Japan Starts Annual Mass Killing of Whales

Japanese fleet spotted harpooning whales inside sanctuary: Sea Shepherd Australia

Sea Shepherd Australia said today they had captured images of Japanese whaling fleet killing protected whales inside an internationally recognized whale sanctuary.

Anti-whaling activists spotted a  fleet of five vessels harpooning and processing at least 4 whales south east of Tasmania on the edge of the Ross sea.

Aerial photos of harpooned whales being processed on the deck of Nisshin Maru, a Japanese whaling vessel, in waters southeast of Tasmania.  Credit: Tim Watters of Sea Shepherd. The group said they knew a fourth whale  had also been killed.

“It’s just a gruesome, bloody, medieval scene which has got no place in this modern world,” said Sea Shepherd Australia chairman Bob Brown.

Dr Brown has questioned Abbott government’s resolve against whaling, after the Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, backed away on an election promise to send a Customs ship to monitor the Japanese fleet.

Bloodbath on Nisshin Maru. Credit Tim Watters of Sea Shepherd

“We’ve got a federal court ruling that this whaling is illegal and injunction to stop it,” Brown told reporters. “I don’t know of any other entity or person in Australia who could simply thumb its nose at the Australian Federal Court with an Australian government saying we won’t police it.”

“This criminal behavior by these Japanese whale killers is taking place in front of the whole world, while the Australian and New Zealand governments sit on their hands,” he said.

Related Links

• Whale Watch

Whale of a Story

Submitted by a reader in Australia

As Sea Shepherd protester boards a Japanese whaling vessel to ‘arrest its captain,’ New Zealand govt agents quietly euthanize 28 Pilot whales

Pete Bethune, a Sea Shepherd protester from New Zealand, boarded a Japanese whaling vessel, Shonan Maru No. 2, to ‘arrest its captain’  for the ‘‘destruction of the Ady Gil and attempted murder of the six Ady Gil crew members,’ ‘A statement on the Sea Shepherd website said.

Ady Gil, Sea Shepherd’s ‘stealth vessel,’ collided with Shonan Maru No. 2 on Jan 6, and sank later.  Both parties have since blamed each other for the incident.

According to Sea Shepherd skipper Paul Watson Bethune traveled by jet ski from the Steve Irwin, the group’s flagship vessel to deliver a letter to the Shonan Maru No. 2 requesting he return with him to the Steve Irwin, to be transferred to New Zealand’s Maritime Safety Authority and police.

‘‘If you refuse to be arrested, then I am requesting that you deliver me to Wellington (New Zealand),’’ Bethune wrote in his letter to the Japanese captain.

‘‘Having sunk my vessel, and with our issuing of a mayday call, you have an obligation under maritime law to provide me with safe passage back to land,’’ he added.

‘‘I will only leave the Shonan Maru when you transfer with me to the Steve Irwin, or when we arrive on land, be it New Zealand or Australia.’‘

Bethune reportedly delivered an invoice for the cost of replacing Ady Gil, threatening the captain with criminal charges if payment was not received in four weeks.

‘‘We will be seeking punitive damages, in addition to the full replacement cost of the Ady Gil…further to this we will be laying criminal charges against the captain of the Shonan Maru (No. 2),’’ wrote Bethune.

Meanwhile, amid all the action on the high seas, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation quietly euthanized at least 19 pilot whales that were allegedly beached at West Ruggedy Beach on Stewart Island.

Department of Conservation (DOC) employees said they were forced to euthanize the whales, because the seas were rough.

“They were in reasonably good health when we got there but the weather conditions were so bad it would have been far too dangerous to try anything else,” an official said.

In December 2009, at least 150 whales died after they  became stranded on Coromandel peninsula, most probably due to noise pollution from NZ oil exploration, tourist boats and planes, as well as toxic pollution in New Zealand’s coastal waters.

Related Links:

• Noise from Oil Exploration, Tourist Boats Kills 150 Whales
• Dolphins and penguins are dying too!
• To & From New Zealand: Double Act of Eco-Terrorism
• Stop New Zealand Committing Eco-Terrorism!
• World’s beaches turned killing fields

• How Emily May Harper Was Killed in NZ
• Hundreds of Dead Animals Litter NZ Beaches
• Oceans are ‘too noisy’ for whales
• WDCS Blog
• International Fund for Animal Welfare

• Whale Songs Drowned Out by Human Noise Pollution
• Global food safety alert: Toxic NZ shellfish warning
• WhaleWatch

The Antarctic Whaling War Continues

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Steve Irwin stinkbombs Japan’s whaling ship Kaiko Maru

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose ship Steve Irwin has been chasing Japan’s whaling fleet in the Antarctic waters, says they have forced the fleet into waters off the Ross Dependency, an area claimed by New Zealand.

Members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, aboard their ship the Steve Irwin (L), throw items at the Japanese ship the Kaiko Maru near Antarctica December 26, 2008. Environmentalists chasing a Japanese whaling fleet off Antarctica threw “stink” bombs at one of the vessels, Japanese authorities and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said. Picture taken December 26, 2008. REUTERS/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society/Eric Cheng/Handout

An Australian court order prohibits whaling in waters off Australian-claimed Antarctic territories coast, which is declared as an ‘economic exclusion zone,’ aka “EEZ.”

Sea Shepherd insists that it is enforcing that order by forcing Japan’s whaling fleet out of Australia’s EEZ.

Japan does not recognize the zone and says its whaling fleet is in international waters.

In a statement released Saturday, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said: “The good news is that they are no longer whaling in Australian waters and they only managed to hunt in the waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory for about a week before being forced to flee the Australian EEZ.”

“They are now in the waters of the Ross dependency and the Steve Irwin is in pursuit,” he said, adding that it was “bad news” for the whales in waters south of New Zealand.

“Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, which runs the hunt, has accused Sea Shepherd of “eco-terrorism” and of ramming its vessel the Kaiko Maru during a protest action last Friday. Sea Shepherd has blamed the Japanese for the collision.” Reuters said.

The crew of the Japanese whaling ship has warned Sea Shepherd that any similar action would be treated as “illegal intruders under Japanese law.”

Two issues need to be fully addressed, preferably in an “independent” international court. First, the legitimacy of Australian claim to the EEZ. Second, the legitimacy and the nature of the Japanese claim using “scientific” research as an excuse for hunting  whales, despite an international 1986 moratorium on whaling, and in view of the fact that much of the whale meat is sold for human consumption.

Related News Links:

• Japan whalers out of Australia-claimed area
• WhaleWatch

• Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
• Illegal harassment and terrorism against ICR research

Steve Irwin Will Chase Japanese Whalers

Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said today their organization’s ship, Steve Irwin, would continue pursuing the whalers once the weather improved.

“They are on the run but right now it is very bad weather,” he told reporters by phone from the Steve Irwin, noting that the Japanese fleet had started very early in the whaling season.

“That means we are going to cut into their profits. When they are running they are not killing whales.”

Japanese whalers plan to kill about 900 whales in this years Antarctic hunt.  Although Japan officially stopped whaling under a 1986 global moratorium, the whalers have been catching hundreds of whales each year, which Tokyo says is “for scientific research purposes.” However, most of the meat is sold openly at Japanese supermarkets.

Watson said Sea Shepherd had spotted the Japanese fleet, which he believed had already killed some whales.  They called off an attempt Friday to attack the harpoon ship Yushin Maru 2  about five kilometers from the ship because of dense fog and icy seas. (Source)

Related Links:

• Whalewatch