Sea Shepherd to embark next week on mission to thwart Japanese whale hunt

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will launch "Operation Waltzing Matilda,"  its name for this season's campaign against Japanese whaling, next Monday from Fremantle, Australia.

Sea Shepherd will hold a fundraiser in Fremantle on Wednesday to garner support for the controversial group's sixth mission against whalers from Japan, who are currently en route to the Antarctic region for a prolonged assault that will target 935 minke whales and 50 endangered fin whales.

Past Sea Shepherd campaigns have led to tense confrontations and this year's will feature a new twist in the form of a futuristic-looking trimaran named Ady Gil. The speedy vessel, which can travel at 50 knots, will operate from the mother ship Steve Irwin and be used "to intercept and physically block the harpoon ships from illegally slaughtering whales," according to a Sea Shepherd news release.

It'll be interesting to see how the whalers respond to this sleek weapon being utilized by Sea Shepherd Capt. Paul Watson, who claims his group saved 305 whales last season with harassment techniques carried out largely aboard inflatable outboard vessels. 

Japan's annual hunts are conducted as scientific missions and the whalers operate under a "lethal research" loophole in the wording of an international moratorium against commercial whaling, enacted in 1986.

(It may or may not be coincidental that Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research was established a year later, in 1987.)

Operation Waltzing Matilda, like the past two campaigns, will be filmed for Animal Planet's popular "Whale Wars" series.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of the Ady Gil courtesy of Sea Shepherd

Comments

[Carter]

Condor and Hideyoshi,
You two need a reality check.

Japan is completely in the wrong here. Can you post any useful comments. Your names pop up around the place, posting your usual BS in favour of Japan....tools.

[rodrigo maharg]

get real Hideyoshi, and don't be blinded by your nationalism. The japanese whaling fleet is just that, a whaling fleet, hiding under the banner of 'research'. Clearly this is sham to justify continued attacks on endangered whales for profit, which is despicable. The sea shepherds are a bit extreme, but their heart is in the right place.

[Condor]

Wonder how many whales, people and boat that Peter Bethune is going to run over in Earthrace this time? Bethune already killed one person running them over in that boat and crippled another. Also, he run over so sea life when he hit some submerged object in the open sea that messed up his propellers. Bethune will be the perfect addition to the Sea Terrorist that are breaking several international laws with acts of violence on the Japanese that are breaking no laws.

[Hideyoshi Toyotomi]

These eco-terrorist are twits and should not be afforded such sympathetic media attention. Their activities are no different from those of Somali pirates. The sooner the Japanese Maritime Self Defence sends these cretins to the seabed, the better.
Also, it is not a "loophole" that permits scientific research of cetaceans. It is a provision in the IWC charter.