Japanese whalers fight Sea Shepherd Conservation Society volunteers. Copyright Sea Shepherd

Japan took 2.28 billion yen ($29.4 million USD) that was raised and earmarked to help victims of the Japanese tsunami disaster, and used that money to beef up military security for the Japanese Antarctic whaling fleet, in order to combat Sea Shepherd volunteers. The Sea Shepherd flag ship, the Steve Irwin, cost less than two million USD total in comparison, although it has been successful thus far in repelling the military weaponry of the Japanese fleet anyway (which has included guns, grenades, and LRADs). But this new military funding taken from disaster relief funds dwarfs previous years’ military funding for the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Japanese whaling fleet left port in Japan this week, and is on its way to Antarctica now. So the Sea Shepherd fleet, currently in Australia, will depart to protect whales from the whaling fleet in the next couple weeks.

Illustration by Marcos Caceres

Vegans are good at many things: eating, thinking, acting… We’re also pretty darn skilled at raising money. So, do your part and pack Southpaw in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on Tuesday, May 10th from 7:00 P.M. to 11:30 P.M. for the Benefit for Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support + Americares. (Please bring all of your non-vegan friends with you!)

A wild variety of food and entertainment will be offered throughout the evening, so even the most difficult-to-please folks among us should find themselves having a really great time. The lineup includes:

• A screening of the Oscar-nominated Japanese film Kwaidan
• Live music by singer/songwriters Gretchen Witt and Yukari Roja
• Tunes by New York’s Dj3dg (of Vegan Drinks fame) and DJ Megan Rascal
• Webcast by Terry Hope Romero, author of Viva Vegan! and Veganomicon
• Raffles with fabulous prizes
• Food from V-Spot, Terri Organic Vegetarian, Gone Pie Vegan Bakery, Vérité Catering, I Eat Grass and others

Proceeds from the benefit will support Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support, which coordinates relief efforts for animals in crisis, and Americares, which provides humanitarian aid such as emergency shelters and medical supplies.

Buy your $15.00 tickets in advance or at the door!

Sorry youngins’, this event is 18 and over. Bring your ID — it will be checked!

Southpaw is located at 125 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY [map].

Adrien Zap with Shane. Her Picasa page features many more pictures of Shane, as well as of Dr. Sasaki, shelters, veterinary facilities, successfully and unsuccessfully rescued animals, devastated areas, and much more.

Adrien Zap is a veterinary technician currently deployed in Sendai as part of World Vets’ efforts in Japan, working alongside Japanese Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS).

Zap was also on the Haiti campaign that we helped fund through Sodopreca, and is a Darwin Animal Doctors volunteer.

She’s kind of busy these days, so this interview is an edited combination of questions she answered specifically for us and some more general material she prepared.

Big thanks to Tod Emko for facilitating this interview, and to everyone who contributed to World Vets at Vegan Drinks last week!

How large is your team? How many other teams are there?

Adrien Zap: Our team consisted of three volunteers – myself and two volunteers from Animal Friends Niigata, one of the three Japanese NGOs that comprise JEARS. Isabella Gallaon-Aoki is the founder and director of Animal Friends Niigata, and was the coordinator and translator of our trip to Sendai.

World Vets now has a Japanese-born veterinarian, Dr. Koji, who will be in Japan long-term to coordinate ongoing efforts with JEARS and Japanese animal welfare groups, and will provide direct veterinary care to animals in need. We are also collaborating with Dr. Kazumasu Sasaki, a Japanese veterinarian in Sendai, who is providing veterinary and rescue support to his community.

What types of injuries/conditions are most common amongst the rescued animals?

The most common injuries we saw were wounds associated with tsunami/earthquake debris. The animals were well-cared for prior to the disaster, were in good body condition and well fed. Dog breeds such as Shiba Inus and Akitas are also very common in Japan, and their thick warm coats helped them survive outside in the cold temperatures prior to being rescued.

The animals we worked with were either in a shelter or reunited with their families in an evacuation center.

Some of the dogs and cats at the shelter in Sendai were nervous or anxious, but it is difficult to say if that is directly related to the disaster, or due to being separated from their families and living in a shelter. Dr. Sasaki reported that he is seeing numerous animals with signs of “post-traumatic stress” in his work around the city. Human rescuers have encountered dogs and cats in the disaster area that were aggressive and difficult to approach, which again, may be due to separation from their families.

If the animals are not immediately reunited with their families, they are being cared for at the Sendai city shelter, where Dr. Sasaki can provide medical treatment if necessary. At this time, the Sendai shelter is able to accommodate all animals. However, they anticipate future need for space, food, and supplies. JEARS has arranged to help the Sendai shelter by providing food, supplies and temporary housing in the Niigata shelter if necessary. World Vets will provide items such as food, cages, and medical supplies to JEARS and Dr. Sasaki so they can care for the animals in affected areas.

Tell us about Shane
We met a man, Kamata-san, at an evacuation center in Sendai who told us a very touching story about his dog. When he heard the tsunami warning, Kamata-san rushed to warn his neighbors. He tried to get back to his house to get his dog, Shane, but the tsunami was rapidly approaching and he was forced to seek higher ground. Kamata-san told us he had given up hope of ever seeing Shane again. About 6 hours after the tsunami, Kamata-san was at the evacuation center when a man told him there was a dog outside. He went outside to look, and it was Shane!

Shane had never been to the site of the evacuation center before, but his instincts lead him there. He swam through chest-high water to reach the shelter and reunite with Kamata-san. Shane must have hung onto debris in the water, as he had wounds on both his elbows.

Dr. Sasaki showed Kamata-san how to clean the wounds and gave him antibiotics to prevent infection. We were able to leave fuel with Dr. Sasaki, so he will return to check on Shane and ensure his wounds heal.

Japan is widely hailed for its infrastructural preparedness for natural disasters. Have you seen examples of this helping animals to avoid injury or be more easily rescued? Or were animals overlooked in Japan’s disaster preparation? What could be done to better prepare for future events?

