Japanese Pirate Whaling Fleet Departs from Japan
The Japanese whaling fleet left today for Antartica. The fleet is expected to take three weeks to reach the Southern Oceans. Sea Shepherd will have two ships departing soon for the coast of Antarctica.
Article in the Sydney Morning Herald on the departure of the Japanese fleet can be found at:
The Australian Age Newspaper Feature
(Not yet online)
The Australian newspaper The Age carried a full page article on the upcoming campaign against illegal Japanese whaling in Antarctica today (Wednesday Nov 15/06. The full page article by Andrew Darby appears on Page 15. There is a picture of Captain Paul Watson with the Farley Mowat behind him. There is a large picture of a whale thrashing about in blood beneath the bow of a Japanese whaling ship. There is an inset with the area the whalers will be operating in.
The article is headlines at the top of the Front Page: Hunters and Protectors - Teh Whaling Battle Set to Begin
The article is entitled: Hunters and Protectors
The subtitle is: The Japanese whaling fleet is due to leave Aruka port to hunt 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean over summer. Greenpeace and the militant activists Sea Shepherd will aim to stop the slaughter.
The article presents the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society very positively. The Sea Shepherd website address is at the bottom along with Greenpeace website and the website for the Japanese whalers.
The article quotes Greenpeacer Steve Shallhorn going on about Greenpeace "bearing witness" and being opposed to property damage. This was a veiled attack by Shallhorn on Sea Shepherd.
There is a quote from Captain Paul Watson in large text in a box that retaliates against Shallhorn. It reads:
"As far as I can see they (Greenpeace) have no intention of stopping illegal Japanese whaling. They will continue to make whale snuff flicks."
Relevant extracts
For more than a generation, Greenpeace has exposed whaling to the world, starting from June 27th, 1975, when a bunch of hippies and activists on an old fishing boat found a Soviet fleet killing sperm whales off California. On that day, one of the group, Paul Watson, stepped onto the floating carcass of an undersized sperm, the better to defy the Russians.
The onetime Greenpeace pioneer is now the grimly determined leader of the extreme activists of Sea Shepherd, and he has little time for his old firm's approach.
"As far as I can see they have no intention of stopping illegal whaling," Watson says, "They will continue to make whale snuff flicks, and they will continue to milk the public for donations, but I don't think this will make any difference this year."
This summer Watson's long-held intention of attacking the fleet, and stopping it, will be put to the test. There is every indication that ahead lies the hardest battle ever mounted against Antarctic whaling.
On the Japanese government's new ownership of the whaling fleet:
"I think the transfer will make the whaling fleet more aggressive," Watson says. "The government will be more stubborn and more intractable. I think things will be much hotter down south this summer."
Japan's intentions:
The Japanese government is expected to stiffen defenses that already include water cannons, fire hoses and a warning that anyone who steps onto a Japanese vessel will be arrested. Japanese director of International Fisheries Negotiations Joji Morishita, said it was only natural to think about ways of dealing with protesters "dangerous activities".
The conclusion of the article:
At this time, the only claim to a viable roadblock appears to be coming from Sea Shepherd.
Docked in Melbourne before the Antarctic campaign, the Farley Mowat has emblazoned on its side the names and flags of 10 Atlantic whaling vessels that Sea Shepherd activists have either sunk or decommissioned.
Watson began the sinkings with the radioed warning, "Sierra, Sierra, Goddamn you, you whale killing son of a bitch, your career is going to end today." before his vessel rammed a pirate whaler in 1979 and wrecked it. The last of the 10 was the Norwegian fishing boat Senet, scuttled in 1993.
Watson takes pride that no one has been injured or killed in any of these actions. But as generations of adventurers who suffered from the ice and cold know, the Antarctic is already a dangerous place.
Overview by Captain Watson:
This is a great article to herald the beginning of this year's campaign against the whalers. The article states where the three main players stand i.e. Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace and the Japanese whalers and it highlights New Zealand and Australia's positions on the issue.
It is regrettable that I had to be critical of Greenpeace. Again this year, I approached Greenpeace to work cooperatively on the campaign but they refused. When they alluded to us being violent, I had no alternative but to respond with a criticism of their position of watching and doing nothing to stop the killing.
Greenpeace raised over $100 million dollars this year on their whale campaign and spent less than 2% on their campaigns. They plan to mount another mega-fund-raising campaign this year and take more pictures. We had to borrow 1.1 million to secure a 2nd ship and we worked all year to raise the funding to mount this campaign. We need results not footage and we intend to save whales and not run a fund-raising circus. This is basically the difference between the two groups. Greenpeace has a vested interest in the whaling issue to raise money and we have a vested interest to stop the whaling because it costs us more than we have.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has no intention of doing anything unlawful or violent this year. We intend to uphold the law by obstructing an illegal activity in international waters.
We expect this to be a dangerous campaign and we expect to battle both the harsh Antarctic conditions and the ruthlessness of the whalers.
We intend to sail into harm's way.
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
www.Seashepherd.org
Tel: 360-370-5650
Fax: 360-370-5651
Address: P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250 USA