Sea Shepherd opposes illegal whaling

Nisshin Maru Rams 4 Ships in 1 Hour

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20 February, 2013

NISSHIN MARU RAMS S. KOREAN FUEL TANKER, SAM SIMON, STEVE IRWIN, AND BOB BARKER Feb. 20, 2013

MELBOURNE, Australia —

The SSS Bob Barker and SSS Steve Irwin have been rammed by the Japanese whaling fleet’s massive factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru.

The floating slaughter-house is eight times the mass of the Steve Irwin. The Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin were behind Sun Laurel, Steve Irwin on portside, Bob Barker on starboard. On load-speaker, the Shonan Maru No. 2 ordered Sea Shepherd’s Australian flagged ship, the SSS Sam Simon, which is located in the Australian Antarctic Territory, to leave the area on the orders of the Government of Japan. Concussion grenades were thrown at the Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin by the crew of the Nissin Maru. Captain Peter Hammarstedt radioed the whaling fleet’s factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru, and told them that the Bob Barker intended to maintain course and speed, that the moral and legal obligation to avoid the collision was on the Nisshin Maru. The Nisshin Maru, turned and was approaching from starboard. It nearly collided with Bob Barker, before it turned into Steve Irwin, and rammed the Sea Shepherd ship’s stern. The Nisshin Maru continued on its collision course, and rammed the portside of the Steve Irwin. The Nisshin Maru then rammed the Bob Barker. The Steve Irwin increased its speed ahead to avoid the Nisshin Maru. The Bob Barker took the Steve Irwin’s position on the portside of the Sun Laurel. The Steve Irwin circled back, and the Nisshin Maru pushed the Bob Barker into the Sun Laurel, sandwiching the Bob Barker between itself and the Sun Laurel.

The Nisshin Maru then fell back behind the Bob Barker, and rammed full speed into the portsidestern of the Sun Laurel, shattering their portside life-raft, and destroying the davit to launch the other life-raft. The Nisshin Maru then rammed the Bob Barker again from behind, destroying one of their radars, and all of their masts. The Bob Barker completely lost power and issued a MayDay distress call. As this distress call was issued, the Nisshin Maru turned away and began fleeing north. Sea Shepherd Australia Co-Campaign leader, former Senator Bob Brown, has informed the Australian Government of the Japanese multiple breaches of international law and called for Tokyo to be required to remove its ships from this region north of Australia’s Casey Base and to desist from its gross violation of Australian and international laws. He says that the Australian Navy should be dispatched to restore the law. Currently the Sun Laurel is being escorted north by the Sea Shepherd fleet, since they have no emergency life-saving devices in the potentially treacherous waters of the Southern Ocean. 

Director of Sea Shepherd Australia, Jeff Hansen said, "The Nisshin Maru has committed the maritime equivalent of a hit and run accident. They have rammed the Sun Laurel, putting them in perilous danger, and simply abandoned them." All vessels are heading north with the illegal whale poachers from Japan two miles ahead of Sea Shepherds’ fleet. All three Sea Shepherd ships were rammed, with the Bob Barker sustaining the heaviest damage. Power has been restored to the Bob Barker. Fortunately no crewmembers sustained injuries. The crews completed the mission to block the refuelling and will continue to protect the whales in the sanctuary.

Japan vows to keep whale hunt after activist clash

Yahoo,

21 February, 2013

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan vowed to continue its whale hunt in the Southern Ocean after clashes with the militant conservationist Sea Shepherd group, which claimed Tokyo had been forced to end the mission.

"We are keeping our whaling programme," an official at Japan's Fisheries Agency told AFP on Thursday, denying a report that Japan was forced to suspend its whale hunt after collisions with boats crewed by anti-whaling campaigners.

The official also repeated Tokyo's claim that the conservationists had rammed Japanese whaling ship the Nisshin Maru on Wednesday, their worst confrontation in the Southern Ocean in three years.

On Wednesday, the anti-whaling group -- which earlier this month lost a battle at the US Supreme Court over an order to steer clear of Japan's whaling fleet -- accused the Japanese side of deliberately colliding with its vessels.

Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson told the Australian Associated Press news agency that the whalers were refuelling at sea in an area where such activities are prohibited by an Antarctic treaty.

"I feel that this is the end of it," he was quoted as saying, pointing to the 18 days remaining in the short whaling season and deriding the Japanese fleet's moves as "like a case of road rage".

A spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said Thursday that the ship could not be refuelled "due to Sea Shepherd's dangerous activities".

Sea Shepherd is chasing the Japanese fleet hunting whales off Antarctica, as it has done for years in a bid to harass the whalers and prevent the mammals being slaughtered.

Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke has described Japan's whale hunt as cruel and unnecessary but has so far rejected calls to send an Australian government vessel to monitor the hunt.

Japan claims it conducts vital scientific research using a loophole in an international ban on whaling agreed at the International Whaling Commission (IWC), but makes no secret of the fact that the mammals ultimately end up on dinner plates.

Japan defends whaling as a tradition and accuses Western critics of disrespecting its culture. Norway and Iceland are the only nations that hunt whales in open defiance of a 1986 IWC moratorium on commercial whaling.

Sea Shepherd founder Watson is wanted by Interpol after skipping bail last July in Germany, where he was arrested on Costa Rican charges relating to a high-seas confrontation over shark finning in 2002.

Canadian Watson stepped down from key roles last month, passing the Antarctic harpoon chase mantle to former Australian politician Bob Brown.

Watson's whereabouts had been a mystery until December, when he confirmed that he was back on board a Sea Shepherd vessel and ready for the group's annual Southern Ocean expedition against the Japanese whaling fleet.

Anti-whaling Australia launched legal action challenging the basis of Japan's so-called "scientific" hunt in December 2010.

The court will now set the case down for a hearing in The Hague with Canberra anticipating it will be listed for the latter half of 2013.