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| JWF factory ship MS Nisshin Maru |
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| Caught whales on deck of factory ship |
UPDATED January 08, 2014.
The Japanese Whaling Fleet (JWF) is already busy welcoming in the New Year 2014 with a new season of slaughtering whales. The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) have made contact with the JWF and is monitoring its activities with its three vessels. Mr. Brown the person in charge of Operation Relentless through SSCS Australia said that the JWF was in an internationally recognized whale sanctuary however the New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said there is no internationally recognized whale sanctuary. So who to believe as already the annual confusion over whom is doing what starts with the first whales caught. So far neither New Zealand or Australia intend to sent a government patrol vessel to the Southern Ocean.
From two of the captains of the SSCS vessels, Peter Hammarstedt and Siddharth Chakravaty both "Wats-his-name" trained, come statements which are once again a repeat of those made in previous years. However they are less bombastic than those usually made when "Wats-his-name" was in overall command of the SSCS fleet. They do however use meaningless terms such as "chased away from the Southern Ocean" and "apprehended" which means to capture or arrest someone. The SSCS has not arrested anyone and in fact has no legal authority or power to do so. As to the chasing away NAUTICAL LOG does not believe the JWF is now in the least concerned with the SSCS vessels they are merely searching for whales in known areas.
They have seen in previous years that the SSCS vessels back off at the last minute and the rare impacts that have taken place are due to misjudgments in ship-handling skills by the SSCS vessels. It would seem that any hope of something really constructive being done by the SSCS vessels to actually stop and further prevent the slaughter of whales is not going to happen.
Sea Shepherd Australia is criticizing the Australian government for backing away from pre-election promises to send a ship to monitor the JWF. While ranting on about others not obeying the Law as they see it, the SSCS themselves have refused to obey a U.S. Court order to stay 400 metres away from the JWF vessels.
Good Watch.
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