Our friends aboard the Sea Shepherd vessel the Bob Barker have found the whaling fleet, and caught up to the Nisshin Maru factory ship. The Bob Barker is blocking the slipway of the factory ship, which means the Nisshin Maru won't be able to take on or process any whales. This means that despite the attacks against Sea Shepherd ships by the massive and government-funded Japanese whaling fleet in the past couple months, the unarmed Bob Barker and its tiny crew of volunteer vegans have still managed to stop this year's Antarctic whaling operations.

Four other whaling harpoon vessels are surrounding the Bob Barker, including the Shonan Maru #2, which rammed and sunk the SSCS vessel the Ady Gil. But as long as the Bob Barker is blocking the slipway of the whaling factory ship, the harpoon vessels and their arsenals won't be able to continue whaling operations.

AR photographer Jo-Anne McArthur has been documenting the Sea Shepherd Antarctic campaign this year, and many of her pics are now up at her website.

She's been taking photos from Sea Shepherd's heretofore secret ship, the Bob Barker. So you'll see a lot in these photos that you haven't been able to follow just from the press releases of the campaign.

You'll see things that happened to the Bob Barker well before its existence was made public. You'll see the crew getting the ship ready for the campaign, you'll see the ship getting surrounded by whaling ships, and you'll watch the Bob Barker crew rescuing the crew of the Ady Gil after the Shonan Maru #2 rammed the Ady.

If you're like me and some of your best friends are on those ships, these pics will seriously brighten your day.

The Sea Shepherd fleet has been chasing the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctica for about a month now, continually fighting off attacks from the harpoon vessel the Shonan Maru No. 2. Yesterday revealed quite a bit about the players on both sides of the conflict.

The Japanese harpoon ship Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed the tiny Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil. The attack ripped about eight feet of the Ady Gil's bow completely off the ship. The Ady Gil is sinking and will, most likely, be unsalvageable. As the Ady Gil lurched during the ramming and the crew struggled to keep from falling overboard, the Shonan Maru No. 2 fired high-powered water cannons at the teetering Sea Shepherd members while shooting their LRAD at the Ady Gil. View video of the attack here.

At first the Japanese did not acknowledge the Ady Gil's post-attack distress signal. The Nisshin Maru finally acknowledged the signal without offering assistance to the ship sinking in Antarctica.

This behavior is getting a bit lethal for even the Japanese Antarctic crew. Even when they chucked grenades at my friends and I on the Steve Irwin two years ago, they weren't quite so brazen about trying to cause fatalities. New attacks like these suggest they're more malevolent towards humans than even we thought.

Luckily, the Japanese didn't know that Sea Shepherd has secretly acquired a third ship for the fleet this year, which has now caught up with the Japanese fleet and rescued the six crew members of the sinking Ady Gil. I'm personally quite glad my friends are now safe and not sinking alone in Antarctica.

Perhaps understandably, the people of Australia are a tad annoyed that their federal government is letting the Japanese sink a ship full of Australians with impunity.

The Australian people and the Green Party of Australia have been wonderful, level-headed supporters of Sea Shepherd, and we think they have a right to be miffed about the Australian aid given to the Japanese whalers to help them attack Australians.

Update: This post at first stated that the Ady Gil wasn't moving when the Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed and dragged the Ady's bow before ripping it off. I since removed that statement because the debate of "was it moving?" became everyone's sole focus of the attack. I'm keeping that statement off since the rest of the post seems to go unread if that statement is in, even though I stand by Captain Chuck Swift. But in case people are still curious to see if the Shonan Maru No. 2 actually did swerve to hit the Ady, here's video of the ramming from the point of view of the vessel the Bob Barker.

Guys, so much happened this week, I don't know where to begin. So let's just start with restaurant openings, yes?

