Esperanza drives whalers out of the Southern Ocean sanctuary

Posted by jossc — 14 January 2008 at 5:16pm - Comments

Greenpeace campaigner Sakyo Noda contacts the Japanese whaling fleet

Greenpeace campaigner Sakyo Noda contacts the Japanese whaling fleet

Good news from Esperanza, our ice-class vessel on patrol in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Yesterday the Espy had a face to face encounter with the Japanese whaling fleet's factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru, which was confronted close to the ice edge. As soon as they realised that we were in the area, the whalers put on speed and tried to get away.

After a high speed chase over hundreds of miles through fog and increasingly rough seas (see video clip below), the Esperanza this morning pursued the whalers north of the over the 60 degrees latitude mark - out of the Southern Ocean hunting grounds. The catcher vessel Yushin Maru also followed suit.

Although Esperanza's arrival on the scene definitely curtailed the whalers' activities, our crew's best guess is that the Japanese fleet left the sanctuary in order to rendezvous with its supply vessel, the Panamanian-registered tanker Oriental Bluebird, to re-fuel and off-load the whale meat that has already been processed aboard the Nisshin-Maru.

In a radio communication with the Japanese whaling fleet, expedition leader Karli Thomas told the whalers: "Our vessel and crew are here in the Southern Ocean to condemn your hunt, which includes endangered species, and to insist that you return to port immediately.

"We represent millions of people around the world who want to see an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

"We join with the majority of people in Japan who do not support whaling on the high seas. Your so-called scientific whaling is a hoax. It has been dismissed as useless by the International Whaling Commission."

The most infuriating thing about all this is that there is a very weak market for whale meat in Japan. Polls consistently indicate that over 60 per cent of the Japanese public oppose whaling, and in recent years the whalers have been unable to sell a large proportion of their catch, resulting in the growing stockpile shown in the graph below.

Japan's growing whale meat stockpile

So why does Japan continue to whale? Japan's research whaling benefits only a very few Japanese bureaucrats, and has cost Japanese taxpayers billions of yen in subsidies. It produces research nobody needs, and whale meat very few want. It deserves to be exposed in Japanese society as a scandalous waste of money.

According to Junichi Sato, whales project leader for Greenpeace Japan: "The Japanese people clearly do not support the whaling that is being carried out in their name, and with their tax money. It is time for Prime Minister Fukuda to put an end to Japan's whaling scandal, and to recall the fleet home to Japan."

Take Action: Stop the new whaling ship

If Japan succeeds in plans to build a new whaling factory ship, whaling could continue for decades. Tell the Japanese Prime Minister that building the new factory ship is a bad idea.

Ok so you are a Greenpeace supporter - does that mean you support the principles by which we operate or not? There are lots of groups out there (Sea Shepherd among them, obviously) who take a different approach to us - so if you're happy for your campaigners to use violence to achieve their ends fine - but don't expect Greenpeace to have anything to do with them. This organisation was founded on the principle of non-violent direct action - unlike Sea Shepherd, who are quite happy (in fact, proud of the fact) that they use violent methods to achieve their ends - throwing acid, using a giant 'can-opener' to gouge holes, and ramming are among their repertoire. Greenpeace fundamentally and profoundly disagrees with this approach., and will not willingly be a party to it.

Exactly how were we helping the whalers when we stopped them whaling for 14 days while Esperanza was in close pursuit of their factory ship? And when the Espy had to leave the area to refuel the Australian government ship Oceanic Viking was in close attendance on the Nisshin Maru and whaling had not resumed. Sea Shepherd could easily have got the Nisshin Maru's coordinated from them.

Absolutely agree with you stw - it's almost impossible to fathom but seems to be down to Japanese governmental culture. The real culprit is the Fisheries Agency of Japan - they developed whaling in the aftermath of World War II when Japan had years of food shortages and it seems to have a talismanic importance for them, far beyond any economic value. And until Greenpeace launched an anti-whaling campaign on their home turf, few people inside Japan were actually questioning what they were doing. Now they are - polls show that over 65% of the Japanese public want whaling to end, which is making it increasingly difficult for FAJ to carry on their 'business as usual', which is why we feel it's so important to focus our efforts there.

Ok so you are a Greenpeace supporter - does that mean you support the principles by which we operate or not? There are lots of groups out there (Sea Shepherd among them, obviously) who take a different approach to us - so if you're happy for your campaigners to use violence to achieve their ends fine - but don't expect Greenpeace to have anything to do with them. This organisation was founded on the principle of non-violent direct action - unlike Sea Shepherd, who are quite happy (in fact, proud of the fact) that they use violent methods to achieve their ends - throwing acid, using a giant 'can-opener' to gouge holes, and ramming are among their repertoire. Greenpeace fundamentally and profoundly disagrees with this approach., and will not willingly be a party to it. Exactly how were we helping the whalers when we stopped them whaling for 14 days while Esperanza was in close pursuit of their factory ship? And when the Espy had to leave the area to refuel the Australian government ship Oceanic Viking was in close attendance on the Nisshin Maru and whaling had not resumed. Sea Shepherd could easily have got the Nisshin Maru's coordinated from them.

Absolutely agree with you stw - it's almost impossible to fathom but seems to be down to Japanese governmental culture. The real culprit is the Fisheries Agency of Japan - they developed whaling in the aftermath of World War II when Japan had years of food shortages and it seems to have a talismanic importance for them, far beyond any economic value. And until Greenpeace launched an anti-whaling campaign on their home turf, few people inside Japan were actually questioning what they were doing. Now they are - polls show that over 65% of the Japanese public want whaling to end, which is making it increasingly difficult for FAJ to carry on their 'business as usual', which is why we feel it's so important to focus our efforts there.

About Joss

Bass player and backing vox in the four piece beat combo that is the UK Greenpeace Web Experience. In my 6 years here I've worked on almost every campaign and been fascinated by them all to varying degrees. Just now I'm working on Peace and Oceans - which means getting rid of our Trident nuclear weapons system and creating large marine reserves so that marine life can get some protection from overfishing.

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