Based on my experience in Haiti after the 2010 7.0 magnitude earthquake, I feel the majority of the damage in Japan was due to the tsunami. Buildings and roads in the mainland area of Sendai (about 80 miles from the off-shore epicenter) were unaffected, but the coastal area was completely destroyed. I believe the engineering and infrastructure throughout Japan contributed to the safety of the people and animals, and significantly reduced the human and animal mortality numbers. A simplified explanation would be that the Haitian earthquake caused everything to fall or break; the Japanese earthquake and tsunami washed everything away.

Regarding disaster preparation, families can consider permanent identification (such as microchips or tattoos) for their pets, which will facilitate reuniting displaced animals and owners after a disaster. Families can also include leashes, crates or carriers in their family disaster preparedness kit, to facilitate evacuation with their animals.

Have you experienced any bad reactions from people who think it’s not important to save animals?

In Japan (as well as Haiti), I encountered nothing but gratitude and positive support for our work. People consider their pets an extension of their family, and are grateful for rescue and veterinary services in this time of need.

We’ve been discussing domestic companion animals, but are you encountering wildlife at all? What about farm animals?

There was a recent report about a baby dolphin that was found in a rice paddy and returned to the ocean, but we did not encounter any wildlife in Sendai. The veterinarian in Sendai, Dr. Sasaki, was concerned about the well-being of a local equestrian center, so we traveled to the beach area to see if there were any injured or lost horses. Unfortunately, the entire area was destroyed, including the barns, and we did not see any signs of the horses. Hopefully they were able to flee the area before the tsunami hit.

Are dogs (or any other animals) assisting the rescue effort?

There is now a very famous YouTube video of 2 dogs involved in a mutual rescue effort, but we did not witness any animal-facilitated rescues. However, I feel the animals are providing essential emotional healing and support to the people displaced by the disaster. People living in evacuation centers may have lost almost everything in their lives and feel an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Caring for an animal offers an opportunity to feel a sense of responsibility and purpose during this devastating time. Numerous studies have shown the simple act of brushing or petting a cat or dog has therapeutic effects on blood pressure, cardiac function and depression. In that sense, I feel the animals are critical to the rescue and support effort in Japan.

When will the mission be considered complete and accomplished?

NEVER!!! ;)

There is an initital rush of support (human and animal) following a disaster, however World Vets is currently planning for both short and long term support for the animals and people of Japan. Our generous corporate sponsors and private donors have responded with overwhelming generosity, enabling World Vets to provide support to the people and animals of Japan. Last week, World Vets shipped 13,000 pounds of dog and cat food to the Animal Friends Niigata shelter, and we have sent 2 shipments of veterinary supplies to Dr Sasaki in Sendai. World Vets is also working with Japanese and US military, JEARS and other Japanese animal rescue groups to help families leave Japan with their pets.

Does World Vets need volunteers?

The structural damage to cities like Sendai and radiation risks in areas like Fukushima make it difficult and dangerous to send large volunteer teams to Japan. Even though many people would like to help, the current need for volunteers is low. But funding and supplies are in dire need, and World Vets is collecting donations to send to our colleagues in Japan.

We will continue to support our veterinarian and friend Dr Sasaki in Sendai, and there is potential for long-term support through spay/neuter projects with his clinic. Anyone interested in learning more about World Vets trips can visit the website and become a member.

The crowd, the signage & the DJ at the last Vegan Drinks! Pictures by the talented jesse.anne.o. View more images in the Vegan Drinks Flickr pool.

Thank you for turning out in droves for the March 31st Vegan Drinks NYC benefit for World Vets and its disaster relief efforts in Japan. (Read our interview with Adrien Zap of World Vets, who traveled to Japan within hours of the earthquake and tsunami.) You raised over $400 by buying drinks and food and many, many raffle tickets. Congratulations to the winners and HUGE thanks to MooShoes, Terri and Angels & Kings Bar for generously donating prizes for the raffle.

Extra special thanks to the talented Dj3dg and those organizations and individuals who made Shout-Outs:

• NYC Vegetarian Food Festival – April 3rd!
• Comedy for Karma to Benefit Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary – April 5th!
• Sea Shepherd
• Ulster County SPCA
• Mercy For Animals
• World Wide Vegan Bake Sale to benefit for the Animals sanctuary – May 1st at MooShoes
• Veggie Conquest’s Veggie Prom – May 13th
• Vegansaurus.com
• The V-Spot – thanks for the samples, Danny!
• Dun-Well Doughnuts
• Your Time Travels
• Vegan Lawyer Deborah (aka, ME!)
• Shar Gorgiis

We’ll see you on April 28th for the next Vegan Drinks NYC at Angels & Kings Bar.

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Next Vegan Drinks NYC is THIS Thursday, March 31st!

Help us raise funds for World Vets’ Japan Disaster Relief efforts at this week’s Vegan Drinks NYC from 7pm to 9pm on Thursday, March 31st at Angels & Kings Bar in the East Village.

Vegan Drinks will donate a portion of bar sales and all funds raised through the night’s raffle to World Vets.

Raffle prizes include generous gift certificates donated by MooShoes ($75), Terri ($50) and Angels & Kings Bar ($50)! Tickets are $5 each. Bring lots of cash!

Dj3dg (aka, Brian from the Ulster County SPCA) will keep us entertained with his record collection and the kitchen will keep us well fed. Menu items include a vegan burger deluxe platter (with or without vegan cheese + fries and coleslaw), crispy vegan chikkin’ tenders, Pittsburgh-style coleslaw, fries, hummus & chips, and good ol’ chips & salsa or guacamole.

Drink Specials will include $2 off everything until 8pm; $1 off draft beers and well drinks from 8-9pm! And, we’ll be serving spiked Apple Cider, too! Folks who don’t drink alcohol are much beloved and also quite welcome, but you do have to be 21 to get in.

Have you read the new and improved Vegan Drinks FAQ? Please read it, even if you’re a regular at our event.

We’ll turn down the music around 8:30pm and encourage people to promote themselves, their groups and/or causes for 30 seconds. If you represent a veg*n or animal rights group, come prepared with your (very short!) spiel and literature.

If you’re not already following our every move, connect with Vegan Drinks on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@vegandrinks), and join our e-mail list.

