The Sea Shepherd’s Southern Ocean season – dubbed “Operation No Compromise” — is over 0.5 over and reports up to now it should be having its best season of protest ever.
How to measure? only a few whales taken by the japanese whaling fleet and no ships sunk on either facet. Yet.
Of course there is been lots of verbal slugging since the season began in December, further because the tossing of some literal bamboo spears, by the Japanese!
Lead-Shepherd Captain Paul Watson accused the japanese of creating a false “Mayday” distress decision from the Southern Ocean last Friday, claiming it absolutely was “under attack” by the anti-whalers.
Watson admits he and his gang had deployed its typical weaponry: prop foulers (wire ropes meant to wreck engines), and a good variety of stink and paint bombs – leading to the come fireplace of these bamboo spears — however that they were hardly near ramming the japanese whaling ship.
“They said they were in distress and that we were standing by,” Watson told the AP. “The ‘Gojira’ [the Shepherd's new attack ship, named when Godzilla] is correct beside them and that they refuse to answer our calls.”
Truth is, consistent with Watson, it absolutely was the japanese ship “Yushin Maru No. 3″ that nearly cut the “Gojira” in 0.5, returning simply ten feet from its hull.
Given the remoteness of the battleground, for currently all we’ve got is that the he-said/she-said issuances of the 2 fighters. however all are going to be created clear later within the year, since for the fourth consecutive season a movie crew from Animal Planet is on board documenting the campaign for “Whale Wars.”
It would seem that this year’s campaign strategy has paid off. Utilizing thee ships, a helicopter and eighty eight crewmembers the Shepherd’s have successfully chased the japanese whaling fleet over five,000 miles. Early within the season they isolated and interrupt its refueling vessel – the “Sun Laurel” – even whereas being harassed by 2 of the Japanese’ 3 harpoon boats – that have centered on trailing the Shepherd’s instead of searching whales.
Watson checked in from port in New Zealand, where he’d taken the Shepherd’s lead ship, the “Steve Irwin,” for fuel and provides. he’s optimistic concerning the season, suggesting it should be “our most successful nonetheless.”
“They have taken terribly near zero (whales),” he says, hoping this could be the last season the Shepherd’s presence are going to be needed off Antarctica, hoping its non-stop harassment can finally encourage the japanese to present up its “scientific” hunt.
Where whaling commission edicts and international protest have failed, a mix of the seaborne fights, new Japanese tax laws, falling meat sales and having been caught running a whale-meat black market, could achieve stopping whaling within the Southern Ocean.
Success has apparently been felt on the fundraising front further, since the Shepherd’s have recently raised a large electronic billboard in Times sq. depicting a breaching whale near to be harpooned. it’s the media savvy non-profit’s 1st stab at out of doors advertising.