Sea Shepherd Withdraws From Whale War in the Ross Sea

At the helm, Captain Paul Watson says he is withdrawing in part to protect the ship and its crew from further injury and also to protect more than 1,000 hours of video documentation of the whale hunt from seizure. The expedition was documented by the Sea Shepherd videographers and by the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet for the television program "Whale Wars."

"Although we are willing to take the risks required, even to our own lives, I am not prepared to do to the Japanese whalers what they do to the whales and the escalating violence by the whalers will result in some serious injuries and possibly fatalities if this confrontation continues to escalate," Watson said today.

Watson, founder and leader of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said he believes that on January 31 the Japanese government dispatched a security vessel called the Taiyo Maru No.38 from Fiji to intercept the Steve Irwin.

"The ship is believed to be carrying a special boarding unit and has orders to seize the ship and all video evidence, according to a source in Fiji," said Watson today. "We cannot allow this documentation to be captured by Japan."

Second collision February 6, 2009 as photographed from the Sea Shepherd. (Photo by Adam Lau courtesy Sea Shepherd)

The Taiyo Maru No.38 is expected to arrive in the Ross Sea within days.

The Steve Irwin had only another four days of fuel reserves to remain with the Japanese whalers before being forced to return anyway, said Watson who plans to begin preparations to return next season with a faster and longer range ship.

"Another four days is simply not worth getting someone killed," said Watson. "We are down here because we respect the sanctity of life. The whalers are down here to illegally destroy life. People can choose to side with life or with death, between the whalers and the whale defenders, and we have chosen to defend life, and for those who condemn us for what we are doing, all I can say is that we are not down here for them. We’re down here for the whales."

Watson said he has been operating at a disadvantage against three harpoon boats that are superior in speed and maneuverability to the Steve Irwin.

"We need to block those deadly harpoons and we need to outrun these hunter killer ships and to do that I need a ship that is as fast as they are and I intend to get one and I intend to return next year," he said.

"We will never stop intervening against their illegal whaling operations and we will never stop harassing them, blockading them and costing them money. I intend to be their on-going nightmare every year until they stop their horrific and unlawful slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," he said.

During the past week, confrontations between the Sea Shepherd and the whaling fleet have resulted in numerous close calls and two collisions causing minor damage.

The whaling fleet this year deployed sonic weapons known as Long Range Acoustical Devices, LRAD’s, and high powered water cannons against the Sea Shepherd crew. The threw metal objects and golf balls at the conservationists.

Second collision February 6, 2009 as photographed from another Japanese vessel. (Photo courtesy Institute for Cetacean Research)

The Sea Shepherd crew fought back with canisters of rotten butter and lines and by blocking the rear of the Japanese factory vessel where the harpoon vessels were trying to unload dead whales.

"On February 6th, two incidents occurred where the Steve Irwin collided with harpoon vessels as they forced their way past the Steve Irwin's blockade in their pursuit of their poaching activities," said Watson. "These collisions were not intentional on the part of Sea Shepherd."

No whalers were injured. Three members of the Steve Irwin’s crew were injured with one man requiring five stitches above his left eye after being hit by a blast from the LRAD and knocked over.

"I have said always said that we would do everything we can short of hurting people to end illegal whaling in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary," said Watson. "We have done everything we could with the resources available to us this year. We have shut down their illegal operations for over a month in total. We have cost them money and we have saved the lives of a good many whales."

In Tokyo, the Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research says the two collisions between the Steve Irwin and Japanese whaling vessels on February 6 were the Sea Shepherd's fault.

The ICR calls the Sea Shepherd's actions "high seas terror acts and breaches of international maritime law" and says video filmed by Japanese seamen in the Antarctic Friday backs their claims.

ICR Director-General Minoru Morimoto said in Tokyo, "The Steve Irwin 'captain' is completely ignoring the safety of crews aboard both the Dutch vessel and the Japanese research vessels and engaging in extremely dangerous behavior."

"Due to Sea Shepherd's increasingly violent actions the risk of a more grave and serious accident happening is increasing by the hour," said Morimoto.

Minke whale lies on the deck of the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru. February 6, 2009. (Photo courtesy ICR)

"The Australian Government, which has harbored and allowed to the Steve Irwin to refuel and reprovision its supplies as well as the government of the Netherlands which has registered and flagged the vessel should also be held accountable for allowing this vessel to commit serious criminal acts at sea," he said.

Watson dismissed Japanese accusations that Sea Shepherd deliberately rammed their whaling ships.

"The whalers and their hired PR flunkies can say whatever they want now but we have over 1,000 hours of video footage documenting every moment of the campaign. Our story will be told on a weekly series on Animal Planet with the show Whale Wars. People can watch and judge for themselves. The camera is the most powerful weapon in the world and we intend to demonstrate that power."

This year the crew of the Steve Irwin pursued the Japanese fleet from December 18, 2008 until January 7, 2009 for over 2,000 miles, shutting down their operations for a month.

After returning to Australia to refuel, the crew headed back to the Southern Ocean, relocated the whaling fleet on February 1 and pursued them for another nine days, during which time the whalers were only able to kill five whales. Typically the whalers take eight to 10 whales per day.

Watson says, "A pursuit of the Yushin Maru No.2 by the Steve Irwin on December 20th caused ice damage to the prop of the whaling ship and forced them out of operation for a month and a half. The harpoon vessel was denied repairs in Indonesia much to the embarrassment of Japan."

The Japanese maintain they are conducting legal whaling for scientific purposes with a self-assigned annual quota of more than 900 whales in the Southern Ocean. They say that research whaling is legal under the rules of the International Whaling Commission, IWC.

The Sea Shepherd and other conservation groups call the Japanese whaling illegal because it violates the Antarctic Treaty, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species and the regulations of the International Whaling Commission.

The IWC passed a resolution in 2007 requesting that the Japanese not kill whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary, saying that no further lethal activities are required for scientific purposes.

Watson says there is a legal precedent for Sea Shepherd's intervention and points to the United Nation World Charter for Nature that allows for nongovernmental organizations to uphold international conservation law and in Section 21(e) specifically in areas beyond national jurisdictions.

Born and raised in Canada, Watson now bases the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in Friday Harbor, Washington, USA. The Steve Irwin is a Dutch-flagged vessel named for the late Australian animal expert, television personality, and conservationist.

A co-founder of Greenpeace, Watson has fought whaling since June 1975 when he and the late Robert Hunter were the first to place a conservation vessel between a whaler and a whale. The Russian whaler did not kill the sperm whale it had targeted in the North Pacific.

He formed the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 1977 and after numerous campaigns to defend seals, whales and marine animals in other parts of the world, has taken a conservation vessel to the Antarctic in the 2002-2003 season, and every year since 2005.

For previous ENS coverage of the 2009 Ross Sea confrontation, click here.

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