Vegan Drinks NYC is usually held the last Thursday of the month from 7pm to 9pm at Angels & Kings, 500 East 11th Street (btw Ave A & Ave B), New York, NY 10009.

There will be a concert featuring veg*n performers and vegan food tonight (Wednesday, March 23) at Angels and Kings in the East Village. (This is the same bar where we host Vegan Drinks.)

Comedian and V-Spot guy Alex Carabano will MC, with music from Mercy Bell, John-Flor Sisante, and others yet to be announced.

There is a $5-$10 suggested donation, with proceeds going to MercyCorps. Angels and Kings is a bar, so you need to be 21 or older to get in.

There will be food from Verite Catering and The V-Spot, and a raffle.

(Next week’s Vegan Drinks will be a fundraiser too, with proceeds going to World Vets Japan Animal Disaster Relief, but more on that in another post.)

Vegan Drinks is THIS Thursday, 2/24!

We’re celebrating Sea Shepherd Conversation Society’s recent victory in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary at this week’s Vegan Drinks NYC from 7pm to 9pm on Thursday, February 24th at Angels & Kings Bar in the East Village.

Vegan Drinks is excited to donate a portion of bar sales to Sea Shepherd to help them celebrate Victory in the Southern Ocean Day! On February 19, 2011, after failing to shake the tail of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ships, the Japanese whaling fleet announced they would return to Japan, cutting their whale hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary short. Sea Shepherd NYC will be on hand to sell merchandise, sign up new Direct Action Crew members, and be available to answer questions about how you can get involved locally.

Dj3dg (aka, Brian from the Ulster County SPCA) will be playing records at this event! Records as in vinyl, not MP3s, folks.

The kitchen will be turning out great bar snacks like a vegan burger deluxe platter (with or without vegan cheese + fries and coleslaw), crispy vegan chikkin’ tenders, Pittsburgh-style coleslaw, fries, hummus & chips, and good ol’ chips & salsa or guacamole.

Drink Specials will include $2 off everything until 8pm; $1 off draft beers and well drinks from 8-9pm! And, we’ll be serving spiked Apple Cider, too! Folks who don’t drink alcohol are much beloved and also quite welcome, but you do have to be 21 to get in.

Have you read the new and improved Vegan Drinks FAQ? Please read it, even if you’re a regular at our event.

We’ll turn down the music around 8:15pm and encourage people to promote themselves, their groups and/or causes for 30 seconds. If you represent a veg*n or animal rights group, come prepared with your (very short!) spiel and literature.

If you’re not already following our every move, connect with Vegan Drinks on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@vegandrinks), and join our e-mail list.

Vegan Drinks NYC is usually held the last Thursday of the month from 7pm to 9pm at Angels & Kings, 500 East 11th Street (btw Ave A & Ave B), New York, NY 10009.

(photo credit: Barbara Veiga / Sea Shepherd)

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.

This message was transmitted to New York from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!

We had a spectacular Valentine’s Day down here in the Southern Ocean. The whales got love of love and the whalers got a new paint job, butyric acid!

This morning, the Steve Irwin sent their Delta boat after the Nisshin Maru. Using a potato launcher and some very good driving, they dodged the NM’s water cannons and shot butyric acid right onto the slipway and flensing deck of the death ship. We could smell the stench all the way on the Bob Barker!

I went out in the small boat this afternoon/evening for an extended supply run. We needed some important supplies from the Steve Irwin, so we used the small boat. Fortunately, the whalers didn’t get in the way or try to block the recovery of the small boat. The only ship with the Nisshin Maru right now is the Shonan Maru #2, and they stayed a few miles away all day. The water was a crystal clear so dark blue it was almost purple.

Then, after five hours in the small boat, we came back to a super yummy vegan spaghetti bolognese dinner, with ultra delicious chocolately brownies. The Steve Irwin even gave us some fresh fruit! Quite a treat now that we’ve been out at sea for two months. There’s nothing that beats saving whales all day and then coming back to a delicious vegan dinner!

(photo credit: Glenn Lockitch / Sea Shepherd)

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.
This message was sent from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite, on:
Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 6:12 AM

Hey Tod!! I am soooo happy we found the whalers and got them running! I can’t even tell you what a relief it is to know the whales are safe for now. We hadn’t seen the Nisshin Maru since the Ady Gil was sunk a month ago. Then, three days ago, we knew we were getting close to finding them because there were whale guts in the water. Grim, but we were hot on their trail. Peter [Hammarstedt] asked for someone to go up on the mast to do watches up there for about four hours. One crewmember, Darius, was just at the end of a watch, and was taking his gloves off to come down, when he took one more look and spotted the NM! Wow! We were so lucky to find the factory ship before any of their other ships found us first. They must have been in the middle of processing too because there were more whale guts in the water and they weren’t moving. It took them a little while to get moving, so we caught right up to them.

There were four other ships with the NM- the three harpoon ships and the Shonan Maru #2- the ship that sunk the Ady Gil. They stayed a little bit back at first, and then when I was out on bow watch, they started moving in. They formed this tight circle around the ship, cutting in front of our bow, so they put themselves between us and the NM. That’s when the Yushin Maru #3 came in and rammed us. I was right out on the bow on the side of the collision, so that was pretty cool. I didn’t even realize there was any damage at all, because it didn’t feel very hard, but it was minor. So we were fine and the Yushin disappeared and hasn’t been seen since! Ha!

A little while after they rammed us, the Shonan came up and started making close passes to us. They were essentially doing drive by’s, blaring the LRAD and the water cannons. Neither of which bothered us, and they got hammered with butyric acid! Ok, and that stuff is so super stinky. Its really nauseating and we could totally smell it on their ship as they passed us.

Now, we’re just pursuing the NM through some ultra rough weather. I’m writing this from my cabin, which is on the lowest level of the ship and I’m still levitating. Yikes. Trying to catch up on some rest now because I hardly slept for 48 hours.

The Sea Shepherd vessel the Bob Barker, blocking the slipway of the Nisshin Maru

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.

The Ady Gil

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.

Japan may never know if whales truly eat krill

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.

