Message from Captain Paul Watson

 

Thank-you for Your Support for a Very Successful Campaign to Defend the Whales

 

 

My Friends,

 

We have just completed an epic voyage that not only disrupted illegal Japanese whaling activities in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary, but also highlighted the issue of whale poaching in the world media.

 

Thank-you to all of you who supported and helped to finance the campaign. Taking two ships, a helicopter and sixty crew to the remote coast of Antarctica was an expensive endeavour and without your support it would not have been possible.

 

Our interventions against the whalers resulted in two pods of whales escaping. We shut down whale processing activities on the Nisshin Maru and cleared their decks with stink bombs and smoke.

 

Our interventions allowed us to make a deal with the New Zealand Minister of Conservation Chris Carter. We agreed to tone down the aggressive attacks on the outlaw whalers in return for New Zealand agreeing to launch an aggressive diplomatic effort to stop the Japanese whalers from targeting Humpback whales in the 2007/2008 season. This puts the ball into New Zealand and Australia’s court for now. If they fail to stop the targeting of Humpbacks, we will return to take a more aggressive stand in defence of the Humpbacks, the Fins and Piked whales.

 

During the campaign the Sea Shepherd ship Robert Hunter sustained damages as a result of two collisions with the Japanese whaler Keiko Maru. One of our inflatable boats was damaged during a confrontation with the factory ship Nisshin Maru and two of our crew were lost at sea for 8 hours.

 

It was a dangerous campaign but in the end it was successful and none of our crew were injured.

 

The Nisshin Maru caught fire two days after our confrontations with the result that all of it’s whaling activities were brought to a premature end. More than 500 whales will not be killed because the Nisshin Maru and her fleet of hunter killer boats were forced to return to Japan. The damages were extensive and coupled with the inability to achieve their lethal quota, it is safe to say that this year was a financial disaster for the Japanese whaling industry. 

 

But we expect them to be back and we must be prepared for their return in November, 2007.

 

This last campaign was an incredible effort for us to secure a fast long range ship. It took us until October to locate the right vessel that we named the Robert Hunter. We found it in Scotland, took out a bank loan to secure it and then we prepared, provisioned and fuelled the vessel for a voyage halfway around the world from Scotland down the middle of the North and South Atlantic through the Straits of Magellan to the Ross Sea.

 

Our ship the Farley Mowat departed from Melbourne, Australia on the other side of the planet and met up with the Robert Hunter in the Ross Sea. We built a helicopter deck on the Robert Hunter in only two days. Both ships spent a month searching for the Japanese whaling fleet until we found them and disrupted their activities  beginning on February 9, 2007.

 

We will be returning to the Southern Oceans at the end of the year with the Robert Hunter. We will not take the Farley Mowat because the ship does not have the speed to keep up with the Japanese whalers. We will also be looking for a 2^nd faster ship to accompany us but if we cannot secure one we will be able to undertake the campaign efficiently with the Robert Hunter.  

 

With the Japanese targeting the very endangered Humpbacks and Fins in addition to raising the kill quotas on Piked whales, we need to make an even more determined and aggressive stand to stop them.

 

We are beginning to recruit and train crew now. Our helicopter will be serviced. The Robert Hunter will be repaired and we have begun to organize provisions and equipment required for the campaign. And of course we still need to raise funds to pay off the bank loan we secured to purchase the Robert Hunter.

 

Our effort in the Galapagos is paying off. We have a full time director and a permanent office in the Islands in addition to our fast patrol boat Sirenian. The poaching of sharks  in the Galapagos Marine Reserve has been severely reduced because of our interventions.

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not a protest organization. We are an interventionist organization that upholds international conservation law in accordance with the United Nations World Charter for Nature that allows for enforcement of international conservation law by non-governmental organizations.   

 

This campaign has given us a great deal of momentum and support. The poll taken by the Melbourne Age newspaper as the two Sea Shepherd ships were returning gave us an 88% support. The City of Casey in Victoria, Australia has proclaimed their community to be the honourary home port for the Robert Hunter. Last year Fremantle in Western Australia was declared the honourary home port for our ship the Farly Mowat.

 

I would like to hear any thoughts, criticisms, suggestions and recommendations you may have concerning this recent campaign and our up-coming plans so please feel free to communicate with me. I would love to hear from you. 

 

Thank-you

 

 

Captain Paul Watson

 

 

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