwide."
The Cove casts Taiji's dolphin hunt as one town's dirty secret...the reality, however, is that Japan culls about 20,000 dolphins across the nation every year. To those in Taiji and other areas where dolphin hunting is permitted, the global reaction to The Cove has a whiff of the enduringly contentious whaling debate (Japan has hunted whales in the name of "SCIENCE" for decades despite environmentalists' ire).
The new wave of criticism of dolphin hunting that has been spurred by the film has many fishermen and local bureaucrats rolling their eyes over what they interpret as a another bout of foreign outrage at a practice that is legal, regulated and culturally acceptable in Japan, where dolphin meat — like whale — is eaten in the regions where it's hunted.September heralds the six-month dolphin-hunting season in Taiji, a small seaside town... more
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September 11, 2009—The Japanese town made infamous by the movie The Cove has temporarily suspended its hunt. The annual Taiji hunt claims around 2,000 dolphins, killed by hand after being herded into a shallow cove.
© 2009 National Geographic (AP)
The Japanese town chronicled in the award-winning film "The Cove" for its annual dolphin hunt that turns coastal waters red with blood has suspended killing the animals, at least for this week's catch, following an international outcry.
The western Japanese town of Taiji (TAH-ee-jee) will sell some of the dolphins to aquariums as it does every year, but the remainder of the 100 bottlenose dolphins that were caught early on Wednesday in the first catch of the season will be released.
Traditionally, theyre captured and most are then killed and sold for meat.
While Japan officially declares that the move had nothing to do with the protests, an official at the Taiji fisheries association, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that the decision was made partly in response to the international outcry created by "The Cove."
SOUNDBITE (English) Ric O'Barry, Earth Island Institute and Lead Character, "The Cove": "Well it seems as though the town of Taiji is responding to the world community, asking that this dolphin slaughter stop and today they implemented a no-dolphin-slaughter policy, so that is cause for great celebration. Not only for dolphins and whales but for Japanese people who are being contaminated by this product." Dolphin meat is consumed as a delicacy in Japan, and hunts date back thousands of years. Meat from one dolphin fetches about $500 US dollars but dolphins can be sold to aquariums for 10 to 20 times that price, with some kinds going for as much as 150-thousand US dollars.
Under the International Whaling Commissions ban on whaling, hunting for dolphins and small whales is still permitted, but draws sharp criticism from activists around the world.September 11, 2009—The Japanese town made infamous by the movie The Cove has... more
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Japan is about to slaughter hundreds of dolphins despite international outcry. However, there is a way to stop this. Follow the link to learn more.Japan is about to slaughter hundreds of dolphins despite international outcry.... more
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The world's only factory whaling ship may be driven from the Antarctic by tighter regulations.
The Nisshin Maru is vital to the operations of the Japanese whaling fleet, but it will run foul of new rules imposed by the United Nations' International Maritime Organisation, an investigation by the Herald has found.
The ship will fall foul of three new measures that will apply in Antarctic waters: the heavy fuel oil it uses will be banned; its hull-strength and safety will fail new requirements; and its annual dumping of thousands of tonnes of offal at sea will be rejected in the global nature reserve.
The regulations were backed by the Antarctic Treaty System after a series of accidents involving tourism cruise ships, including the sinking of the MS Explorer.
They pose a dilemma for Japan, one of the world's largest and most law-abiding shipping nations, and threaten to make the operation of its heavily subsidised whaling fleet even more costly.
The converted stern trawler processes and holds whale meat collected by Japan's "scientific research" program. Its chequered history includes two disabling ship fires and the deaths of three crew in accidents.
Following the last fire in 2007, New Zealand's then conservation minister, Chris Carter, said he was concerned about the potential for the Nisshin Maru to spill 1000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in the pristine Ross Sea.
The IMO's Marine Environmental Protection Committee met in London this week to approve a ban on the use of heavy fuel oil in the Antarctic Treaty area (below 60 degrees South) by July 2011, because of the harm it could cause. Exceptions will be made for ships involved in safety or search-and-rescue operations, the IMO said.
Japanese records show all of its Antarctic whaling is done inside the treaty area.
