Source:
Associated PressDecember 22, 2008 07:28 AM
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s ship, the Steve Irwin, has found Japan’s research fleet a month after leaving port—much earlier than expected. Antiwhaling activists claim that Japan’s research fleet is “on the run” after being discovered recently, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday. “We know where they are. We’ll keep them running,” said Captain Paul Watson of the Steve Irwin in an interview with the Morning Herald.
Locating the research vessels usually takes several weeks, and the quick discovery brought Watson, “closer to his ambition of shutting down the fleet’s activities for weeks on end,” the paper said. Such disruptions could cost the activists, though. Japanese media has already reported that Japan’s fisheries agency and justice ministry officials have decided to arrest antiwhaling activists if they try to board Japan’s whale-hunting fleet in the Antarctic Ocean, according to Reuters.
The decision was announced days after the Steve Irwin, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s flag ship, set sail from Australia earlier this month. Japanese crew members will capture activists and turn them over to the Japanese coast guard, after which they will be charged with forcible obstruction of business under Japanese law, according to the report.
This year’s hunt is also attracting celebrity attention. On Dec. 2, actress Darryl Hannah announced plans to lend her support to the antiwhaling activists. Hannah, who plans to board the Steve Irwin for part of its journey, criticized environmental activist group Greenpeace for deciding not to take part in the annual confrontaion with Japan’s whaling expedition. “If Greenpeace would join forces with Sea Shepherd they would shut down the whaling industry right away. If they were really serious and held their convictions they could accomplish this,” Hannah said, according to Reuters. Greenpeace has in previous years joined the antiwhaling campaign, but has also criticized Watson’s tactics.
Read more:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/environment/2008/December/Activists-Say-They-Found-Japanese-Whaling-Fleet.html
Fantastic they found them already, though in heavy ice and storms.
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