Whalers refueled, set to start hunt again : Melbourne Indymedia

On January 2 the Nisshin Maru and one of the Japanese hunter ships met with a sea tanker to take on fuel. The surprise was that the transfer occurred at 60 degrees 26 minutes South, inside the Antarctic Treaty area.

Andrew from the Greenpeace ship, Esperanza, said "Given the distance traveled, almost 2,000 nautical miles (3,700km) over the past eleven days, you would think they'd go another 26nm (48km) just to avoid refueling in the specially protected treaty area."

"I assume they have completed an environmental impact assessment, and filed all the necessary paperwork for such an operation in the treaty area - it would be arrogant in the extreme to violate the treaty right in front of a Greenpeace ship (and of course we took tons of photos)."

Antarctica is a declared nature reserve and land of science under the Antarctic Treaty, of which Japan is a signatory. Refuelling the whale fleet could be in breach of the strict Protocol for Environment Protection under the treaty. Emergency plans to deal with marine pollution must be drawn up co-operatively for ships operating in the treaty area, "particularly ships carrying oil as cargo".

Shane Rattenbury, from Greenpeace said "We do not believe that Japan has made the necessary notifications to the Antarctic Treaty about this,"

The Japanese Whaling fleet is likely to try to resume the hunt shortly with no whales slaughtered for the last ten days.

"The whalers have got a season that's about 100 days long. Their quota is 945 whales," Mr Rattenbury, expedition leader for Greenpeace, told AAP. "If you lose, say, 10 per cent of those through bad weather, they've got an average they need to catch of 10 a day and it's gone 10 days now without having any whales. That starts to add up pretty quickly. They're under a bit of pressure to get on with the business."

The Japanese fleet stopped running today. They stopped to refuel from a Panamanian tanker named the Oriental Bluebird.

The rest of the fleet has appeared at the rendezvous point.

This is another blatant violation of international law. It is illegal to bring an oil tanker into the Antarctic Treaty zone and it is illegal to refuel at sea inside the Antarctic Treaty zone.

We are not expecting Australia to protest this because the Australian government appears to have given the Japanese whalers carte blanche to do whatever they like in the Southern Oceans.

The Japanese fleet steamed over 2,000 miles to refuel. Why did the tanker not go to the fleet? Why waste fuel and ceasing whaling operations for 10 days to refuel?

It took Japan a few days to respond to the tip Sea Shepherd received from a source in Japan that a Japanese warship was en route to assist the Japanese fleet. They deny this and claim it was a publicity stunt by Sea Shepherd.

We never claimed it to be a fact. We reported that we had received a reliable tip from a reliable source. Japan has sent a warship to intervene against an environmental protest before so it would not have been unprecedented. The possibility remains that the warship is still on the way despite the Japanese denial. It is possible that they have called it off. It is possible that our source was wrong. We stand by the fact that we received a reliable tip from a reliable source. This source has led us to illegal fishing activities by Japan in the past so we have no reason to doubt the integrity of the report.

Now we wait to see what Japan is going to do. Will they resume whaling and where? Will they return to the East or remain in the West and work eastward?

The Sea Shepherd flagship Farley Mowat still has enough fuel to remain in the field for three more weeks of continued steaming so we still have the opportunity to intercept them.

“The Japanese fleet will have to be wary of every iceberg they see from here on in. We may be hiding behind one of them ready to ambush the bandits as they pass by,” said Captain Paul Watson. “We intend to make this dangerous ground for whalers. We intend to enforce the law”

The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat is only a few hundred miles from the Japanese position.

Hey Takver,

Great comment from you again, keep up the good work. I personally have emailed the corporates and Japanese government, if we supply enough feedback perhaps people will listen.

Regards

Justin