Dolphin Meat Hunting in Taiji, Japan

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:

An Urgent Alert for Dolphins

By Richard O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

Dear Friends of Dolphins:

I need your help to stop the Broome Shire Council from backing down from their courageous action in suspendi their sister-city relationship with the town of Taiji.

Broome’s Shire Council voted to cut ties with the remote fishing village after seeing the feature documentary “The Cove,” which exposed Taiji’s role in the yearly slaughter of more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises off the shores of Japan. I personally thanked Broome for this action.

Now, under intense pressure from the Japanese government, the Shire Council of Broome is considering reversing its position. Don’t let them do it!

Our sources indicate that the suspension is a key reason why the dolphin kills have been halted. If the Shire Council reverses, the killing is likely to resume. We need your help today as the hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Australia!

We were able to stop the dolphin slaughter at least temporarily — but
we must keep the pressure on!

Tell Broome: Stand strong against dolphin slaughter!

“We no longer enslave animals for food purposes.” -Commander Riker, Star Trek

Tune in at 9pm tonight to see Captain Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd crew battle Japanese whaling ships. If Season Two is anything like Season One, get ready for a wild ride. Animal Planet has gone all out to promote the show and the current Whale Wars crew has been making the rounds. Last night Captain Watson and crew members Laurens de Groot, Chris Aultman, Shannon Mann even made an appearance on CNN’s Larry King.

Make sure to check out Animal Planet’s site where you can even “Implicate a Friend” and send a personalized video claiming your friend is wanted in connection with anti-whaling activities. And this is via Animal Planet–a national channel with major advertisers… amazing.

Speaking of implicating a friend, SuperVegan’s very own Tod Emko, who appeared on Season One of the show, will not be making an appearance on Season Two as he was in the Galapagos and couldn’t make it on the boat for a second round. Check out the SuperVegan archive for all of Tod’s posts about his experiences protecting animals around the world.

If Sea Shepherd’s crew is indeed “a bunch of pirates” (according to a Greenpeace canvasser on the streets of NYC who was reacting to Tod’s Sea Shepherd-logo hat), then they are some pirates that I can get behind. Argggh matey!

ETA: Check out these videos from the upcoming season: season two sneak peak, meet the crew, and Warning: Graphic Content (must be 18 to view).

One of many families of whales we saw in range of the Japanese whaling fleet.

This is the tenth and final blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. This last post is about observations and discoveries that came after the ship docked back in Melbourne, and facts about these discoveries that interested people would hopefully find useful.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

After our ship came to port in Australia again, I had a lot of interesting encounters and discoveries about my trip. For instance, when I was finally able to get onto the internet on land again, I found that Japan had an entire webpage devoted to identifying us “terrorists” and demanding more military action against us.

The sign on the Nisshin Maru whaling factory ship says “Do not come aboard without captain’s permission.” And for a good time, see the icrwhale.org website.

And I met a lot of people while walking through the streets of Australia, while I was still wearing my Sea Shepherd crew uniform. Most people were in favor of Sea Shepherd, and some hated our guts and almost brawled with me because of it. But the most interesting thing I’ve gleaned from all my experiences coming back to land, is that almost no one in the general public, whether it be the anti or pro-whaling public, seems to understand the whaling issue that well.

I found that a lot of people who are even in favor of Sea Shepherd’s campaigns, didn’t know that whaling is illegal. And I found that people who were in favor of whaling had completely incorrect notions about international laws. To shed some light on the facts, I thought it’d be useful to finish this Antarctica blog by relaying a conversation that I had after coming back. The conversation was a typical exchange on the whaling debate’s facts and fictions. So after having given you tales of sea battles in past posts, hopefully this last post will also help fans and foes of Sea Shepherd know what they’re talking about when it comes to whales from now on.

Here’s how the conversation started. I went to a party recently where I met a Japanese person who was in favor of whaling. He put his hand behind my head and pulled me in front of his face and started saying loudly, “MMMM! Whale burgers, you should try one they’re GOOOOD! MMMM! Try a WHALE burger!” He obviously wasn’t trying to start an argument, he was simply trying to start a fight. In fact, my Japanese friend who was next to me (and whose party it was) started screaming back at him. The pro-whaling guy started giving the usual pro-whaling arguments, like it’s Japan’s tradition so they have a right to keep doing it, and my friend started yelling at him that Japan traditionally gives women no career options but some customs are damaging to its people and the world they try to live in. The pro-whaler would scream back that Americans are judgmental, and both sides would continue screaming at each other.

However, the screaming match was obviously not for a good reason, as it was to goad me into a fight, so I told the guy I actually wanted to hear his reasons why Japan has the right to whale. It took a while to get him to actually speak his reasons, but his answers were the usual answers I’ve heard in favor of whaling. Here are those usual reasons, and I’ve included my usual responses to them.

Reason #1: There are no actual laws against whaling.

Response: Tons of international laws make whaling illegal. The UN World Charter on Nature, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) all protect whales from commercial whaling.

On top of that, Japan is doing its whaling in the Australian Antarctic Territory, and Australia has passed a high federal court order outlawing whaling in that Territory. The Antarctic Treaty also says the Antarctic is a demilitarized zone, and Japan brings armed military with them as part of their whaling fleet, violating the demilitarized zone.

Here are the specifics of the IWC regulations that Japan is breaking, as outlined by Captain Paul Watson:

1. The Japanese are whaling in violation of the International Whaling Commission’s global moratorium on commercial whaling. The IWC scientific committee announced it does not recognize Japan’s whaling activities as “research,” and thus Japan is not exempt from the commercial whaling ban.
2. The IWC doesn’t just ban commercial whaling, the IWC specifically bans whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary where Japan whales.
3. The Japanese are in violation of IWC regulation 19. (a) The IWC regulations in the Schedule to the Convention forbid the use of factory ships to process any protected stock: 19. (a) It is forbidden to use a factory ship or a land station for the purpose of treating any whales which are classified as Protection Stocks in paragraph 10. Paragraph 10(c) provides a definition of Protection Stocks and states that Protection Stocks are listed in the Tables of the Schedule. Table 1 lists all the baleen whales, including minke, fin and humpback whales and states that all of them are Protection Stocks. The main ship in the Japanese whaling fleet is the Nisshin Maru, the whaling fleet factory ship, which allows the fleet to kill 1,000 whales a year at sea at a time.
4. In addition, the IWC regulations specifically ban the use of factory ships to process any whales except minke whales: Paragraph 10(d) provides: (d) Notwithstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10 there shall be a moratorium on the taking, killing or treating of whales, except minke whales, by factory ships or whale catchers attached to factory ships. This moratorium applies to sperm whales, killer whales and baleen whales, except minke whales.