• Sun in Bloom opened Saturday, January 2 and, because I am a man of my word, I went for brunch. It was good. Really good. I mean, check out that loaded burrito -- avocado, beans, tofu scramble, and all sorts of tastiness up in that bitch. And no nutritional yeast, thank you.
• On that same magical day, Vinnie's Pizza in Greenpoint opened. Almost makes you want to move back to Greenpoint, doesn't it? (Actually, no, Pizza Plus is right here and I'm laaaazy.)
• Babycakes opened its LA location Sunday, January 3. I know, you're in NYC and you can't do a thing about it except drool. Well, drool on this!
• And in restaurant closings, Red Bamboo Brooklyn closed.
• The New Yorker profiled Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey.
• Food, Inc. is online and free, so no more excuses.
• Hospitals in the UK's publicly funded healthcare system will take meat off the menu to cut carbon emissions and costs, The Guardian reports. Yes, less pollution AND less expense! ALL SIGNS POINT TO NOT EATING ANIMALS.
• 
  Sweden is using bunnies as fuel. They are shooting bunnies, "deep freezing" them, burning them, and then calling it biofuel! COME ON. BUNNIES, NOT BIOFUEL.

Even dedicated meat-eaters are finally realizing that lobsters and crabs feel pain, and that even if their perceptions of pain and suffering aren't quite the same as those of mammals (read: ours), it may not be OK to boil them alive for the eaters' gustatory pleasure. What's being done with these realizations, unfortunately, reads more like bad sci-fi than like any genuine acquisition of humane awareness.

A new "solution" to the problem of these animals experiencing pain and stress has been found, one that is supposed to allow seafood lovers to be nice to their lobsters and eat them too.  Enter the CrustaStun, the hot new contraption on the "humane" meat market.

British inventor/entrepreneur Simon Buckhaven believes that crustaceans feel pain, and indeed, upon opening the home page of the CrustaStun website, the following text rolls out: "Crustaceans are sentient animals.  Butchering or boiling alive causes them pain and stress." He thinks it's much better to shock them to death instead. That's right folks--the CrustaStun is an electric chair for lobsters, crabs, and the like.  Buckhaven has taken advantage of the fact that salt water can carry an electrical charge to give these creatures a shocking watery grave rather than a boiling one.  Makes perfect sense, right?

One wonders whether, with his oh-so-deep concern for all things crustacean, it occurred to Buckhaven that his device does nothing to address the stress and discomfort caused by methods of trapping and/or farming and transportation of shellfish, or the crowded tanks in which the animals are kept until ready to be consumed.  But hey, why worry about little details like that?  Clearly a short, less painful death makes up for a long miserable life.  Did he stop to consider that his invention might make concerned consumers feel better about eating these animals, thereby actually increasing demand for crustaceans, directly raising the number of animals who live torturous lives only to become expensive "gourmet" platters?  Well, we know for sure one thing that he did think of: "The animals do not get stressed during the process and, as a result, the meat tastes better." Touching.

Japan has released its 2009 cetacean research findings after killing dozens of whales for the study. Japan, which asserts that it must conduct fatal whaling for necessary scientific research, killed 59 Minke whales off its coast this year for the scientific program. And the conclusion of this year's Japanese whaling program is that whales eat krill.

Because no one in Japan's scientific community knew that or asked anyone else on earth.

It is, however, arguable whether or not this year's findings have more scientific merit than Japan's 2008 whaling research findings. In 2008, Japan announced - after stating it had to kill hundreds of whales for this research - that injecting dead whale sperm into a cow egg does not result in a half-whale-half-cow monster creature.

As the movie The Cove explains, the city of Taiji, Japan, is a huge contributor in Japan's killing of over 20,000 dolphins per year for their meat. This year, however, international pressure has accomplished something amazing: Taiji has thus far suspended their dolphin hunt due to bad press.

Probably the greatest reason for the suspension is the fact that the city of Broome, Taiji's sister city in Australia, has cut ties with Taiji due to the hunt. Unfortunately, Broome is considering reestablishing ties with Taiji today. If relations are reestablished, it may unfortunately result in Taiji resuming its dolphin hunt. Please tell Broome not to reestablish ties!

