Voice from the Deep!

It’s now the fifth day that Steve Irwin has been chasing the illegal Japanese whaling fleet. This time they came close to catching up to them when the fleet stopped for a short time in Vincenes Bay to hunt… they didn’t kill any whales. They were almost on them when they took off again – this time due north and after a hundred miles they headed east again.

The more they run, the more fuel they burn up and the more uneconomically viable the whale hunting becomes. The company who run the whaling fleet are already seriously in debt… the more the merrier!

The Steve Irwin is still being followed, in the now thick fog, by the Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68. This is the much faster heavy trawler that was shadowing them back in January. It has been confirmed by the Japanese that there are many armed Coast Guard officers onboard to “prevent” the (supposedly) illegal actions of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Today the Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68 came in close behind Steve Irwin in the fog. They were within a half a mile when 1st Officer Peter Brown pulled a “Crazy Ivan” by coming around 180 degrees heading straight for them – bow to bow.  The Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68 immediately turned and ran back to wherever it was coming from. The Steve Irwin resumed it’s course and the Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68 stayed behind at a respectful 6.2 nautical miles for the rest of the day.

“I’ve never seen a bigger pack of cowards in my life,” said Shannon Mann, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. “They have eight ships down here and they are running scared from little old us. We must be really scary!”

Despite what we can only imagine was a furious effort to locate our transmitters, the signals are coming in and we continue to tail the fleet despite the seas, the weather and the visibility. If technology can track a whale through the ocean it can certainly track a whaling ship. 

This Sea Shepherd campaign, which began on December 5th, 2007 when the Steve Irwin first left Melbourne and is continuing into March 2008, is the longest ever harassment of the Japanese whaling fleet since illegal whaling activities began in the Southern Ocean in 1986.

It looks like Sea Shepherd secured day number five as a no-kill day for the whales. The whaling fleet is burning expensive fuel and getting nothing in return. Every whale they see swimming free brings joy to the crew. The Steve Irwin’s immediate goal is to make it another “no kill” week down here in the Southern Ocean.

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It’s now the fourth day that the Sea Shepherd ship, Steve Irwin, has been on the tail of the whaling fleet. It’s calm weather and the Japanese whalers have turned South heading towards Vincennes Bay between the Budd Coast and Knox Coast of Wilkes Land. It’s calm at the moment but a storm is brewing to the South, in more ways than one…

They’ve zigged and zagged their way 800 nautical miles only to be 300 miles from where they started from!

Here’s where they started (google earth link) and here’s where they are now (google earth link)

Captain Paul Watson: 

We imagine that the whalers on the Yushin Maru No. 2 have been tearing their ship apart looking for our tracking devices. They won’t find them, and the batteries are good for over a year. We may even be able to use the devices next year if the Japanese fleet returns.

A couple of reporters have asked why we would admit to planting tracking devices on the ships. The answer to that is we want the Japanese whalers to know that we know where they are. We want them to know we are on their tail constantly. We want them looking over their shoulders constantly scanning the horizon for the black ship that will intervene against their poaching activities.

The Steve Irwin is coming and if Steve were with us he would be saying, “Danger, danger, crikey you whalers, these Shepherds are dangerous, because like the rest of Australia they are very filthy with what you’re doing.”

They are moving into an area where they can kill whales and if they stop to harpoon whales the Steve Irwin will be on them.

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The Sea Shepherd vessel the Steve Irwin has now been chasing the Japanese shaling fleet for 3 days and the weather is getting worse. Rough seas, ice bergs and a howling gale are their only allies in protecting the whales from the ruthless Japanese explosive harpoons.

According to Sea Shepherd, the satellite tracking devices they had planted on the Yusshin Maru No.2 are working correctly and they hear the signals loud and clear. Either that is miss information or the trackers are on a timer system and have recently activated. The tracking tags could have been placed months earlier when the ships were in port, or when they boarded the vessel in January to deliver a letter to the Captain. I did wonder why the video of the boarding was “edited” by Sea Shepherd.