A typical sight in the Southern Oceans. A whale couple brings their calf to see the humans, and they swim alongside our ship. Whales have an innate trust and love of humans; most will try to their dying breath not to hurt a human, even when threatened by aggressive people. This has unfortunately been the whales’ undoing.

Reason #2: These laws don’t apply to Japan and it’s not fair to say they do, since Japan has been whaling for a long time. For you to sit on your high horse, and wave your foreign laws over Japan, is just judgmental and you have no right to say such things. And furthermore, they’re whaling in International Waters, as Australia has no claim to any territory in the Antarctic.

Response: If America and a few other countries decided to bully on Japan and say “stop your whaling! We deem it bad and thus you’re not allowed to do it either!” Then yeah, you’d have a point. However, Japan is a signing member of these laws. Japan is a charter member of CITES. Japan is a member country of the International Whaling Commission.

And, whether you or I think Japan is violating Australian waters is moot, since Japan is also a signing member of the Antarctic Treaty. Thus, Japan itself has agreed that it is in Australian waters and a demilitarized zone.

If you sign a law, saying you’ll abide by it, and then you break it, you’ve broken the law.

Reason #3: Well, I consider it the way I do the Kyoto Protocol. A bunch of countries signed that but no one really cares if a country doesn’t pay attention to it all the time.

Response: Over a hundred countries have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol with the intention to participate, but the signing countries have no obligation beyond monitoring their emissions, and reporting the results. Individual sovereign governments can decide their own level of participation. The Kyoto Protocol is a framework, with a set of principles. The principles are often specific, and refer to payments and international relations, but the Protocol does not require any country to obey these principles as laws.

Bans on commercial whaling aren’t “protocols,” and the IWC is not a set of principles. The IWC is an actual legislative Commission on whaling regulations. A Commission’s regulations are laws that its members must follow.

However, let’s say they’re all just trade treaties, rather than legislative Commissions that create laws that signing members need to follow. Then, your assumption is that it is ethical or right, to simply break an agreement with other countries that you’ve signed. But is that true?

The crew of the South Korean long-lining vessel In Sung No. 2, stare at us defiantly as we filmed and photographed them illegally poaching Patagonian toothfish. A lot of countries and businesses believe it’s their right to decide their level of law compliance.

Reason #4: But if Japan is a sovereign country, and you’re just some guy thousands of miles away and not even a Japanese citizen, you have no right to say “I think you should follow this law if I disagree with your national policy!” and engage in illegal acts to stop them. You’re eco-terrorists.

Response: We don’t engage in illegal activities. I have the right to stop illegal Japanese commercial whaling, and so do you. The UN World Charter for Nature gives every individual on earth the right to stop poaching and the destruction of nature that breaks UN conservation laws. You have the right to stop it if you are able to do so, and if you’re not in a jurisdiction that forbids your specific actions.

You may think that blocking whaling vessels and tossing chemicals onto their whaling decks so they can’t use them is illegal. But if you want to take Japan’s side, they themselves have declared that they’re whaling in international waters, and have announced they thus have no legal recourse against people (like us on Sea Shepherd ships) who interfere with their operations. They’ve thus simply lodged complaints against Australia for allowing us to use their harbors, since there is nothing legal they can do against us directly. They have threatened to extradite me and put me on trial in Japan for being a pirate. But I was never worried that they’d even actually try, since they have no legal claim against me or anything I’ve done. Japan has an extradition treaty with the US they could exercise at any time if I did do something illegal. If what Japan says is true, and I’m somehow a terrorist pirate who is a threat to their security, do you think they’d simply say, “Eh, terrorism and threats to our national security isn’t THAT big a deal, let’s not bother exercising that extradition treaty even though we said we would.”

While their soldiers fight us, their crew film us to gather any evidence of illegal activity to bring criminal charges against us. They are never able to get any such evidence or bring up any charges, however, no matter how much they try.

Reason #5: Regardless of the international community’s opinions, Japan has a long-held tradition of whaling. It would be wrong to expect them or ask them to give it up, since it’s their culture, regardless of which Commission or UN Charter they’re members of.

Response: Do you seriously want to live in a world where no one obeys the law if it disagrees with things they’ve done in the past? Where people keep oppressing or killing against the law, their reason being “they used to do it in the past?” Do you aspire to a world where countries sign treaties with each other and form laws together, with no country having any intention of following any of the laws? Has the world become a better place since we stopped obeying Geneva Conventions, since we feel like torturing Iraqi prisoners now? We have a grand tradition of winning wars at all costs, so no one should expect us to act differently despite any silly Conventions or treaties we’ve signed, right?

Reason #6: I’m sick of every little environmental infraction compared to war crimes and other actual serious issues.

Response: Once again, whether or not we think they’re equivalent is moot. Whether or not we deem any international law as “important” and worthy of being followed, is moot. There’s no hierarchy to international laws. There aren’t some international poaching laws considered “misdemeanors.” The whole point to an international law is that countries of the world have deemed it a serious enough issue for our long-term survival to make a law about it.

Let’s say you disagree with that, and assume every anti-whaling law in the world is made by Japan-hating anti-whaling factions. Well, would you agree with countries that have long-standing whaling traditions like Japan? The IWC is the only Commission in the world originally made up of whaling countries that WANT a legal commercial whaling industry. This is an originally pro-whaling Commission made up of whaling countries, created to manage world commercial whaling. Yet, this pro-whaling Commission deemed the whaling problem so bad, that it has banned commercial whaling. Keep that in mind. It’s such a not-minor, serious problem to the people who are pro-commercial-whaling, that they themselves originally banned commercial whaling. Even though Japan has been wooing landlocked countries like Mongolia with monetary incentives to join the IWC and vote to legalize whaling again, they still don’t have nearly enough votes among IWC member countries to overturn the ban on whaling.

