David @ Tokyo

No confrontation in the Antarctic for at least about another week it seems:

... activists from the group Sea Shepherd said their two ship navy, which aims to disable the whaling vessels, would reach Antarctic waters and begin to hunt for the fleet in about a week.

There's more detail about the Farley Mowat's piracy paraphernalia as well:

Engineers have fitted a solid steel hydraulic ram with a bulldozer-strength blade to the Sea Shepherd's flagship, Farley Mowat, which has been stripped of its registration in Belize and could now be considered a pirate vessel under international law.

Sea Shepherd's president, Paul Watson, said the "can opener" was operational and far more serious than a version used last year to scrape the side of the Japanese resupply ship, Oriental Bluebird. He said its placement at deck level meant it could damage, but not endanger, the hull of another ship.

He said Sea Shepherd had never caused human injury in its direct actions, and he hoped to inflict just enough damage to a whaling vessel to force it to return to port.

In this day and age, one would hope that a ship with such an implement attached to it would be consider a pirate vessel, regardless of whether or not it was registered.

Apparently the new SS vessel has been named the "Robert Hunter", after one of Watson's late mates.


The Japan Whaling Association has another press release regarding Sea Shepherd's de-registration from Belize's registry.


As for Greenpeace? (Who?)

Greenpeace is also preparing its eighth campaign voyage south, later in the whaling season than ever before.

They've never been less serious about "saving whales" than today, it seems. This season's effort looks to be little more than "us too" tokenism at best, or merely donation attracting video footage generation at worst.

Australia's ABC Local Radio AM programme also has comment from GP's Sarah Holden and ICR spokesman Glenn Inwood, here.

Labels: eco-terrorism, Greenpeace, JARPA II 2006/2007 Updates, Sea Shepherd