Whaling fleet late, halved...armed.

[flvegan]

The Nisshun Maru left port roughly 12 days ago, a full 2-3 weeks later than usual. According to Greenpeace Japan, the rest of the fleet looks like about half of what it has been in recent years (not that they aren't sending boats that Greenpeace didn't see say from another port). It reasons to be true as there has been talk that a few of the ships have been sold or scrapped. It's a money issue. Such a shame those damn Sea Shepherds are ruining the whalers' fun.

And as reported some time ago, it's true...armed Japanese coast guard troops will be on the whaling ships this year. Stay safe activists.


Armed coast guard troops are stationed on Japanese whaling ships heading for the annual summer hunt in Antarctica, raising fears of potentially lethal clashes with protest vessels.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully is appealing for restraint from both sides as they shape up for what have in recent years become increasingly violent battles over Japan's Southern Ocean whaling programme.

McCully said the Japanese whalers were carrying armed coast guard officers for the first time in three years, an apparent response to the boarding of one of the hunt ships by Sea Shepherd activist Pete Bethune after the sinking of his protest boat Ady Gil last summer.

McCully said the presence of coastguard personnel and the obvious "robust'' tactics planned by the Sea Shepherd fleet, believed to number three ships, made for a potentially lethal mix.

"I've made it very clear I'm apprehensive about the situation in the Southern Ocean. We've now got reports that there are armed coast guard personnel on the Japanese whaling vessels.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4459945/Coast-guard-protects-Japanese-whaling-ships

[Lorien]

1. More power to the Sea Shepard fleet!

and on a side note; I wish that non-domestic animal rights related threads got a fraction of the attention that threads about vegan cheese pizza do. This seems more and more like a cooking forum, imho.