Sea Shepherd Prepares to Attack the Japanese Whaling fleet in Antarctic Whale Sanctuary : Melbourne Indymedia

December 23rd, 2005

I am sending this e-mail from our ship the Farley Mowat to a small list of friends and supporters.

We are down off the coast of Antarctica about 180 miles off the Mertz Glacier and the Adelie coast. We are about five hours from interception of the Japanese whaling fleet. We are presently on an interception course. I am anticipating a confrontation with the Japanese whalers in a few hours.

Apparently, we have been warned that the Japanese have firearms and that they intend to aggressively resist us. We anticipate that we may sustain some damage but our objective is to shut down their illegal activities and we will risk losing the ship if need be to further that objective.

The crew are ready and eager to engage the Japanese whalers. We will have a helicopter in the air and three inflatables on the water during the confrontation to film the intervention.

I want you all to know that I am down here with 43 dedicated and courageous volunteers who have given up their holidays with friends and family to be here to defend the Piked and Fin whales from the merciless grenade tipped harpoons of the Japanese fleet.

We anticipate a battle today. I have been working towards this showdown with the Japanese fleet for 25 years. Now at last, their ships are within striking distance and we will do everything we can with the resources at our disposal to shut down their illegal slaughter of these gentle and intelligent creatures.

We may lose our ship and find ourselves in our lifeboats within the next few hours. I am quite sure we will sustain damages. But I want you to know that there is nowhere in the world that we would rather be at this moment, and that there is nothing else that we can imagine doing other than what we are doing right now.

For this holiday season, we want to give a gift of life to the whales and if we can stop this fleet, if we can stop the killing, we will be very happy. I want to enter the New Year knowing we have stopped these killers.

For all of you who have supported our efforts, thank-you. You helped to put us here where we want to be. We are grateful. This is a glorious way to end this year, down here at the bottom of the world amongst magnificent icebergs in a sea of whales, seals, penguins and birds fighting the most ruthless killers in the world.

I hope that within 25 hours, if we still have a ship and if we still have communications that I will be able to report to you the consequences of our intervention.

Happy Holidays

Captain Paul Watson and the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat.

For further updates contact http://www.Seashepherd.org

10:00 Hours: P.S. Moments ago, dozens of Piked whales (Minke whales) passed by us clearly agitated and swimming furiously, surfacing to breathe every 30 seconds. The last time i remember seeing this behaviour was when we encountered the Soviet whaling fleet years ago and saw frightened Sperm whales fleeing the area. I take this as a sign that the whalers are very close.