The Countdown is On for Operation No Compromise!

Final preparations are being made to launch our 7th Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign, Operation No Compromise. In the first week of December, our ships will depart from Tasmania, bound for the frigid Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and the rugged desolate coast of Antarctica. Once again, Sea Shepherd Founder and President Captain Paul Watson will be leading this campaign with a crew of passionate, courageous volunteers from around the world.

Last season, we were able to save more whales than the Japanese whalers were able to kill. Five hundred and twenty-eight (528) whales are alive and swimming in the sea because caring people from around the world enabled us to intervene by supporting our ships and crews.

With three ships, we will once again be able to track and intervene against the poachers in the Southern Ocean for the entire season. Our goal is to save more whales this coming season than we did during the last season and to shut down whaling in the Southern Ocean permanently.

Here is a clip from last season



I for one cannot wait for this season to kick in and I predict they will put an end to whaling down there, we will have to wait until next April/June to watch it though.

Might keep the updates here.

gotta nuke something

Oh yea!

Japanese whalers to face new enemy in 'Godzilla'
By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com

A controversial animal-rights group preparing to embark on its annual harassment campaign against Japanese whalers has stepped up its effort this season by enlisting the aid of ... Godzilla.

The swift and ominous-looking interceptor vessel has the moniker Gojira, named after the ferocious monster in the legendary Japanese film, which in English means Godzilla.

The 115-foot boat was launched by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Monday in Fremantle, Australia, and has joined the larger vessels, Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, in Hobart. At midweek all three will begin their journey to Antarctic waters, where their crews will await the arrival of the Japanese whaling fleet.

Japan also means business. The whaling ships will carry armed members of the Japan Coast Guard to help prevent sabotage by the activists, according to the Japan Times.

These seasonal confrontations in the remote Southern Ocean have become increasingly tense, with occasional collisions underscoring the danger and controversial nature of some methods employed by Sea Shepherd, which has been criticized for risking human lives in its effort to save minke whales, which are not an endangered species.

Last season Sea Shepherd scuttled its interceptor vessel, the Ady Gil, after claiming it had been rammed and irreparably damaged by a whaling vessel. New Zealand investigators found both crews to have been at fault.

Japan annually targets about 900 whales -- mostly minkes but also a handful of endangered fin whales -- during a three-month season that generally begins in early December.

Japan gets around a longstanding International Whaling Commission ban against commercial whaling by using a "research" loophole and designating the hunts -- which are considered an important part of Japanese culture and tradition -- scientific missions.

However, pressure to persuade the country to curtail whaling is mounting. The IWC last spring submitted a proposal calling for Japan to reduce its quota to about 200 over a 10-year period. Australia has used an international court to try to halt whaling in the Antarctic, where killing occurs within a designated whale sanctuary.

Last season the Japanese fleet killed 506 minke whales and one fin whale. Officials with Japan's Fisheries Agency and the Institute of Cetacean Research regard Sea Shepherd as an eco-terrorist organization that has successfully obstructed hunting. Though the whaling effort is termed scientific, whale meat is sold commercially throughout Japan.

Gojira, which can easily out-run the larger Japanese vessels, will be used to help locate the factory ship, which processes whales killed by crews aboard harpoon boats; to try to thwart harpooning, and to prevent delivery of harpooned whales to the factory ship.

"The factory ship is the one we're after and if we can find it, we can shut down whaling," Sea Shepherd spokesman Jeff Hansen told reporters in Australia. "We can save 10 to 12 whales a day by blocking the slipway on the factory ship, so really this vessel is going to play a huge part in shutting down the Japanese whaling fleet for the entire summer."

This will be Sea Shepherd's seventh campaign against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic during the Southern Hemisphere summer, and the fourth season with an Animal Planet crew aboard, filming for its popular "Whale Wars" series.





what a gorgeous looking boat

one of the ships is called Steve Irwin

thats mildly amusing

A whale breached about 30 yards from our boat once when we were off vancouver island. that was class.

wow, i would absolutely love to see something like that

they are amazing creatures

Sea Shepherd Departs for Seventh Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign: Operation No Compromise


Steve Irwin departing the port of Hobart
HOBART, AUS - After months of preparation, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has officially set sail for their 2010-11 Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign, Operation No Compromise. This year’s fleet is the strongest to date including veteran vessels the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, with the addition of the newly-acquired trimaran Gojira, Japanese for Godzilla, with the necessary speed and power to outrun the whalers and put an end to their shameful activities.

