The latest update on the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Oceans.

Since the Japanese whaling fleet left harbour in November the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Greenpeace and other organisations have been attempting to locate and disrupt the whaling activities of the fleet. The Japanese planned to catch 10 fin whales and 935 minkes under the pretence of ‘Scientific research’. Sea Shepherd finds Japanese whalers and confronts them.
The Sea Shepherd ships finally located the Japanese whaling fleet, and just a few days later they intervened as the Japanese whaler, Kaiko Maru, was closing in on a pod of whales. Following a collision with the Sea Shepherd’s ship, Robert Hunter, the Japanese whaler broke off from the pod of whales.

Two members of the Sea Shepherd Society crew lost at sea for 8 hours
Two missing crewmembers from the Farley Mowat were found and safely rescued eight hours after being lost at sea following a confrontation with the Japanese whaling fleet. The Zodiac inflatable fell back from the other Sea Shepherd ships after its fibreglass hull cracked and filled with water. The damage was caused when the inflatable struck the steel hull of the Nisshin Maru in heavy seas. The two were quickly lost as heavy fog, snow, and sleet conditions suddenly occurred. Captain Paul Watson immediately put the Farley Mowat into a search grid and then issued a maritime distress call and was joined by the Sea Shepherd ship Robert Hunter as well as the Japanese factory vessel Nisshin Maru.

Captain Paul Watson called the Nisshin Maru to thank them for their assistance in the search and then said, ‘we’re all back on schedule.’ At this point, the two Sea Shepherd ships resumed their pursuit of the Japanese whaling fleet as conditions continue to worsen, and winds and swells increase. Fire breaks out on Japanese factory ship, 1 crew member missing
15th February. In an extraordinary twist, a fire broke out on the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese whaling fleet’s factory ship. One member of the ship’s crew has gone missing during the emergency, the ships engines have been disabled and the ship is listing. This is not the first time a fire has broken out on board the Nisshin Maru, a seaman was killed in a similar incident in 1998. It has tragically been confirmed that the body of the missing seaman has been found near the fire.

The Greenpeace ship Esperanza has offered assistance to the Japanese whaling fleet and crew, but their offer has not been taken up. However the Esperanza has sailed to the area that the stricken ship is in.

There is concern about the possibility of an ecological disaster as the Nisshin Maru is carrying an estimated 1000 tons of fuel oil and is less than 100 miles from the world’s biggest Adelie penguin colony. Nisshin Maru might be able to restart operations.
21st February. The stricken Nisshin Maru has extinguished the fire is undergoing repairs and the crew hope to be able to get under way. It is not yet known whether the ship will be able to resume whaling activities, or indeed how many whales they have already killed this season.

24th February Nisshin Maru has managed to restart its' engines, but no decision has been made yet as to whether it will resume whaling.

28th February. Japanese whaling fleet abandons whaling.
Following the fire on board the factory ship, Nisshin Maru, the Japanese whaling fleet has called off whaling for the rest of this season. The Nisshin Maru has been able to get her engines working, but the decision has been taken as some of their 'research equipment' could not be fixed. The decision comes too late for some 500 whales that have already been killed, but as the fleet had planned to kill 860 whales this year is has to be good news.

We would like to send our sondolences to the family of the Japanese sailor who died in the fire.

Courtesy of Greenpeace, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the 'Institute of Cetacean Research'.

Please click here to read more about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.