The IMO's Guidelines For Ships Operating In Ice-Covered Waters calls for them to use industry-best-practice rules against "operational discharges", strengthening Antarctic Treaty rules that forbid dumping waste at sea.
Some of the institute's data checked by Greenpeace shows that about 40 per cent of whale carcasses - mainly bones, blood and other body parts - are dumped each year from Nisshin Maru. In its busiest season yet, 2005-06, 2118 tonnes of whale offal would have gone overboard.The world's only factory whaling ship may be driven from the Antarctic by tighter... more
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The Cove is a new documentary that exposes the horrific flipside of Flipper. Shot in the historic town of Taiji, Japan -- which is the birthplace of modern day whaling methods -- the film follows activist Ric O'Barry in his crusade to save the 2,000+ dolphins that are captured and/or slaughtered in a remote cove there each year.
Before O'Barry became an activist, he was an unwitting beneficiary of the dolphin trade. A one-time dolphin trainer (the mammals are closely related to whales), O'Barry first made a name for himself in the 1960s working on the Flipper TV series. "I feel somewhat responsible because it was the Flipper TV series that created this multi-billion dollar industry," says O'Barry, who older and wiser is appalled at the idea of dolphins in captivity in zoos and amusement parks around the globe. He now works for the Earth Island Institute, trying to save these wondrous creatures from this fate -- and worse.
His undercover work at the cove, exposing the atrocious practices of the Japanese fishing industry, caught the attention of former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, who directed the movie about O'Barry's work at the cove. Using high-tech hidden surveillance equipment, the duo were able to capture the covert activities at the well-guarded cove, that had – up until now – been hidden from world view. Even the Japanese dolphin industry it seems is aware that it must remain concealed if it is to continue.
At the end of the film, O'Barry storms the International Whaling Commission with footage from the cove that convinces many to disengage from the corrupt organization which sets whaling quotas which are intertwined with the issue of tolerance for Japan’s dolphin trade. For O'Barry, giving interviews in support of the film is the next step towards exposing the practices of those in the dolphin trade who are happy to perpetrate unmentionable cruelty and ply mercury laden dolphin flesh that in truth is too toxic for human consumption.
Hit the link above for an interview with Ric O'Barry.The Cove is a new documentary that exposes the horrific flipside of Flipper. Shot in... more
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Japan has asked Australia to prevent the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin leaving port to harass its whalers in the Antarctic next summer, but the plea may have little effect.
The anti-whaling activists plan to upgrade their fleet from an ageing, former North Atlantic fisheries patrol boat to include another ship - something out of the future. The global speedboat Earthrace would head south under Sea Shepherd colours next summer, the group's leader Paul Watson said.
"It looks like a spaceship. It can do 40 knots and dive under waves completely. We'll be using it to intercept and block harpoons."
In 61 days last year Earthrace circled the globe fuelled by biodiesel. The New Zealand owner/skipper, Pete Bethune, said he decided to become involved because "this is happening in my backyard and it really pisses me off. I'm going to make a stand."
He said he was adding half a tonne of Kevlar to the vessel to toughen it against the ice. It had the endurance to go half way round the world on a tank of fuel.
"They won't get away from me," he said.
Earthrace's role was unveiled as the International Whaling Commission heard that Sea Shepherd's protests endangered the lives of whalers in the Southern Ocean last summer when the Steve Irwin was involved in two collisions.
"These are highly dangerous, and it can only be described as a miracle that there has been no death or large-scale accident to date," said a Japanese delegation member, Jun Yamashita.
"We cannot tolerate such audacity," Mr Yamashita told the commission. "We ask for
all appropriate measures, including a ban on the ship from leaving port, so that we can prevent these acts from being repeated."
Mr Watson, who is not permitted inside the meeting, said the Steve Irwin was soon to leave Brisbane for Hobart after a $500,000 refit. Its buckled hull plates had been repaired, and it was fitted with a powerful water cannon on the bow to match the whalers'.
