Sea Shepherd has the Japanese whaling fleet on the run

The crew of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Steve Irwin have found the Japanese whaling fleet, less than a week after leaving Hobart in Tasmania.

The Japanese whalers have been caught hunting whales inside the Australian Antarctic Territorial waters in blatant contempt of an Australian Federal Court order prohibiting them from whaling in the Australian Economic Exclusion Zone.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society intends to enforce this contempt order and the Society intends to enforce international conservation laws protecting endangered whale species in an established whale sanctuary in violation of the international moratorium on commercial whaling. We do so in accordance with the principles established by the United Nations World Charter for Nature.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society appeals to the government of Australia to grant us permission to shut down the illegal operations of the Japanese whaling fleet in Australian territorial waters. There is an Australian Federal government court order prohibiting the killing of whales in the Australian Economic Exclusion Zone. The Australian citizens onboard the Steve Irwin intend to enforce Australian law against the illegal activities of the Japanese invasion force in these waters.

\"There is a dotted line on the chart that clearly defines these waters as being under the economic authority of the government of Australia,\" said Captain Paul Watson. \"There are some in the Australian government who argue that Japan does not recognize Australian authority and therefore nothing can be done. Australians should rejoice that representatives of their government in 1942 did not give in so easy when the Japanese refused to recognize the sovereignty of Australia. If they had there would be Japanese whaling bases in Australia today.\"

It was a relatively simple matter to find them. We just had to put ourselves in their shoes. They expected us to begin our search at the Eastern side of the Ross Sea where they normally begin their whaling. We therefore made every indication that we were heading towards the Eastern side, an area to the Southeast of New Zealand.

Instead we began our search at the Western side to the Southwest of Tasmania. We even posted a false report of flying over and filming McQuarie Island to And it worked. They were exactly where we thought they would be and that was the area they were not supposed to be in. They are whaling in heavy ice conditions perhaps in an effort to keep themselves hidden they have been operating behind in areas between the ice pack and heavy ice drifts.

Paul Watson via email

From - http://tasmedia.org/node/1818

Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2008-12-20