The pro-whaling guy I talked to at the party walked off in a huff after a while. His reasons eventually dissolved into statements like “Look, I have no idea, it just ISN’T illegal, ok?” And he got frustrated and left. However, he came back maybe an hour later. He came up to me saying, “I want to apologize. I attacked you and I shouldn’t have done that. I just had no idea of the other side of the issue. I think you guys are doing amazing work.” A big part of the point of this story is that, in addition to taking direct action to stop whaling, we need to know what we’re talking about, and be willing to open dialogs with people we find distasteful, if we really want to change minds and end the whaling faster.

Well, I hope these posts were able to teach you something you didn’t know before about what’s happening in the world of poaching. My next Sea Shepherd trip is to represent the crew at Gatecon in Vancouver in August. And my next anti-poaching Sea Shepherd campaign is in September. I shouldn’t really say much about that trip until I come back from it. But hopefully then I’ll have some more interesting blog posts, pictures, and anti-poaching facts for you all. I also hope that these posts encourage you to believe that ANYONE (ie you) could also stop poaching around the world; you have the right, and you have the ability. You just have to realize it and go somewhere you want the killing to stop. So you can go beyond simple veganism to help save animals. You can all be Supervegans and save the whales. :)

The Japanese soldiers on the Nisshin Maru prepare to fight us.

This is the seventh blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent three weeks into the voyage. The next update will come Tuesday, July 22nd.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 3/7/08 10:51:57 +0000

Hey, quick update as I’m in a rush. We just had another clash with the
Japanese soldiers and this time they shot us to hell.

A Japanese soldier winding up to throw a grenade at us. (photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

A Japanese soldier having tossed a grenade at us. (photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

They shot at us and threw grenades at us and tried to ram us with their
whaling factory ship and generally acted very unfriendly.

My friends Lawrence and Alex fighting back from the radar deck. (photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

Your dumbass friend’s job was to stand on the bridge as close as possible to the
grenade-throwers and warn the rest of the bridge crew when to take cover.

A flash-bang grenade from the Japanese in mid-throw. (photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

The Japanese soldiers threw grenades from behind riot shields. (photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

Our captain got shot in the chest, but he wore a bulletproof vest, so he’s fine.

Captain Paul Watson holding the bullet that hit his vest, and holding the badge that the bullet dented. (photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

A close-up of the captain’s badge that was dented by the bullet.

In our previous encounter this week, we threw buteric acid and other chemicals at them to interrupt their whaling operation decks, and they shot water cannons and such at us then. But today the Japanese military replied with deadly force. Well, if you hear about us in the news I’m ok.

Anyway, we still have them on the run regardless, and they seem to be leaving whaling territory gradually, so hopefully we did the job.

Will update you again soon.

-Tod

We stay alongside the Nisshin Maru to prevent the fleet from whaling.

This is the sixth blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent 20 days into the voyage. The next update will come Friday, July 18th.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 3/5/08 06:34:53 +0000

We’ve been keeping up with the Nisshin Maru for a few days now. Yesterday, we were surrounded by a HUGE pod of dolphins, minke whales, pilot whales, and giant humpback whales, all swimming together! They swam alongside our boat to say hello, and we circled around them to keep them safe from the whaling factory ship. There were whales from horizon to horizon.

The Japanese fleet is unable to kill any whales while we’re in their midst. (photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

It was such a good feeling to see all these whales, that would’ve otherwise been hunted, especially the minke whales which the Japanese whalers particularly targeted. As it was, the whalers couldn’t do anything while we were there. It seems that during this time, the whalers started to get frustrated. They even stopped their ship when all the whales surrounded both ships, even though the whalers couldn’t do anything or kill any of the whales.

Whales from all over the world converge in the Southern Oceans from December to March, which is why the Japanese whaling fleet hunts there during those months. Every day that we engaged the fleet, we also saw whales swimming alongside us.

The Japanese government has been spinning this week’s engagement with the Nisshin Maru to make us seem like bloodthirsty bar brawlers. We made sure that we only threw things onto unmanned whaling decks, so that no one would be hurt but they can’t do things on the whale processing areas. We threw two dozen bottles or so. However, the Japanese government (through newspapers like the Yomiuri Shinbun) is saying that we (33 of us crewmembers, none of whom were apparently driving or running the ship at the time) threw 2,000 bottles within a span of two hours, and that we also had a missile launcher, and that 4 of our missiles hit their Japanese crewmembers, causing them eye irritations. Furthermore, we apparently boarded their vessel and squirted acid into a crewmember’s face, and got into broken bottle fights with fully armed and armored Japanese marines and WON. We’re more macho than we thought!

One of the apparent unfortunate victims of the vegan death squad.

The factory ship has been trying to play cat and mouse games with us to get rid of us, but by now we’ve had so much constant experience with that game, dodging the Japanese military ship for so long, that they simply haven’t been able to shake us from their tail in any way. They’re also a gigantic ship that’s a huge blip on the radar and we moved away from all the ice berg fields, so it’s pretty futile for them to try and get rid of us.

I tried to explain The Dark Crystal movie to the captain, but he got fed up with it and left in the middle of the film. Sigh. We have Star Trek IV on board, though, so I may force the rest of the crew to watch it one of these days. Oh! Duty calls, be back later.

-Tod

We catch the Nisshin Maru

This is the fifth blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent just over two weeks into the voyage. The next update will come Wednesday, July 16th.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 3/2/08 23:30:24 +0000

We just engaged the factory ship just now. As long as we’re on their tail,
they can’t do any more whaling. They had a group of soldiers on deck and ready for the engagement, but they’re in Australian waters breaking Australian law so what can they do? Shoot a boat full of Australians to prove they rule Australian territory?