Sea Shepherd will also deploy a more capable helicopter this year: the Nancy Burnet. This helicopter is faster, has a longer range, carries more people/weight, and is named after a very close friend of television game show host and animal rights advocate Bob Barker. Burnet helped facilitate Barker’s $5 million donation to Sea Shepherd in the summer of 2009. It was that donation that allowed Sea Shepherd to purchase the vessel Bob Barker as well as the upgraded helicopter and other essential equipment still in use.

“This is the largest crew and strongest fleet we have prepared to defend the great whales, and I am confident this year's campaign will be the most successful yet, especially as the Japanese whaling fleet remains docked in Japan because of issues involving a supply vessel,” commented Sea Shepherd Founder and President Captain Paul Watson.

Fremantle’s Mayor Brad Pettitt christened Gojira with the Australian flag during a ceremony earlier this week in her new home port in Western Australia. The interceptor vessel made Sea Shepherd history as the first ship to receive Australian registry in over three decades of operations.

“Sea Shepherd is very grateful for the incredible support we have received from the ports of Hobart, Fremantle, Albany, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and the communities of Whale Beach, Byron Bay and towns all over Australia. With everyone’s support this year, we now have an Australian flagged vessel with Australian crew,” Captain Watson commented.

Hobart is considered the gateway to Antarctica, and happens to be one of Sea Shepherd’s strongest support bases for preparing their vessels to defend whales from being illegally targeted in New Zealand and Australian waters.

Captain of the Bob Barker Alex Cornelissen added, “The support has been overwhelming, even with children emptying out their piggy banks to help save the whales. We certainly have a connection to the Australian people, and here in Tasmania it seems to be extra strong, perhaps this is because we’re much closer to Antarctica.”

After a public send-off, the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker departed from Hobart’s Macquarie Wharf 1 at 1:00 p.m. AEST, December 2, on a mission to enforce international conservation law, uphold an Australian Federal Court ruling, and prevent the illegal slaughter of endangered whales. Sea Shepherd held a press conference prior to departure led by Captains Watson and Cornelissen, and with some added support from Australian Greens Party Senator Bob Brown, re-enforcing his commitment as one of Australia’s most passionate defenders of whales.

Gojira is expected to rendezvous with the rest of its fleet including the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker this weekend after both ships have completed their crew training at sea. With a Sea Shepherd crew of 10, the wave-piercing trimaran is currently en route from Western Australia with Captain Locky MacLean at its helm. The 115-foot stabilized monohull vessel was the current record holder for successfully circumnavigating the globe in 1998 in just 74 days, a record to later be broken by the Ady Gil, which was lost at sea during last year’s campaign after a collision with Japanese harpoon ship the Shonan Maru No. 2.

Animal Planet is onboard all three vessels to document Sea Shepherd’s conservation efforts in the Southern Ocean for the fourth season of their hit television series Whale Wars.



getting excited now

jizzed in my pants

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s fleet has found the illegal Japanese whaling vessels on the last day of the calendar year. In the vastness of the Southern Ocean, Sea Shepherd’s ships have now found the Japanese fleet before they even began killing whales. This is a momentous victory for the whales and precisely how Sea Shepherd’s President and Founder Captain Paul Watson had hoped to ring in the New Year.

At around 0900 hours (Australian Eastern Standard Time), Sea Shepherd’s ship the Bob Barker found a harpoon vessel on the edge of the ice at 148 degrees west. The unidentified Japanese vessel attempted to move south to draw the Bob Barker away from the Nisshin Maru.

At 1500 Hours AEST, some 60 miles to the North, Sea Shepherd’s flagship vessel the Steve Irwin found the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru #2 sitting in the ice.

The Gojira and Sea Shepherd’s helicopter the Nancy Burnet, continue to search for the Nisshin Maru, Japan’s floating abattoir.

The Art of Finding the Whalers
The Bob Barker in the Southern OceanBy knowing when the Nisshin Maru left Japan and estimating the speed of the ship as it headed south, Captain Watson was able to get a rough idea of the whaling fleet’s daily progress.

He decided to take the Steve Irwin to Wellington, New Zealand and then down to Bluff on the southern end of the South Island. The Gojira stayed in Hobart and the Bob Barker moved to the middle and to the south of the Tasman Sea to show the Japanese that we were covering their path should they choose to go through it.