He dubbed next summer's campaign Operation Waltzing Matilda and has adopted a symbol with a kangaroo wearing a pirate's eye patch.Japan has asked Australia to prevent the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin leaving port to... more
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A fascinating clip from an NHK documentary that contains a description of a temple in Japan that has honored the souls of dead whales by giving them posthumous Buddhist names and entering them into a registry (much as one might do for humans who have passed away).
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Aww, poor whales. :(A fascinating clip from an NHK documentary that contains a description of a temple in... more
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Nettle
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5 months ago
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The Japanese Fisheries Agency said Friday that a fleet of four whaling vessels will set sail to catch up to 216 whales in the northwestern Pacific for scientific research purposes. The fleet plans to catch 100 minke whales, 100 sei whales, 50 Bryde’s whales and 10 sperm whales, the agency said.
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The next IWC meeting is coming up next month and it looks like the Japan will continue to hunt whales around the world in spite of the small and declining demand for whale meat.The Japanese Fisheries Agency said Friday that a fleet of four whaling vessels will... more
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Japan's whaling catch in its latest Antarctic hunt fell far short of its target after disruptions by anti-whaling activists, the Fisheries Agency said on Monday.
Japan, which considers whaling to be a cherished cultural tradition, killed 679 minke whales despite plans to catch around 850. It caught just one fin whale compared with a target of 50 in the hunt that began in November.
Some ships in its six-ship fleet have returned home after clashes with the hardline group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, including a collision that crushed a railing on one of the Japanese ships.
A Fisheries Agency official said ships could not carry out whaling for a total of 16 days because of bad weather and skirmishes with the activists.Japan's whaling catch in its latest Antarctic hunt fell far short of its target after... more
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Winding up a three-day meeting this week, the International Whaling Commission signaled what conservationists see as a dangerous change of course that jeopardizes the future of the world's great whales.
International Whaling Commission Chairman William Hogarth of the United States is leading this new IWC direction in an effort to resolve the bitter and long-standing dispute between the whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland and the whale conservation countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile and many others.
The proposed deal would grant Japan permission to hunt whales in its coastal waters in exchange for a scaling back of its so-called research whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary near Antarctica.
Anti-whaling groups have united against the plan. Twenty-six conservation organizations from around the world have issued a call to governments asking them to oppose the deal. They say it could end the moratorium on commercial whaling that has been in place since 1986 to allow the great whales to recover after centuries of unregulated whaling had brought many species close to extinction.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals has led the production of a briefing, signed by the world's leading anti-whaling organizations condemning the proposal, which the conservationists say "effectively barters with animals' lives."
In Rome, Patrick Ramage, global whale porogram director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said, "Science has been thrown to the whalers like Christians to the lions in ancient Rome."
"Conservation-minded IWC members hope that by offering Japan interim, ad hoc, catch allowances for coastal whaling, that will encourage Japan, in turn, to exercise self-restraint in its 'scientific whaling' operations, said Ramage. "However, conservationists are extremely sceptical that this olive branch will elicit the hoped for response."
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which sends ships to interfere with Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, condemns what it calls "this proposal of appeasement" and calls upon President Barack Obama to remove Hogarth as the U.S. commissioner to the IWC.
"The United States has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists and they should not be negotiating with poachers," said Sea Shepherd founder and president Captain Paul Watson. "The Japanese whaling industry is a criminal organization that targets endangered whales in an established international whale sanctuary."
"Hogarth's proposal is so milquetoast and weak it does not even demand an end to Southern Ocean whaling and allows this criminal activity to continue," Watson said. "The United States will be betraying the whales and marine conservationists if they allow Hogarth to advance this shameful proposal of appeasement."
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is requesting an investigation of Hogarth by the U.S. Justice Department "to see if there are other unknown factors motivating Mr. Hogarth to sell out the whales to the outlaw whalers of Japan," said Watson.
Watson is not alone in calling for Hogarth's removal.
In February, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, sent a letter to the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, calling for Hogarth's replacement "amid growing criticisms that holdover political appointees of the Bush administration are proposing to dismantle the current worldwide ban on commercial whaling."
In June 2008, the House of Representatives approved a resolution introduced by Rahall urging U.S. leadership to use all appropriate measures to end commercial whaling around the globe.Winding up a three-day meeting this week, the International Whaling Commission... more
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Police boarded the ship of a militant anti-whaling group and seized videotapes of violent clashes between the activists and Japanese whalers, the group said Saturday.