The Nisshin Maru

The first battle begins. As we come into combat distance, the Japanese soldiers come onto the deck, and the Nisshin Maru uses its water cannons to try to repel us.

We threw acid and chemicals etc at their decks, so even if they lose us in a storm or something they can’t continue whaling operations. They tried to repel us with water cannons, but that did nothing. We threw everything we had, even some old vegan salad dressing that no one liked.

I was particularly happy that I hit their decks with my throw, because we had a butyric acid throwing contest a week ago to determine the teams, and I didn’t just throw badly, I threw so badly that everyone including me laughed. I threw like a disabled cat. So I kinda had to hit their deck during this engagement.

Me after hitting the Nisshin Maru with chemicals.

My friend Lawrence fighting the Nisshin Maru with butyric acid.

Lots to do since we’re still hot on their heels and the media keeps calling, so I gotta go for now.

-Tod

The Sea Shepherd vessel, Steve Irwin, in Antarctica. It’s cold.

This is the third blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent on the ninth day at sea.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 2/23/08 5:31 PM

Meow. So we’re in the Antarctic officially chasing the whaling fleet. It’s been tiring but I’ve been wired during most of it.

Last night I got no sleep. I got woken up around 2am to go to the bridge because we found a suspicious long-lining vessel. Suspicious as in, after I got up to the bridge, they radioed us to threaten us, saying they were armed and would repel us by force, even though we told them we’re just a conservation vessel. And frankly, if I drove alongside a bus in the Midwest who suddenly radioed me saying they have guns and would shoot me, I’d find them suspicious too. We communicated with them for a while, and they kept asking us to identify ourselves over and over again, and we’re not sure why they did that. But we think the chatter may have attracted the attention of the Japanese, because about an hour later, we found a Japanese vessel, which came near us but then lead us on a chase leading East.

We chased it for a while, but the officers decided it was odd for the Japanese to come so near the radio chatter that so clearly identified us, before leading us on a chase. So first officer Peter Brown did a “Crazy Ivan,” which is a maneuver where you make a sudden unexpected turn, to see how the Japanese vessel would react. We made a 180 degree turn and gunned it going West, and lo and behold, the Japanese vessel turned and followed us. That meant the Japanese vessel was the Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68, the Japanese military ship whose only purpose was to track us and lead us away from the whaling fleet. Some of the crew were bummed about that, since it would be harder to find the rest of the fleet with the Fukuyoshi reporting our position to the rest of the whaling fleet. But those pessimists should’ve had a little more faith in us. :)

The Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68, chasing us.

We played cat and mouse wargames with that ship for a while, in order to get at those whalers before they could harpoon any more baby whales (they kill baby whales!). Then, later that day, our cat and mouse games paid off, as I spotted a harpoon boat on my radar (I call it my radar now because I put so much time and effort into fixing it, and it keeps beeping and making noise and everyone wants to shut it off all the time, and I was the only one who had the faith to keep using it, and the clunky little bugger was the one that picked up the harpoon boat!). The Fukuyoshi tried to get between us and the harpoon boat, but we gunned it past the Fukuyoshi, and we chased the harpoon ship out of a sunny, calm area filled with whales that they would normally have turned into a slaughterhouse of mothers and their calves.

The harpoon boat running away from us.

Close up of the harpoon boat running away from us.

After the chase ended with snow and bad weather moving in, keeping us from effectively tailing the harpoon ship, we came across yet another long-lining vessel, a South Korean vessel called the No. 2 In Sung. We deployed the Delta attack boat to investigate it.

The South Korean vessel No. 2 In Sung.

Our Delta attack boat investigating the No. 2 In Sung.

It turns out it had a permit to be there, but it was bringing up Patagonian toothfish (you probably recognize them on menus as “Chilean sea bass”), which was very illegal.

The In Sung illegally poaching a Patagonian toothfish (photo taken by ship’s official photographer Noah Hannibal)

That was quite upsetting, to see that everyone is pretty much doing anything they want in the Southern Oceans because there’s no law enforcement aside from our tiny ship out here. The other upsetting thing was that the Fukuyoshi came surprisingly close to us when we were investigating the In Sung. They never came that close to us before. I don’t want to accuse poachers of working together, but that was just suspicious that the two closest times they came to us was when we were investigating poachers. Anyway, we repelled them by gunning straight for them, forcing them to back off.

We attack the Fukuyoshi Maru No. 68 to get them off our tail.

We also sent the footage of the poaching to the Oceanic Viking, the Australian customs vessel in charge of the Australian Antarctic territory. Unfortunately they were thousands of miles away and decided not to pursue the matter. >.< No wonder poachers do anything they want here.

I’ve been getting very little sleep, since as a bridge officer they wake me up in the middle of the night every time there’s something suspicious to investigate, but hey, I gotta keep up my NYC sleepless lifestyle somehow.

-Tod

The Sea Shepherd vessel, Steve Irwin, on its way to Antarctica

This is the second blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent on the second day at sea. Due to the holiday, the next whale blog post will be up next Monday, July 7.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 2/16/08 7:16 PM

Hello! Greetings from the middle of the ocean after two days at sea. It turns out the Australian government doesn’t like us since we’re pirates, even though we’re protecting their waters by engaging the Japanese whalers, but the individual citizens and cities love us. The Japanese fleet is actually invading the Australian Antarctic Territory to whale (against Australian law), so the Australians have good reason to love us and be pretty pissed off at the whalers. The locals at Melbourne gave us a hero’s sendoff when we left port in Melbourne two nights ago!

(photo taken by official ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

It’s been a lot busier than expected, as this isn’t your typical sit at your desk and use the computer type job. I’ve actually been doing a lot of hands on repairs to radar and other comm systems and keeping them running. And learning how to repair radar and other comm systems and how to keep them running since I’ve never seen any of this equipment before in my life.

The seas are tossing us quite a bit. My cabin is the forward-most cabin on the ship, and they call it the “zero-g” chamber. I didn’t know why they gave it that name until I woke up last night airborne off my bunk. There were like, maybe 10 people at breakfast. It seems like there’s almost no one on the ship because everyone’s in their bunk, sea sick.

