End of the hunt
This year’s whaling season in Australia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Southern Ocean has ended as winter approaches.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) ships, Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, have had the whale processing mother ship Nisshin Maru on the run for more than three weeks. No whales have been killed since February 5.
“They will not be seeing any profits for this season,” noted a pleased Captain Watson.
The Steve Irwin and Bob Barker arrived back in Hobart on March 6 to an enthusiastic reception, and searches by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigating about 100 complaints made by Japanese authorities about SSCS actions in the Southern Ocean.
The Steve Irwin is due to leave Hobart on March 16 for the Mediterranean to oppose Bluefin tuna poachers – who apparently sell most of their catch of this endangered fish illegally to Japan.
Japanese whalers have continued to defy the 2008 Australian Federal Court ruling that Japan could not kill whales in the EEZ, also known as Australian Antarctic Territorial Waters.
And despite a ban on whale hunting by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) consistently uses a loophole in the IWC regulatory regime that permits ‘scientific’ whaling to carry out its annual slaughter in the Southern Ocean.
This year the ICR needed to kill 935 Minke Whales and 50 fin whales to pursue its ‘research’ program. They have fallen far short of their quota, thanks to the activities of the Sea Shepherd ships and their crews: the two boats consist of 54 men and 18 women.
The SSCS is a non-profit organisation based in Washington State, USA. Most of the crew is made up of volunteers who for three months work in the most dangerous maritime conditions on the planet.
The Sea Shepherd has harassed the Japanese fleet in the Southern Ocean for the last four seasons, but this season has been by far the most confrontational.
The deliberate slicing in half of the Ady Gil in early January by the Shonan Maru 2 in what appeared to be a fit of rage; the ramming of the Bob Barker by the same vessel a month later; and the kidnapping of the Ady Gil’s captain Pete Bethune when he tried to serve a citizen’s arrest on the captain of the Shonan Maru 2 – combined with the inflammatory commentary from Japan, the New Zealand government and commentators in Australia – have contributed to a very acrimonious environment.
The Australian government has finally said it will act on its election promise of 2007 and take Japan to the International Court before the next whaling season starts in November.
The IWC is due to meet in June but expectations of a resolution of the Japanese ‘research’ program are low – a preliminary ‘secret’ meeting of the IWC in Florida to discuss Japan’s quota ended in a frustrating stalemate a few days ago.
– BY JEREMY BROWN