Police said they were investigating the clashes after Japanese authorities reported them to Australian officials, but would not to go into further detail.
Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said Australian Federal Police agents with search warrants boarded the group's ship, the Steve Irwin, as it docked late Friday in the southern Australian city of Hobart.
The police seized video being shot for the television series "Whale Wars" about the group's campaign to stop a Japanese fleet from killing whales in waters off Antarctica, the Sea Shepherd said in a statement.
The federal police said it had held discussions with crew aboard the Steve Irwin and was investigating events in the Antarctic Ocean "as a result of a formal referral from the Japanese authorities."Police boarded the ship of a militant anti-whaling group and seized videotapes of... more
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leahl
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Japanese whalers blasted conservationists with a water cannon and hurled hunks of metal and golf balls at them in a clash Monday in icy Antarctic waters, an anti-whaling group said.
Two members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were lightly injured in the early morning fracas in heavy seas about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) southeast of the Australian state of Tasmania, said Paul Watson, the group's leader.
A spokesman for the whalers said he had no information on the claims.
The group — which routinely harasses the Japanese whaling fleet during its annual hunt in the Antarctic Ocean — sent a helicopter and two inflatable boats toward one of the ships in the Japanese fleet.
The whalers began blasting conservationists on one raft with a water cannon, knocking one man off his feet and leaving him with cuts and bruises, Watson told The Associated Press by satellite phone.
Another protester was hit in the face with a large chunk of metal lobbed from a harpoon boat. He was wearing a shield on his helmet, but still suffered bruises, Watson said.
The Japanese also aimed a "military grade" noise weapon that can cause deafness and vomiting at the Sea Shepherd crew, Watson said. Some felt its vibrations but were too far away to be otherwise affected, he said.
Glenn Inwood, the New Zealand-based spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research — a Japanese government-affiliated organization that oversees the hunt — said he could not immediately confirm or deny the Sea Shepherd's claims.
"All legal means available will be used to protect the Japanese crew and the scientists," he said.
Japan, which has described the Sea Shepherd protesters as terrorists, plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season. Under International Whaling Commission rules, the mammals may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes. Opponents say the Japanese research expeditions are simply a cover for commercial whaling, which was banned in 1986.
Protesters aboard the ship, named after the late Australian conservationist and TV personality Steve Irwin, set off from Australia in early December for the remote and icy Antarctic Ocean, chasing the whaling fleet for about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) before stopping two weeks ago in Tasmania to refuel. The group found the whalers again on Sunday and resumed their pursuit.
In December, the protesters lobbed bottles of rancid butter at the Japanese.
"I will not allow them to kill a whale while we're here, and they know that," Watson said. "I'll literally rip their harpoon off their deck if I have to."Japanese whalers blasted conservationists with a water cannon and hurled hunks of... more
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Whaling in the Antarctic Ocean could be stopped if the Japanese government were to be held accountable for dumping waste and for undertaking hazardous refueling at sea, a panel said Tuesday.
The Canberra Panel, convened by the conservation group International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the new tactic could force Japan out of the whaling business because the activity violates the 46-member Antarctic Treaty System, which Japan belongs to.
"The Canberra Panel concluded that the government of Japan should be held accountable for the environmental impacts of whaling and the ancillary activities, such as refueling at sea and offal discharge, on the highly sensitive Antarctic marine environment," a report by the panel said.
An explosion and fire aboard a whaling factory ship in 2007 led to tons of fuel and chemicals being spilled into the ocean. The incident demonstrated the "substantial environmental risks" connected with Japanese whaling, it said.
The report was made public Tuesday but had been sent in the past week to the Australian and New Zealand governments, which are leading global opposition to Japanese whaling.
The report recommends that either Australia or New Zealand formally notify Japan of concerns about the failure to comply with a strict environmental protocol that has applied to Antarctica since 1991. The issue should then be raised at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in the U.S. in April.
"Over time, sustained pressure through the ATS is likely to increase further the difficulties faced by Japan in operating its whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean and ultimately contribute to the complete cessation of Japanese special-permit whaling in Antarctica," the report says.
