David @ Tokyo

Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson has responded to the Farley Mowat's de-registration by IMMARBE. Unfortunately it appears that the vessel was able to leave Hobart just prior to the de-registration:

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat is now officially a pirate vessel.

We are at sea without a flag, in search of illegal whaling operations in hostile and remote waters at the bottom of the world. The Farley Mowat cleared Australian Customs in Hobart, Tasmania on December 29, 2006 only hours before the nation of Belize struck our flag.

The Belize registry had only been issued ten days before on December 19, 2006. The registry was sought in Belize after Britain pulled the registry in early December the same day it was issued.

In October, the Farley Mowat registered under the Canadian flag since April 2002, had the registry suspended by Canada.

Sea Shepherd also had trouble earlier in 2006 when South African officials detained their vessel.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a little more:

An email sent by a registry official to Captain Watson said port authorities in Hobart, where Farley Mowat was docked, would be asked to ensure the ship did not leave port with Belizean registration. But Captain Watson said he had left hours earlier. "My instincts told me that we had better 'get out of Dodge'."

All of this creates an interesting situation, with the vessel having left port before the authorities could prevent it:

• Apparently stateless ships have no protection under international law. The whaling fleet is essentially owned by Japanese public-interest corporations now, so any actions taken against the fleet directly affect interests of the Government of Japan. There are laws and precedents for stateless vessels being boarded on the high seas, but as far as I've been able to find, they usually involve stateless ships suspected of illegal fishing activity or transport of weapons.
  

• Where will the Farley Mowat refuel and resupply? The Australian ports have been aiding SSCS to date, but with their flag struck off yet another register, one wonders whether they would seriously consider letting the Farley Mowat dock and the depart once again.
  

Back in December 2005 Watson said that he had "received a tip from a reliable source in Japan, that Japan has dispatched a warship to the Southern Ocean", speculating that they might seize the Farley Mowat in accordance with UNCLOS provisions. Obviously his tip wasn't reliable at all, and I doubt we'll see any such actions from Japan, but if a US Navy ship happened to be in the region - who knows.

As I suspected in my previous post, Watson has started his whinging about Japanese influence again:

This is all apparently part of a strategy by Japan to use its economic muscle to lean on any nation that allows us to be registered under their flag.

Another possibility that Paul should consider is that no sane registry would want to be seen to aid and abet his organizations actions.

Watson also says that:

"If anyone wishes to stop us from protecting whales they will have to sink us"

and the SMH quoted him as saying:

"I say in absolute seriousness at the risk of sounding dramatic, but my crew and I are prepared to die for these whales if need be."

The Farley Mowat isn't capable of keeping up with the research vessels, even if they are able to find them, so I don't think they'll have the opportunity to prove their madness.


Meanwhile, the "whale safe beer" campaign is coming in for additional criticism:

Don't get me wrong, I am in no way in favor of needlessly killing whales. Frankly I don't know much about the issue. The WSB people's position is that Japan, the country, with a wink and a nod allows its fisherman to catch whales despite a world wide moratorium on the practice. Therefore any beers brewed in Japan or beer companies that are supported in any way with Japanese money are responsible. What? Could there be a more insane position? Lots of countries allow pretty despicable things to happen but does this mean that all industry from that country should be boycotted? What is Japanese beer supposed to do about the whale killing? I hope beer lovers will see this cheap, baseless sales tactic for what it is and ignore Bluetongue's proposed boycott.

Labels: JARPA II 2006/2007 Updates, Sea Shepherd, whale safe beer, Whaling