Captain Watson figured this would force the whaling fleet to the east to avoid being caught in the middle of the Sea Shepherd fleet in the Tasman Sea.

The whalers made an announcement that they would expand their hunting area to make it more difficult for Sea Shepherd to find them but over the last seven campaigns that Sea Shepherd has been harassing them, the illegal Japanese whalers have proven themselves to be nothing short of predictable and Captain Watson decided they were bluffing.

When the Tasmanian patrol reported the whalers well to the northeast of New Zealand heading southeast, Captain Watson deduced that they would head for the extreme eastern boundary of the area Japan has designated for their so-called research, an area that extends to 145 degrees west. This would place them at the maximum distance from where the Sea Shepherd ships departed from Tasmania and New Zealand.

Captain Watson instructed Captain Locky MacLean to take the Gojira east along the 60-degree line of latitude. Captain Alex Cornelissen of the Bob Barker was instructed to head east along the 64-degree line of latitude, and Captain Watson took the Steve Irwin east along the 62-degree line of latitude.

The two harpoon ships were spotted at 148 degrees west line of longitude on December 31st. The interception of the Japanese whaling fleet took place 1,700 nautical miles southeast of New Zealand and 2,300 nautical miles southwest of Chile.

“This is fantastic,” said Steve Irwin’s Chief Cook Laura Dakin of Canberra, Australia, “for the first time in Sea Shepherd’s history, we have located the whalers before they had a chance to kill a single whale.”

Might be going to Zanzibar later in the new year. If you time it right you can swim with whale sharks, the world's largest fish apparently.

is that out the window now?

They have the supply ship, cut the supplies and the Japanese will have to give up, I reckon this will be their last season down there, hopefully anyway

Holding the Course!

Update from the frontlines in the Southern Ocean
January 14, 2011, 1400 hours AEST/January 13, 2011, 1900 hours PST


The Sea Shepherd fleet escorting the Sun Laurel tanker out of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (click to enlarge)
Panamanian-registered, Korean-owned tanker the Sun Laurel has complied with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s request to remove itself from the Antarctic Treaty zone. The ship is now north of 60 degrees and continues to be followed by both the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker. The Bob Barker in turn, is being followed and tailed by the Yushin Maru No. 2, and the Steve Irwin is being followed by the Yushin Maru No. 1.

This morning, the Yushin Maru No. 1 replaced the Yushin Maru No. 3 as the tail on the Steve Irwin. This means that as of this morning all three harpoon vessels were within sight of the Sea Shepherd ships. Therefore, the Nisshin Maru factory ship would presumably be over 200 miles away in order to stay out of the Sea Shepherd helicopter’s range.

It is a certainty that there is no possibility of whaling today. Sea Shepherd has every reason to also believe that based on the fact that two of the three harpoon vessels have been under continuous observation for the past 15 days, and due to the great distance of over 2,000 miles covered by the whaling fleet since being located on December 31, 2010, there has been very little time to hunt, load, and process whales.


(l to r) The Bob Barker, the Gojira, the Sun Laurel refueling and supply tanker, and the Steve Irwin on the move (click to enlarge)
The harpooners have been taking turns refueling from the Nisshin Maru, but soon those supplies will run low as well and the Nisshin Maru will need the heavy oil (bunker C) cargo presently in the hold of the Sun Laurel. The Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin will stay with the supply ship and will aggressively interfere with any attempts at refueling and resupply.

After successfully finding the Sun Laurel supply vessel, the Gojira has since left to scout in search of the Nisshin Maru.

There is no doubt that the Japanese whaling fleet has been severely crippled this whaling season. With a third of the whaling season behind them, with two of the three harpoon vessels tied up with their supplies cut off and constantly being on the run, the whale kill quota has been reduced to zero, or very close to it.

Sea Shepherd has two months left until the whaling season is over, which means 60 more days at sea. We have the fuel, the resources, and a crew committed to this campaign whose morale has already been bolstered by our successes this year. The captains and the crews of all three Sea Shepherd ships are confident of a very successful year in neutralizing illegal whaling activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The Japanese whaling ships presently in the Southern Ocean include: the Nisshin Maru factory ship, the three Yushin Maru harpoon vessels (Nos. 1, 2 and 3), and the Sun Laurel supply vessel.

The three Sea Shepherd ships opposing the whalers include: the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker, and the Gojira, along with the Nancy Burnet helicopter.