The Japanese fleet plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales during the current season. Under International Whaling Commission rules, the mammals may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Monday the government prefers to use diplomacy to persuade the Japanese to stop whaling.
"When we come to the conclusion that diplomatic efforts have failed, then we will give consideration to legal action," he said.
Don Rothwell, an Australian National University international law professor who chairs the six-member panel, said Tuesday the environmental approach would complement the government's strategy because it has "a diplomatic focus and also a legal perspective."Whaling in the Antarctic Ocean could be stopped if the Japanese government were to be... more
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Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says there is no reason to ban an anti-whaling ship from docking at an Australian port.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin has suspended its chase of a Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters and is heading towards Hobart to refuel.
Japan plans to ask Australian to block the vessel from entering the country, saying Sea Shepherd's "pirate-like" and violent actions must be rejected.
The Japan Whaling Association has said both Australia and New Zealand should bar the Steve Irwin from their ports.
But Ms Gillard said there were no grounds to ban the Steve Irwin from docking in Hobart, although the vessel is yet to request to do so.
"We have not received an impending vessel request from the Steve Irwin," she told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
"Should such a a request be received, then the Steve Irwin will be permitted to dock at an Australian port.
"There is insufficient reason to prevent the Steve Irwin from doing that."Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says there is no reason to ban an anti-whaling... more
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Environmental activists Monday said they had been pursuing Japanese whalers through blizzards in the Antarctic for two days during which the harpooners had been unable to kill any whales.
Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel trailing the Japanese fleet, said they had intercepted the whalers on Saturday morning in dangerous conditions off Antarctica.
"Yesterday we were locked into the ice, we had to work our way out of about a dozen miles of ice and there were some heavy swells and large chunks so it was a little hairy for a while," Watson told AFP.
"But we are still pursuing them. They haven't killed any whales. We will keep on them and the longer we keep on them, the more we can impact their profits and their quotas."
The society's vessel the "Steve Irwin" remained on the tail of the Japanese whale-processing ship Nisshin Maru, which Watson said was in Australia's Antarctic waters.
Watson said the activists, who initially attempted to hit the Japanese harpoon boat the Yushin Maru 2 with stink bombs, would continue to try to hamper the whalers, who kill hundreds of whales a year.
"We will just harass them, blockade them, do everything to prevent them from resuming whaling," he said.
"Most likely they will run and we will chase and they'll run and we'll chase and that's fine. As long as they are running they are not killing whales."
For the past four years Watson has led a Sea Shepherd vessel to find, track and harass the whaling ships during their hunting season, the southern hemisphere summer.
An international moratorium on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986 but Japan has continued to hunt under an exclusion allowing for scientific research, although it concedes most of the meat ends up on dinner plates.Environmental activists Monday said they had been pursuing Japanese whalers through... more
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Sea Shepherd is in hot pursuit of Japanese whalers in the Antarctic for the second year in a row. They hoped to attack the main harpoon ship with rotten butter bombs, but they called off attack when blizzard conditions made the action too dangerous.
Sea Shepherd was able to scare the Japanese fleet, so they are currently on the run. Paul Watson said, ""They are on the run but right now it is very bad weather," he said from the Steve Irwin, adding it was the earliest in the whaling season his group had ever found the Japanese fleet.
"That means we are going to cut into their profits. When they are running they are not killing whales."
Last year the Japanese killed nearly 1000 fin whales. Commercial whaling was banned by an international moratorium in 1986. The Japanese claim they are conducting scientific research allowing them to get around the moratorium. Most of the meat, however, finds itself on Japanese dinner plates.
Encounters between Sea Shepherd and the whalers received international attention last year, when several sea shepherd activists were held captive by Japanese fishermen.
Animal Planet television network will broadcast the encounters between Sea Shepherd and the Japanese Whalers on Friday Nights at 9:00 PM. For more information visit www.seashepherd.org
The Japanese Embassy Address is:
Embassy of Japan
2520 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008Sea Shepherd is in hot pursuit of Japanese whalers in the Antarctic for the second... more
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