Whaling fleet found after Hunt tip

Date
    January 25, 2014

Andrew Darby


The Japanese whaling fleet is said to be on the run again in the Antarctic after being found by activists who followed up a tip from the Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt.      

The factory ship Nisshin Maru was re-located in the Ross Sea, far south-east of Australia, by the Sea Shepherd activists after it gave them the slip earlier in January.

Following the first Australian Customs aerial monitoring flight of the fleet, on 14 January, Mr Hunt said the aircraft located Nisshin Maru over 1,000 nautical miles away from the Australian Search and Rescue Zone.

"From this, Sea Shepherd was able to deduce the location of the whaling fleet," the activists said in a statement.


They finally chased down Nisshin Maru by following a trail of butchered whale parts in the water, according to Peter Hammarstedt, captain of the Sea Shepherd ship, Bob Barker.

"After the weather cleared, on Friday we saw a piece of whale blubber in the water and knew that we were close," Mr Hammarstedt told Fairfax Media. "We followed it up for 10 hours and there it was.

"I am about 13 nautical miles behind them with the Bob Barker, and the Steve Irwin is about 12 nautical miles in front of them," Mr Hammartsetd said on Saturday.

"We have them boxed in. We seem to be quite steady with them, matching speed. There really should be no way of them getting away from us."    

The activists intend to chase the fleet out of the International Whaling Commission's Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.      

Mr Hammarstedt said there had been no contact between the two sides, but it appeared the Nisshin Maru was low on fuel, and it might attempt to refuel soon.

Last season there were multiple collisions when the Sea Shepherd vessels blockaded the factory ship from refuelling by the tanker Sun Laurel in ice-strewn waters off Australia's Davis station.

Japan's consul general in Melbourne, Hidenobu Sobashima, said the whaling fleet was conducting lawful research in the Antarctic, and the Japanese Government condemned the dangerous and obstructive activities of Sea Shepherd.         

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/whale-watch/whaling-fleet-found-after-hunt-tip-20140125-31f4j.html#ixzz2rNFEE95x

Armchair_Politician wrote on Jan 25^th, 2014 at 5:24pm:


Sorry Mr Hunt for expecting you to do the job we pay you to do.