David @ Tokyo

As one would have expected, it's been a quiet Christmas / New Year's break in whaling land (why protest when there is no one watching TV?) but there has been one interesting development.

As I mentioned in my first JARPA II 2006/2007 update, states to which the Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace protest vessels are flagged have a responsibility to take actions with respect to inappropriate behaviour by these vessels.

Subsequently, we learned that Sea Shepherd had struggled to have it's slow Farley Mowat vessel registered in Britain, but had been successful registering with Belize (Belize somewhat famously voted against the pro-sustainable use bloc at the IWC meeting in 2006 on every measure, despite previously having been accused of selling it's vote to Japan by Sea Shepherd and others).

The big news today is that Belize has already taken actions with respect to the Farley Mowat - apparently it has torn up the registration:

Belizean flagged ship de-registered for threatening whalers

It is a common practice for vessels that engage in illegal fishing to be punished by the nation whose flag they happen to fly. But last week, instead of a rogue fisherman being sanctioned it was a ship suspected of engaging in radical environmental action that lost its papers. According to a release from IMMARBE, the International Merchant Marine Registry of Belize, the motor vessel "Farley Mowat" was registered to fly the Belize flag on December fifteenth as a pleasure craft that would also conduct research on the Belize Barrier Reef. Subsequent investigations, however, revealed that the ship was in Australian waters about to embark on an all too familiar mission to ram and otherwise interfere with ships engaged in whaling. The owners of "Farley Mowat" admitted to IMMARBE that the ship would be put on loan to the Sea Shepard Conservation Society, a militant environmental group which since 1979 has engaged in various aggressive actions against the whaling industry, including sabotage and ramming. According to the IMMARBE release, although Belize has voted with the anti-whaling bloc at the International Whaling Commission, it cannot condone acts that threaten life and property at sea. Consequently, the "Farley Mowat" was de-registered by IMMARBE on December twenty-ninth. Although in its early years as a "flag of convenience" registry IMMARBE earned a reputation for laxity, it has recently cleaned up its act to the point where it is one of only nine registries in the world to hold the U.S. Coastguard QUALSHIP 21 certification.

Presumably this once again puts Sea Shepherd in a bit of a pickle - the Farley Mowat is apparently also carrying a helicopter which will be indispensable to them in searching for the whaling fleet, once they arrive in the Ross sea vicinity. Their other newly purchased ship, apparently fast enough to keep pace with the whaling fleet, will be rendered ineffective without a location with which to find the research vessels.

There's no mention of this situation on the Sea Shepherd website yet, but one would not be surprised if Captain Watson gives it a mention, and turns back to his previous accusations of Japanese influence in Belize in light of this. Then again, maybe Greenpeace will again be the subject of Watson's ongoing frustrations.

Labels: Belize, eco-terrorism, IMO guidelines, JARPA II 2006/2007 Updates, Sea Shepherd, Whaling

There is an interesting Japanese language news report in the media tonight.

"IMO 82nd MSC - agreement on the creation of a code of conduct to ensure safety from whaling protest activity", says the headline at Environmental Information and Communication Network:

At the 82nd meeting of the International Martime Organization's (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) held in Istanbul from 2006/11/29 until 12/8, it was agreed to create a non-legally binding, voluntary "code of conduct" in relation to ensuring the safety of crew and ship navigation for vessels involved in offshore operations that become the focus of protest activity.

The dangerous obstruction activity that was carried out for 4 weeks from December 2005 to January 2006 against Japan's JARPA fleet engaged in scientific research is behind this "code of conduct".

At the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in June 2006, this issue was raised and a resolution was adopted calling for member nations to take measures in accordance with IMO guidelines to ensure the safety of vessels engaged in whale and whaling related research. However, it was later recognized that the IMO has no appropriate guidelines in place corresponding to this resolution, and consequently Japan proposed the creation of the "code of conduct".

The MSC's Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation (NAV) will consider the proposed "code of conduct" and aim to have it adopted by the MSC. (Fisheries Agency).

Again, the relevant IWC Resolution 2006-2 is here.

The Fisheries Agency press release on the topic adds further detail, noting that the proposal "received strong support from member nations and related international organizations, and the creation of a code of conduct (non-legally binding and voluntary) was agreed by consensus."

For those who read Japanese, the original EIC article is here, and the Fisheries Agency's release is here.

Elsewhere, the Japanese Whaling Association has issued a press release regarding Ian Campbell's alleged ties to Sea Shepherd, after they boasted on their homepage that they had received a call of support from the Senator.


UPDATE: According to the IMO webpage the next meeting of the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation (NAV) is set for 23-27 July 2007, so this "code of conduct" won't be in place this summer. Of course, because it is voluntary Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace may choose to ignore it anyway, although they'll probably find themselves antagonising their respective flag states.

Labels: eco-terrorism, Ian Campbell, IMO guidelines, JARPA II 2006/2007 Updates, Whaling

The JARPA II fleet left port back on November 15th. Almost a month has passed.

In the meantime, the extremist organization Sea Shepherd has apparently successfully acquired a fast new ship which is capable of keeping pace with the ICR research fleet, and Greenpeace, who also last year rammed the nose of their ship into the side of the Nisshin Maru, are also sending vessels to the Antarctic.

Already Sea Shepherd are trying to pump up their media hype machine, boasting that they are prepared to "instigate an international incident" in the Antarctic. While we can hope that this is just a load of huff and puff to attract attention and with it donations, again I recall the IWC 2006 Resolution on the safety of vessels engaged in whaling and whale research-related activities, which encouraged

"Contracting Governments to take appropriate measures, consistent with IMO guidelines, in order to ensure that the substance and spirit of this Resolution are observed both domestically and internationally."

I imagine that the Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace vessels are flagged to states that have adhered to these agreements, and I expect that these nations will fulfil their responsibilities should a repeat of last year's dangerous events reoccur this year.

Finally, a report out today suggests that:

The Japanese fleet is believed to be near New Zealand and should be ready to start hunting in two weeks.

In fact, I believe that with almost a month passed since they left port, they will likely already have commenced the research. This year the research is being conducted in Area V and the western part of Area IV (map). In previous years when this area was covered, for example 2004/2005, the fleet departed Japan on November 12 (Japanese ICR link), and the actual research in the Antarctic commenced on 7 December (IWC/SC 2005 pg. 52). With chief eco-terrorist at Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson reporting that they won't be in a position to obstruct the ICR fleet until the last week of December, we can probably estimate that the research fleet might catch 100 or so minke whales between now and that time (not to mention the 10 Fin whales). Of course, as the eco-terrorists themselves admit, they may not be able to find the fleet immediately either.

Incidentally, despite attempts at obstruction last year, the 2006 IWC/SC report indicated that the JARPA II sampling efficiency for minke whales was 95.6% (that's the percentage of whales taken to the number of whales selected for sampling). In the previous 2004/2005 cruise, the sampling efficiency was 94%. In 2003/2004, it was 93%, and in the 2002/2003 cruise, 92% (based on the IWC/SC report for each year). So despite their best efforts, it appears that Greenpeace failed to achieve much last year in terms of their stated aim of "saving whales" (although they must have reaped a lot of donation money). It remains to be seen how extreme the actions taken by Sea Shepherd will be this year, and the extent of any obstruction of the research. They apparently plan to go back to Australia to re-fuel so that they can stick it out for the whole summer, but one hopes they would have their ship impounded by the authorities if they do commit any illegal activities during the first leg of the trip.

Labels: IMO guidelines, JARPA II 2006/2007 Updates, Sea Shepherd, Whaling