Yep

More upset about my Burning Man plans though.

bad buzz

how much is a trip to Zanzibar?

I miss having money

Depends wether you want to do it as part of an organised trip or not. My plan was a 2 week Tanzania trip that covered alot of ground, so that was pricey, but i'm sure you can do it cheaper so long as you stay put. Deserts are no places to be unsure about how you're getting from A to B.

http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0118/media-2888807.html

good footage

damnit

way didnt i put a nuke the whales tee in with your secret santa CD

that would have been SO funny

Sea Shepherd Successfully finds the Nisshin Maru


The Nisshin Maru as seen from the
Nancy Burnet helicopter
(click to enlarge)
Position: 70 Degrees 45 Minutes South
171 Degrees 45 Minutes West

Vessels Involved: Japanese whalers - The Nisshin Maru, Yushin Maru No. 1 and Yushin Maru No. 2
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - The Steve Irwin
En route - The Bob Barker and the Yushin Maru No. 3

(video to follow shortly)

After a 26-day pursuit covering over 4,000 miles, the Steve Irwin caught up with the Nisshin Maru at 1800 hours on January 25th, 2011 AEST.

“We finally have this serial killing death ship where we want them, and from here on in, we intend to ride their ass until the end of the whaling season,” said Captain Paul Watson from onboard the Steve Irwin. “This whaling fleet belongs to us now – lock, stock, and smoking harpoon gun.”

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ships the Steve Irwin, Bob Barker, and Gojira originally found the Japanese whaling fleet on December 31st, 2010 before the whalers had an opportunity to kill a single whale. Unfortunately, two of the harpoon vessels blocked the approach to the Nisshin Maru and the factory ship was able to flee with the faster harpoon vessels tailing the two larger Sea Shepherd ships to relay Sea Shepherd movements to the fleeing Nisshin Maru. The Gojira was prevented from immediately pursuing the Nisshin Maru due to risky ice conditions.

The Gojira shot ahead of the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker as the Nisshin Maru fled westward. On January 10th, the Gojira encountered the refueling and supply ship the Sun Laurel. On January 12th, the Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin caught up with the tanker and began to tail the Korean-owned vessel allowing the Gojira to continue westward in pursuit of the Nisshin Maru.

The Sun Laurel headed north and east to put as much distance between the factory ship and themselves as they could. The Sea Shepherd ships followed knowing it was essential to cut off the supplies to the whaling fleet. Two of the three harpoon vessels followed and for 23 days we had confirmation that these two vessels had not taken a single whale.

With the Sun Laurel heading east and getting closer to Chile than New Zealand, Captain Watson seized an opportunity to break away and lose the tail, doing so on January 18th. The Bob Barker continued to follow the Sun Laurel with one harpoon vessel continuing to follow the Bob Barker. The other harpoon vessel, having lost the Steve Irwin, left to rejoin the Nisshin Maru.


The Yushin Maru No. 1 cutting through the ice floes
(click to enlarge)
The Gojira was following the progress of the Nisshin Maru by launching weather balloons equipped with remote cameras and radar detectors. Unfortunately, the Gojira developed a problem with their fuel pumps and Captain Locky MacLean elected to return to Hobart to replace the pumps. This decision was kept confidential in order to keep the Nisshin Maru on the run until the Steve Irwin could close in.

On January 23rd, Captain Watson made a risky decision to call off the Bob Barker from continuing the pursuit of the Sun Laurel. His concern was that the Nisshin Maru with two harpoon vessels could begin whaling operations in the Ross Sea within days.

The Bob Barker was instructed to head due south as a decoy to lead the Yushin Maru along while the Steve Irwin entered the Ross Sea.

And today after a 26-day pursuit, the Nisshin Maru has finally been caught and the Steve Irwin is on its tail. The Bob Barker some 300 miles away has been instructed to join the Steve Irwin.

Unfortunately, the Japanese whaling fleet appears to have just begun their illegal whaling operations. There is a whale presently being butchered on the deck. Sea Shepherd’s objective now is to make sure that whale is the last one taken this season.

The whaling fleet has been caught in an ice bay in the Ross Sea and is fleeing eastward into thick ice. The Steve Irwin intends to follow.

There is no doubt that this season will be a financial disaster for the Japanese whaling fleet.

“We are well on our way to economically sinking this whaling fleet,” said Captain Watson. “We will now chase them through the frozen gates of hell if need be, but we will stop their illegal whaling operations…I am confident of that!


the factory ship