Stopping Japanese whaling by hook, crook, or steel enema

It’s hard to say which is more astonishing—the story itself, or the lack of coverage, particularly in Japan. As far as I can tell, only the Australian and New Zealand media are covering the story, and the only place I found it was on journalist/blogger Tim Blair’s website.

The tale involves the Nisshin Maru and the rest of the whaling fleet of the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo, and their antagonists, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The Nisshin Maru plans to catch about 950 minke whales, and the Sea Shepherd Society is trying to stop them.

You might expect the world’s sympathy to be on the side of Sea Shepherd and against the Japanese, but that’s not the case. In fact, just about everyone involved in this comedy of errors is helping the Japanese and hindering the conservationists—including the governments of anti-whaling countries that wish the Japanese would stop. Even though Greenpeace is also trying to stop the Japanese, they won’t have anything to do with Sea Shepherd.

Somebody must like them, however—they had enough money to buy two ships and a helicopter that they’re using to chase the Japanese ships in the Ross Sea off Antarctica, south of New Zealand.

Here’s a listing and bios of the Sea Shepherd ships’ two crews. It makes for both entertaining and educational reading. One crew member is Tim Gorski, who is a self-described “independent documentary filmmaker/animal activist with 12 awards for my first feature film, “Lolita: Slave to Entertainment.” He wears a red head scarf. Another is John Gravois, who introduces himself this way: “Armed with only my best friend’s iPod and my trusty bicycle, I left my home in Claremont, California to pursue my two life goals; liberating the oceans from man’s tyranny, and becoming a buccaneer.” A third is a tatoo artist who claims to have founded the Whale Weirdo Foundation.

While you’re wondering about a guy who would take a bicycle to Antarctica to fulfill his buccaneer fantasies, here’s the captain of this…well, motley crew.

“Sea Shepherd is the only organization in the world willing to go to the Antarctic to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet and shut them down,” said Paul Watson. “This is an international effort to uphold international law against a pirate whaling operation.”

If you think these folks might have trouble with seamanship, you’re right. After 12 days of fruitlessly searching for the Japanese whalers in January, the group offered a $25,000 reward for help to locate them. Captain Watson complained that a New Zealand Air Force plane spotted the Japanese ships, who were playing hide-and-go seek, but wouldn’t tell them their location. (Captain Watson, as we shall see, likes to complain.) Said the cap’n.:

“That makes the New Zealand Government complicit in criminal activity as what Japan is doing is illegal….We have also found out US Naval Intelligence has been tracking us by satellite and giving information to the Japanese.”

Sound a bit like the Caine Mutiny to you?

Greenpeace then joined in the hunt for the Japanese, but said it wouldn’t tell Sea Shepherd if they found them.

“We have a principle of peaceful protest, which Sea Shepherd does not,” Greenpeace spokeswoman Sara Holden said.

Greenpeace is apparently referring to Captain Watson’s statement that he would ram the Japanese if he found them. He promised to give them a “steel enema”. Also, one of his ships is equipped with a “hydraulic can opener”.

Once a sailor, always a sailor!

After five weeks, however, the Sea Shepherd group were about to give up earlier this month as they were running short of fuel. But that wasn’t their biggest concern. The group has two ships, one of which was registered with Belize, and the other with Great Britain. Both were registered as pleasure craft, so after the action started, Belize immediately deregistered its ship. The British said they would do the same on February 19, amidst charges of Japanese diplomatic pressure. (What the Japanese could do to bring pressure on the British, I’m not sure.)

This is an important distinction because the deregistered ships would then become “pirate” ships under the UN Law of the Sea, and the crews subject to arrest if they landed. Well, they’re getting what they asked for—Seaman Gravois said he wanted to be a buccaneer when he grew up, and both ships fly the Jolly Roger (as you can see from the photos in the links).

Complained Captain Watson:

“It sure is hard trying to save whales if so-called whale-friendly governments like the UK, Australia and New Zealand side for all intents and purposes with the whalers,” he said.

Then two of the wannabe pirates got lost looking for the Japanese. Tip your hat to the Japanese whalers–they pitched in to help look for them. In fact, it was the first time that Japanese whalers ever worked together with Greenpeace for any reason. One of the lost sailors turned out to have been John “The Buccaneer” Gravois. But the old salt Captain Watson reported he finally found his stray lambs by sailing around in circles. What did he think about the Japanese aid?

Captain Watson said he had thanked the Japanese for their assistance, and then told them, “now it’s back to business.”

And back to business it was, as the two Sea Shepherd ships caught the Japanese by surprise. They didn’t operate the can opener, but they threw butylic acid, which they called butter acid, on the deck of one ship, and used nail guns to try to nail plates over drain outlets in the Nisshin Maru’s hull.

The acid slightly injured two Japanese crew members. The Cetacean Institute issued a statement branding the group’s behavior as “piratical, terrorist acts”, which the activitists probably took as praise.

The affair has escalated over the past couple of days, as the media now reports one of the Sea Shepherd ships, the Robert Hunter, collided with one of the Japanese whaling ships. Captain Watson said he was trying to force one of the Japanese ships into an area heavy with ice when the Japanese ship rammed it. Both ships suffered damage, and the Japanese ship sent out a distress signal, but apparently no one is in immediate danger. Here is Watson’s complaint:

He blamed the Japanese vessel for the subsequent collision, saying the whaling ship had backed up on the group’s vessel, the Robert Hunter…The Robert Hunter had earlier tried to force the whaling vessel into a part of the sea heavy with ice, in an attempt to stop the hunt, Watson said. “They were going after some whales, we moved in and they moved away,” he said. “(Then) they backed up and hit the Robert Hunter, causing a rip in the hull…Of course when they ram us, people say ‘you shouldn’t have been there’. It’s a total double standard…The Kaiko Maru has issued a distress signal. We have acknowledged this distress signal but they refuse to say what distress they are in.”

Will somebody break the news gently to the Captain?

One of the Sea Shepherd ships, the Farley Mowat, was running out of fuel and hoped to get some from the Robert Hunter, but that became more difficult after the Robert Hunter was damaged. This may force both ships to port, assuming that their negotiations to prevent their arrest as pirates are going well.

It turns out that Captain Watson has a bit of a problem with the truth in addition to a predilection for complaints. The Institute of Cetacean Research has uploaded videos at their website showing the Robert Hunter ramming one of their ships. (The link is at the top of the post.) After ramming the Japanese ship, the Robert Hunter got stuck in the ice.

Something to think about: There is a moratorium on commercial whaling, but Japan takes whales under what it calls a scientific whaling program. They admit, however, that some of the whales are eventually eaten. Yet Iceland and Norway ignore the moratorium and openly conduct commercial whaling expeditions.

Why does Sea Shepherd harass the Japanese and not the Europeans? Do they find it easier to bully Asians? Or do they know that the Japanese won’t fight back?

Here are the links:

January 28: Reward offer

February 9: All at sea

February 9: Missing buccaneers found

February 9: Pirates attack!

February 9: Japanese protest!

February 12: Collision! (From New Zealand)

February 12: Ramming claim (From Australia)

Stay tuned for any updates!

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