Sea Shepherd Activists Using Drones to Track Japanese Whalers

As tensions rise between Japanese whalers and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the recent lawsuit brought by the Japanese, Sea Shepherd has a new ally on their hands:  drone aircrafts. 

The whale activists have been locked in a heated and exponentially worsening battle with the Japanese whalers, and in light of the situation, Bayshore Recycling Corp. of New Jersey has donated two long-range drones equipped with detection capabilities and cameras which help to scan hundreds more miles of ocean for whaling ships.  The drones have been outfitted on two Sea Shepherd vessels, the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, and it has already yielded success.

Capt. Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd’s ship, Steve Irwin, said that these drones have proven to be “valuable assets” to the mission and that one drone already located Japanese ship, Nisshin Maru, off the coast of Western Australia this past Saturday.

PHOTO: MY Steve Irwin

The donated drones have shifted their mentality of wait, watch, and chase and put the Sea Shepherd ships in a position to find the Japanese whaling vessels before a single whale has been slaughtered.  However, the technological advantage still leaves Sea Shepherd as part of a cat and mouse game, just with a renewed edge and a head start.

Three Sea Shepherd ships and seven whaling ships are now all bound for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  On the Sea Shepherd Facebook page the activists wrote of the impending clash, “Sea Shepherd sails for life and the Japanese whalers sail for death."

According to the International Whaling Commission, Sea Shepherd saved 800 whales last season’s hunt by the Japanese, and the new drones are part of this season’s campaign named “Operation Divine Wind”—the same name Japan coined the infamous kamikaze attacks on U.S. vessels in World War II.