I haven’t gotten sea sick, maybe because I play so many first-person shooter games on Xbox. Although being an OCD patient in the public bathrooms on the ship has been quite an experience. I wonder what happens if I run out of Purell to pour all over the bathrooms every morning.

And I finally got my pirate’s uniform! It has skulls and crossbones all over it. More news later.

-Tod

Photo taken by ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal

This is the first of many blog posts documenting my time serving on the Sea Shepherd vegan pirate ship, The Steve Irwin, and our mission to stop illegal Japanese whaling there from February and March of 2008. In light of the 2008 IWC Meeting finishing with the usual deadlock, and Sea Shepherd officially announcing its 2008-2009 anti-whaling campaign, Operation Musashi, it seemed a good time to show vegans what’s going on in the world of whaling.

These posts will document the ship’s journey from Australia to Antarctica for Operation Migaloo (the name of the 2007-2008 Sea Shepherd Antarctic anti-whaling campaign), and describe our sea battles there to stop the illegal Japanese whaling fleet. This will show what few people seem to know is happening to the whales, and what we can all do to stop one of the worst forms of poaching in the world.

Purpose of this whale blog: Like a lot of other people I know, I wanted to save the whales when I was a kid. But after I grew up, I didn’t realize that they STILL need to be saved, since whaling was illegal and all. And I’m starting to realize a lot of people don’t know that whales are still being hunted as if they’re not endangered. More importantly, it seems a lot of people have no idea that there’s something they can do to directly stop it. But there is.

Killing whales breaks six international laws, including that of the International Whaling Commission, the only international legislative body that has any modicum of direct control over countries’ whaling activities. However, the UN World Charter for Nature (pay close attention to sections 21-24) empowers us all to stop illegal poaching/whaling if we see it happening. Let me emphasize that again: the UN World Charter for Nature gives ALL of us, any individual on earth, the power to stop lawbreakers who poach or destroy nature. That means we can videotape their activities and turn the poachers in to authorities, we can get in poachers’ ways so they can’t kill whales and other endangered creatures, we can interfere with their activities and infrastructure, and we can even break their s%#t so long as we’re not in any jurisdiction that protects them.

One of the Japanese soldiers (who’s standing on the deck of the Nisshin Maru) that we fought

I recently went to Australia and got on a ship with 32 other people from around the world (like Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Canada, among others). We all went to Antarctica on the Sea Shepherd vessel the Steve Irwin, to confront and stop the Japanese federally-funded whaling juggernaut that consisted of eight ships, hundreds of crew members, military personnel, guns, grenades, armor, military shields, and tear gas bombs. We were armed with absolutely nothing but one old, broken down ship, some beer bottles filled with rotten butter, some slippery white powder, and of course the authority to stop illegal poaching that you and I and all individuals on earth have under the UN World Charter for Nature. Sailing down there with a paltry arsenal and relatively few people who even ever served on a ship before, we defeated the whaling fleet. Even Japan eventually admitted we stopped them from harpooning 500 whales.

I’m a nearsighted computer geek who was making websites in a cubicle and had no prior ship experience, much less law enforcement or poaching interference experience. Yet somehow Japan labeled me a dangerous pirate that threatens the security of their country because of how successfully we stopped their illegal whaling. And if I’m that big a threat to massive poaching projects, what’s stopping any other person from being as effective in ending poaching or the destruction of nature? Anyone can pick an issue or a place dear to them on earth and make a remarkable difference; you don’t have to go all the way to Antarctica necessarily.

I want to put up a blog to show people the type of obstacles we had, the everyday type of people we are, the size of the beast we were up against, and how we could all still beat the bullies who shot at us from a ship eight times our size. Each blog post will be an email I’ve sent from the ship to friends in America, so they’ll speak conversationally about daily life and the interesting things that come up, and each post will be accompanied by some photos from the trip. The most important point to all this is that anyone can become a pirate and save a corner of the world; all they have to do is decide to do it.

I also put up a donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign.

Our next blog post (and first one written from the ship) will go up on Wednesday. In the meantime, here’s our ship, the day before we left Melbourne for the February to March leg of Operation Migaloo:

(photo taken by official ship’s photographer Noah Hannibal)

Breaking a moratorium on whaling, Iceland slaughtered a fin whale Saturday for the first time in twenty-one years, Reuters reports. Bypassing the moratorium imposed in 1985 by the International Whaling Commission, Iceland joins Norway as the only other nation hunting whales for food purposes.

While both Iceland and Japan have hunted whales under the pretense of research for several years, the move to hunt whales for their commercial value is an even bolder, more contentious decision.

Much of the debate between whaling countries and the International Whaling Commission surrounds questions regarding the stability of whale populations such as the Blue whale, driven to near extinction by whaling. The World Conservation Union still lists fin whales among endangered species on their “Red List”, despite claims by some that their populations have reached a stable number.

The Christian Science Monitor recently ran an editorial urging folks to boycott Japan products in protest of the nation’s whaling practices.

The fate of endangered whale species, such as the humpback, will be decided in mid-June during a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The editorial points out that Japan has already offered millions of dollars in “aid” in an attempt to influence the votes of poor nations toward a reduction of regulations.

It’s not really clear why the Japanese government has whale fever. According to the editorial, less than 1 percent of the meat from the over 1,000 whales currently slaughtered annually in Japan is consumed by humans. The rest ends up in dog treats and other products.

It is noted that Japanese politicians view the Western opposition of and restriction of whale hunting as “cultural imperialism.” I’d have to kind of agree with them on that one. Americans as a whole don’t look too persuasive arguing for whale protection when most of them are out there shooting deer and eating hamburgers. But let’s be real, most of the folks who actually get off the couch and do something beyond flapping their lips to help animals are vegetarians/vegans that aren’t worried about being “cultural imperialist” for a good cause and would just as soon stop animal abuse in the US if they could. It really irks me when people try to justify whatever blatantly wrong thing they’re doing by pulling out dirty laundry on their opponents, especially when the dirty laundry doesn’t even belong to the accused. But I guess that’s the way of the world!

Thanks to DawnWatch for keeping us in the know.

Visit StopWhaling.org to get active for whales.