Stopping the illegal slaughter of whales
in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary

Sometimes direct action to save lives works better than just protesting

In 2009-10 and 2010-11, Bonny served as a mate on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ships the Bob Barker and Steve Irwin for our annual campaigns to prevent illegal slaughtering of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  That protective sanctuary was established in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).  It has been violated in a serious way for at least the past ten years by a large Japanese whaling fleet who claims a legal right to kill there by virtue of a subtle 'research purposes only' clause in the IWC's wording of the Sanctuary.  In short, the whalers claim that their inhumane harpooning of approximately 1000 Minke, Fin, and Humpback whales each year during the Antarctic summer is necessary for 'scientific research.'  No such research has yet been published in recognized refereed international scientific journals since they began this travesty, and the farce they have continued year after year is tragic and obscene.

During the 2009-2010 season, when Sea Shepherd patrolled the Sanctuary between early December and early  March, the Sea Shepherd fleet stayed on the stern of the whalers' factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, for 22 days straight, night and day, and prevented them from killing or processing a single whale during that time.  For many more days we pursued them through icea and severe weather, also making it impossible for them to kill whales.  The financial loss for the whalers in that season was significant.  This is the Sea Shepherds' tactic:  do whatever it takes to stay on the stern of the factory ship, thus preventing them from hauling freshly-killed whales up the slipway to their flensing deck, for if they cannot process and package the whale meat in a very short time after the whale dies, the meat is not suitable for sale.  (Never mind the illegality of selling whale meat for food!  The Japanese have been caught many times for selling whale meat in restaurants and grocery stores, but to date the Japanese government has taken no punitive action again this, and they continue to subsidize the illegal whaling in the Sanctuary.  Despite the propaganda from the Japanese "institute for Cetacean Research" -- the spin agency that reports 'news' about whaling in the Southern Ocean -- that accuses the Sea Shepherds of wrongful aggression toward the whalers, the fact is that the Sea Shepherds have taken no action with intent to harm any person or scuttle any vessel of the whaling fleet, nor have they caused any such harm.  The Sea Shepherds color the "Research" signs on the whaling ships with red paint (to simulate whale blood), we throw bottles of rotten butter and cellulose at the decks of the whaling ships to discourage work on the decks by causing the deck areas to smell bad and become temporarily slippery, and we drag ropes and other objects behind our small rubber zodiacs as we pass in front of their ships which offer the vague threat of possibly going underneath the ships and finding their propeller, stopping it temporarily ("prop-fouling").  Usually prop-fouling is a measure we take in order to stop a whaling vessel from following our ships so closely; it is a measure of intimidation and threat rather than a serious or effective act of sabotage.

In 2009-2010, the Sea Shepherds had a third vessel with them, one not owned or captained by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society but supposedly sailing under the authority of the Sea Shepherd's Captain Paul Watson.  There had been differences of opinion between the captain of the Ady Gil and Sea Shepherd management as well as Captain Watson regarding what constituted acceptable nonviolent tactics toward the whalers.  While there is no clear causal connection, this certainly contributed to the unfortunate incident in which the Ady Gil was stopped in neutral while her captain and crew came out to the deck to exchange greetings with the Bob Barker crew when they met for the first time in the Southern Ocean, and the whalers' Shonan Maru rammed the Ady Gil, cutting it nearly in half and making it unsalvageable, while very nearly killing many or all of her crew.  The Bob Barker rescued the crew of the Ady Gil, tried to tow the Ady back to the nearest land station but was unable to do so because of how quickly the Ady Gil was taking on water.  The Ady Gil had to be left to sink.  When the realization was complete, and the owner of the Ady Gil had been duly notified, the Bob Barker left the Ady Gil and proceeded to follow the whalers in order to continue to prevent them from killing whales.

A week after the incident with the Ady Gil, one of the harpoon ships, the Yushin Maru No. 3, rammed the starboard midship section of the Bob Barker. At that time, the Steve Irwin was refueling in Australia, so there was no other friendly vessel in the vicinity to rescue the crew of the Bob Barker. Very fortunately, the impact had occurred at the only place where there was a double wall in the hull (for reinforcement around the external ladder).  This saved the Bob Barker from filling with water beyond the narrow area between the outer and inner wall and thus from destabilizing and capsizing.  This was a sobering event for the crew of the Bob Barker; it was when we realized fully that the whalers were willing to go to extreme aggressive measures, even to sink us and risk all of our crews' lives.  We were stunned to realize just how aggressively dangerous the whalers' behavior was this year,  but we were even more stunned to discover that the world in general was not believing the facts as we told them, and that the governments of the world were bringing no repercussions to the whalers or the Japanese government.

By the time the Sea Shepherds needed to call it quits and head back to Australia for repairs and refueling, it was early March, 2010.  The whalers continued to kill whales for a few weeks, until the ice began to become too thick.  Their total kill quota for that year was somewhat less than half of their self-provided quota of around 1000 whales, but it was still far higher than legal or proper for the Sanctuary.

Sea Shepherd follows a strict non-violent policy. But we are the first to state that we are not merely a protest organization. Direct Action means exactly that. We place ourselves in the way of wrongdoing in order to stop it; we do not simply stand at the sidelines and wail and complain. This does not mean that we are wildly emotional, angry and out of control, irrational or reckless. Not at all. We are courageous because we feel passionately in our hearts that it is right and urgently necessary to protect our oceans from exploitation and pollution, to preserve ecosystems, to support wildlife and natural habitat.

This year (2010-2011), we found two harpoon ships early in the season (leaving only one harpoon ship to kill whales with the Nisshin Maru), then found the refueling ship (the Sun Laurel), and during the last week of January found the factory ship. The refueling ship was in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (below 60 deg latitude South) -- a violation of international law, so we chased them out. As of 2011 February 01, the Bob Barker iwas holding watch on the stern of the Nisshin Maru, our new fast third ship Gojira was on its way from Hobart, Australia to rejoin the Bob, and the Steve Irwin was headed to New Zealand to refuel.  During the next weeks, the Nisshin Maru continued to head east and out of the Sanctuary toward South America.  As of February 15, the Japanese government announced plans to bring the whaling fleet back to Japan and curtail whaling operations for thi year.  (YES!!)  We estimate that the whaling fleet may have killed at most 30 whales this year in the Sanctuary.

For the first time in decades, whales are swimming safely again with their mates and calves in the Southern Ocean!

For your enjoyment and education, we have posted here a subset of photos from Sea Shepherd's 2009-2010 Antarctic anti-whaling campaign, and we will post photos from this year's campaign shortly. These photos are the property of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and should not be copied or used elsewhere without appropriate permission and credit.  Most of these photos were taken by Sea Shepherd crew members.  Special thanks and credit go to:  Jo-Anne McArthur, Frank Daouben, Glenn Lockitch, Kevin McGinty, Larry Routledge, Barbara Viega, and Michael Williams.

(CLICK ON INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS TO SEE LARGER VIEWS)

You can read much more about these campaigns, our strategies and successes, and what is happening right now in this year's efforts at  www.seashepherd.org. The action is also documented live by onboard crews from the Discovery Channel, who publish their footage in about 12 installments during the summer months in a series they title "Whale Wars", shown on their 'Animal Planet' station. This year, 2010-2011, is the fourth season in which we have permitted Animal Planet personnel to videotape the action live.

Bonny, Founder and President of On Wings Of Care, Inc., is also a Board Director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.