Two thousand miles from Australia, we are alone down here with eight outlaw Japanese ships. The Japanese whalers have not found our satellite locators and where and how we planted them will be undetectable although we imagine they are ripping their ships apart trying to find them. But, the signals are coming through loud and clear and on schedule. We have them and they know we have them and we don’t intend to let them go.

It’s not the first time satellite tags have been used to track the whaling fleet. After all, it’s a small step from tracking a whale to tracking a ship.

What a race! The dark blue of the water opens up to reveal half sunken bergy bits the size of houses or cars. If we hit one of those at full speed we could split our hull open and so the watch keeps their faces glued to the bridge windows, peering through the mist and spray, the sleet and driving snow, to find the ice before the ice finds us.

As we race along the Albatross and the Petrels fly like protective air squadrons beside and above us.

Meanwhile we have Australian politicians warning us that what we are doing is dangerous. Of course it’s dangerous. Racing through treacherous, freezing, waters filled with chunks of ice, threading our way around mountainous tabletop bergs, pursuing vicious armed killers that out number us and being pursued by armed Japanese Coast Guard two thousand miles from the coast of Australia. Please Stephen Smith, you may be the Foreign Minister but tell us something we don’t know.

The truth is, Mr. Smith, that we would not be down here risking our lives to protect whales if your government had simply kept its promise to do something to kick these Japanese whale poachers out of these waters.

Instead of telling me, a deep sea Captain with decades of experience, how dangerous these waters and the situation is, why doesn’t your government send down a ship to arrest these poachers for flagrant violation of an Australian Federal court order that specifically prohibits the killing of whales in the territorial waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory?

Within weeks the ice will begin to form down in the Southern Ocean and the winds will blow stronger and colder and the seas will rise into a foaming angry cauldron of stinging frozen brine. The whaling fleet will be forced to retreat back to the land of the rising sun as the sun begins to disappear in the land of the midnight sun.

Between then and now, every hour and every day Sea Shepherd (and NOT Greenpeace) prevent the harpoons from firing will be a victory and every day that the whaling ships are running is another day that whales will live that would otherwise be twisting in mortal agony at the end of a steel cable.

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Well it didn’t take Sea Shepherd long to find the Japanese whaling fleet…

They are currently chasing them out of the whaling grounds with the Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68,with it’s armed coastguard, is in hot pursuit. Well… they ran away at first! I guess they were ordered to grow a back bone and have turned around and are pursuing the Steve Irwin.

On February 21, 2008, Captain Paul Watson wrote up the following order:

In accordance with the provisions defined in the United Nations World Charter for Nature, I hereby issue an order to uphold the rules and regulations of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) and the regulations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The order also calls for action to restrain Japanese whaling activities in accordance with the January 15, 2008 ruling of the Australian Federal Court.

This warrant hereby authorizes the crew of the Steve Irwin to board if required, to disable equipment if necessary, to destroy harpoons if possible and to intercept, blockade and harass all illegal whaling and poaching activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The warrant is signed by Captain Paul Watson – Master of the vessel Steve Irwin.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is legally authorized to intervene in accordance with the United Nations World Charter for Nature that was ratified by the U.N. General Assembly in 1982.

Section 21 of the World Charter for Nature states:

States and, to the extent they are able, other public authorities, international organizations, individuals, groups and corporations shall:

(c) Implement the applicable international legal provisions for the conservation of nature, and the protection of the environment.
(d) Ensure that activities within their jurisdiction, or control do not cause damage to the natural systems located within other States or in the areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
(e) safeguard and conserve nature in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Additionally, Section 24 states:

Each person has a duty to act in accordance with the provisions of the present Charter; acting individually, in association with others or through participation in the political process, each person shall strive to ensure that the objectives and requirements of the present charter are met.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society believes that the acts of illegal exploitation of whales by the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Whale Sanctuary is in violation of the laws and regulations of the IWC, CITES, and the Antarctic Treaty and in violation of and contempt of an Australian Federal Court ruling defines the Japanese whaling vessels as poachers.

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