Message from Save Japan Dolphins Coalition director Richard O'Barry below:

Hello all. As you may know, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sends a ship to Antarctica each year, to stop the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales. What you may not know is that the entirely vegan Sea Shepherd ship must rely completely on donations from the public for its supply of food. And food is of course one of the only pleasures you're going to get in Antarctica (so good food is prized more than gold there).

Well, Sea Shepherd has finally decided its ship's food wish list for this year. Operation Waltzing Matilda, Sea Shepherd's next Antarctic campaign to save the whales, takes off this December, so there's still time to help stock the ship. The ship is currently in Australia, so it may be hard for NYC locals to donate to the ship of course, but if one reader has a friend who has a friend in Australia, or has a great deal on fedex and blenders, then who knows, concerned citizens from around the globe may all eventually pitch in to supply to the ship with all it needs. If you can, please help out! :)

Now, if you want to help but can't get items to Australia affordably or fast, you can always donate money directly to Sea Shepherd so they can buy these items. Thank you!

Steve Irwin Current Wish List
Location: Circular Quay Sydney 10am till 5pm until Monday 12th October

Sea Shepherd Australia: australia@seashepherd.org

Need:
Sour dough starter
Industrial blender
Wooden Chopping boards
Tea towels
Scissors
Blender
Handwash
Hand blender
Food processor
Green power champion juicer
Black polar fleece balaclavas
Laptops

Food Needs:
Tempeh
Tofu
Soy milk
Olive oil
Brown rice
Icing sugar
Smoked paprika
Bragg's bouillon/amino acids
Lemons
Limes
Soft drinks
Fruit juice
Fresh herbs (parsley, basil, cilantro, etc.)
Asian fake meat products
Tofutti products - cream cheese, sour cream, cheese slices)
Soy/veggie hot dogs/sausages
Nuts and seeds (cashews, almonds etc)
Dark vegan chocolate

Non-Food Related But Badly Needed:
AAA batteries.
Portable battery charger 6,12,24 volt.
Good quality hand held marine radios.

This is one of Supervegan's posts for Vegan MoFo 2009.

Here at SuperVegan we hold a special place in our hearts for Captain Paul Watson and the Sea Shepard Conservation Society. Not only because one of our own, SuperVegan blogger and bona fide vegan pirate Tod Emko has fought right alongside Mr. Watson, but also because while you and I may be content to sip on our agave-sweetened soy lattes while debating the nuances of vegan "cheese", these ladies and gents are in the trenches fighting the good fight.

At the Edge of the World opens today in NYC at Cinema Village and will continue until September 3rd.

Those familiar with Animal Planet's, Whale Wars will be acquainted with the premise (incidentally, the finale was the most watched show in the channel's history): a determined group of eco activists attempt to disrupt a Japanese Whaling fleet in Antarctic Waters by any means necessary!

The director will be on hand for a Q&A at tonight's (Friday) shows.

Usually, I love reading the Huffington Post. However, in the past week they posted a surprisingly scathing blog entry calling Sea Shepherd a terrorist group.

However, the blog made all its arguments based on many assumptions that many people seem to be making about conservation lately, so it seemed worth it to address the blog.

For the first part of this post, we will first address the main themes of the Huffington blog, for the benefit of most readers. Afterwards, we will have, for anyone who has the time or curiosity, a much longer section analyzing every other argument made in the Huffington blog, as it does address other arguments against conservation law enforcing.


The main themes

The central theme of the Huffington blog is mentioned time and time again, and put succinctly in its eighth paragraph:

"Of course the whalers, whatever you may think of their activities, are operating legally. It is Watson and the Sea Shepherds who are the criminals."

So, although we've addressed this partially in previous posts, let's cover it comprehensively here.

Here is a list of illegal activities that the whalers are performing on video, much of which was outlined by Paul Watson: