OPERATION RELENTLESS

The SSCS vessel MS Sam Simon formerly a JWF vessel



Reports on the whaling in the Southern Ocean are less frequent than in previous years by both the JWF and SSCS.  It seems that in spite of Mr. Bob Brown being in charge of this seasons Operation Relentless now that "Wats-his-name" is out of the picture the tactics have not changed that much.


 

As in previous years the SSCS vessels follow the JWF and then claim they are "chasing" them away - one would ask away from what?  On the other side a JWF catcher vessel MS Yushin Maru No.3 follows one of the SSCS vessels MS Bob Barker which heads towards Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone. (AEEZ)  The JWF vessel then stops one nautical mile outside the AEEZ so as to obey International Maritime Law as the SSCS vessel enters the AEEZ.  What has this accomplished?  Wasting fuel?

All that NAUTICAL LOG can see is that it burns a lot of fuel with no effective results, fuel that is difficult for the SSCS to replace without leaving the Southern Ocean.  This is what happened last season with disastrous results for the SSCS and was most likely the final blow to tolerating "Wats-his-name" as overall person-in-charge of the SSCS fleet.  For the JWF which has a resupply tanker chartered the problem is not that serious as long as it moves north of the  restricted area to refuel at sea which again it is well experienced in doing from past seasons.  So once again we are seeing pointless tactics repeated from past seasons operations which are proven in not actually saving a single whale in spite of phony statistics put out by SSCS.

Another phony communication exchange can be read on the SSCS Australian article "Harpoon Ship Stopped."   This series of exchanges is really complete nonsense even by SSCS and government standards.  It serves absolutely no useful purpose whatsoever does not save a single whale and indicates the rather childish behavior of the persons involved - which is an insult to children!

Since the SSCS have refused to observe the U.S. Court Order to stay 400 metres away from the JWF vessels NAUTICAL LOG would suggest that their vessels get up close to the loading ramp of the MS Nisshin Maru.  This would prevent the factory ship from hauling whales on board to be butchered while the other two SSCS ships prevented the catcher vessels from shooting the whales by getting between the whales and the catcher vessels.

However one wonders if these present captains (NAUTICAL LOG uses a lowercase "c" because we are told that they do not hold licenses as Ocean Masters or in fact may not hold Mariners Licenses at all) have the ship-handling skills to execute these tactics.  If they learned from "Wats-his-name" it is questionable because he always approached far too fast slamming into the JWF ships on several occasions as indeed did Hammarstedt on at least one occasion NAUTICAL LOG seems to remember.

So as the season marches on we shall learn just how effective Operation Relentless will be or just as happened last season collapse around itself caused by amongst other things fuel wasting tactics.

Good Watch.