Sea Shepherd Counts Its Success

The Sea Shepherd conservation ships The Bob Barker and The Steve Irwin returned from the Southern Ocean on Saturday, concluding Sea Shepherd’s tenth Antarctic Whale Defence Campaign, Operation Relentless.

The Bob Barker docked in Wellington, New Zealand, and The Steve Irwin docked in Hobart, Australia, where supporters, friends and family were waiting to welcome the crew.

Since first locating the Japanese whalers on January 5, the Sea Shepherd Fleet located the fleet’s factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru, on a record four separate occasions. The whaling fleet’s operations were hampered by Sea Shepherd’s continual pursuit, which included twice exposing the whalers in the process of butchering protected Minke Whales, poached from the waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Captain of The Bob Barker, Peter Hammarstedt, said, “Although the whale poachers have not yet released the number of whales they have killed this season, we are confident that they have not even reached one-quarter of their bogus self-allocated quota, and estimate that our efforts have saved over 750 whales. As we return to port, we are gladdened by the thought that these whales are swimming with us on their migration north, and proud that our tenth Antarctic Whale Defence Campaign has been a true testament to how relentless we can be.”

Captain of The Steve Irwin, Siddharth Chakravarty, said, “Using their aggression the poachers ran, but they could not hide from us. This is the longest that the Sea Shepherd Fleet has ever remained in the Southern Ocean, as the whalers desperately tried to make up for profits lost due to Sea Shepherd’s direct intervention. After 94 days at sea, I am honored to return to port at the helm of The Steve Irwin and am deeply proud to be a part of this organization, vigilant in our defence of life in our oceans, relentless in our pursuit of justice for the whales.”

Over the course of its previous nine Antarctic Whale Defence Campaigns, Sea Shepherd has saved the lives of 4,500 whales and remains the only organization committed to upholding the sanctity of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, directly intervening against the illegal operations of the Japanese whaling fleet. 

However, the Japanese whalers see the situation very differently, citing sabotage by the Sea Shepherd vessels. On 17 December 2012 the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an Injunction Order enjoining Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson and anyone acting in concert with them from physically attacking the Japanese research vessels or any person on them and from navigating in a manner that is likely to endanger the safe navigation at sea of any such vessel.

The Injunction Order also prohibits them from approaching any vessel engaged by the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) or Kyodo Senpaku (KS) any closer than 500 yards (about 457 meters) when the research vessels are navigating on the open sea. Since last year the ICR and KS filed a Motion for Contempt against SSCS in violation of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Injunction Order. 
 
Japan’s research whaling in the Antarctic is a perfectly legal activity carried out under the International Whaling Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), says the Institute for Cetacean Research. “Sea Shepherd actions threaten safety of our research ships and lives of crews on it and is therefore unacceptable,” the Institute said in a statement calling on all related countries including the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand which are flag states and/or port State of Sea Shepherd vessels, and United States in which the headquarter of Sea Shepherd is based, to take every measure available to restrain them and deal with their criminal actions in a strict and objective manner.

There is a judgment pending in the International Court of Justice in The Hague concerning whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan). A decision is due on March 31.

Photo Credits (Sea Shepherd):

Sea Shepherd Captains: Eliza Muirhead

Sea Shepherd Crew: Tim Watters

Whale: Barbara Veiga