Sea Shepherd Forces Japanese Whalers to Halt Hunting for Season
PHOTO | Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Adam Lau
From Treehugger
Last year Sea Shepherd‘s harassment of the Japanese whaling fleet halved the number of whales killed. Now it’s come out that the whaling fleet has halted whaling in the Southern Ocean, citing Sea Shepherd’s constant hounding of them, blocking supplies from reaching them and blockading whaling ships as the reason. Since February 10 whaling has ceased. The season normally extends to mid-March.
Sea Shepherd’s activities are the subject of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars series.
According to Sea Shepherd’s estimates, perhaps 30 of the intended 945 whales have been killed by the Japanese fleet.
A Japanese fisheries official commented on the decision to halt whaling:
Putting safety as a priority, the fleet has halted scientific whaling for now. We are currently considering what to do hereafter.(BBC News)
Sea Shepherd founder and captain Paul Watson told AFP that the retreat of the Japanese fleet, “demonstrates that our tactics, our strategies, have been successful.”
On February 11th, Sea Shepherd said was escorting the whalers out of their whaling grounds, with the Japanese fleet “heading eastward at full speed” and “both the whaling ships as the Sea Shepherd ships Bob Barker and the Gojira are now closer to South America that to New Zealand and Australia,” some 1700 nautical miles southwest of Patagonia, Argentina.
Japan Claims Exemption to Whaling Ban For Scientific Research – But Sells Meat Anyway
Most TreeHugger readers probably already know this, but though whaling is prohibited under international treaty and has been for some time, Japan claims an exemption from the ban under the justification that it’s whaling is done for scientific reasons. Nevertheless the meat from the whales killed ends up in food markets and independent investigations have shown that whaling has been very profitable for the approximately 180 people crewing the whaling fleet.
More on Sea Shepherd:
From CNN
By Junko Ogura
Japan has suspended its annual Antarctic whale hunt because an anti-whaling group is tailing its ship, a government official said Wednesday.
Hirosh Kawamura, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said the hunt has been “temporarily suspended” since February 10 due to the actions of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
“We have experienced the dangerous attacks from them, it might take the life of crews,” he said. “Considering the safety as the first priority, we decided to halt the whaling temporarily.”
Sea Shepherd regularly dogs Japanese whaling vessels during their hunts to make their task more difficult and to lower the number of whales harvested.
Japan annually hunts whales in the Antarctic, despite a worldwide moratorium on whaling, under the loophole that a country may legally do so if its purpose is scientific research.
Sea Shepherd has said the science argument is a sham, noting that the whale meat is sold in Japan and served in restaurants.
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one season at a time
lives will be saved
in the uphill climb
and each victory
no matter how large or
small
is in its heart
a victory for all:-D
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Our Compass 
one season at a time
lives will be saved
in the uphill climb
and each victory
no matter how large or
small
is in its heart
a victory for all:-D
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To the ‘dangerous attacks’ on the whaling companies, I say BRAVO!!!
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