Posted on 02/09/2011 11:51:05 AM PST by Dengar01
The Sea Shepherd scout vessel Gojira found the illegal Japanese whaling ship Sea Shepherd calls the Cetacean Death Star at 2115 NZST on February 9th. The Nisshin Maru was caught in the process of unlawfully flensing a whale on their aft deck at the position of 74 degrees 16 minutes south and 149 degrees 2 minutes west.
The Gojira immediately gave chase as the Nisshin Maru attempted to escape by entering a field of ice. The Gojira attempted to block the huge factory ship to buy time for the Bob Barker to arrive from some 28 miles away. Captain Locky MacLean engaged the Nisshin Maru in a skirmish, and notified the Japanese whalers that they were not to continue their illegal whaling.
The Nisshin Maru seemed to be engaged in flensing operations at the time it was discovered. Work lights illuminated the deck as water was being flushed over the sides and brown-red stains were visible along the aft deck of the vessel around the scuppers/ drain holes, while black smoke bellowed from the factory smoke stack.
Crewmembers observe the Nisshin Maru from the bow of the Bob Barker. Photo: Gary StokesCrewmembers observe the Nisshin Maru from the bow of the Bob Barker. Photo: Gary StokesThe Gojira was stopped in an area of growlers and floe ice as the Nisshin Maru proceeded to bear down on her. Despite several VHF calls to alter course, the Nisshin Maru closed in on the Gojira. When the Nisshin Maru was 40 meters away, Captain MacLean fired a flare to signal the Nisshin Maru to alter course. The Japanese factory ship altered course to starboard, as the Gojira slid 20 meters down her port side.
At 0220 on February 10th, the Nisshin Maru and one of the harpoon boats entered thick pack ice after several hours of zigzagging through loose floe ice. The Gojira kept up skirting the ice edge, meeting the Nisshin Maru on the far side of each floe using her speed advantage.
The Nisshin Maru proceeded to the south towards an area of pack ice. It appeared as if the Gojira was about to lose the factory ship in the thick ice when the Bob Barker arrived just in time to take over the pursuit.
At 0400 hours, the Bob Barker placed itself immediately aft to the stern slipway of the Nisshin Maru to block any further attempts to offload dead whales. The Bob Barker is now easily pursuing the Nisshin Maru through thick pack ice with the Gojira continuing to skirt around the ice looking for harpoon vessels.
The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin departed from Wellington, New Zealand at 1800 hours on February 9th and is expected to meet up with the Sea Shepherd fleet and the Japanese whaling fleet in about five days.
The Bob Barker needs to hold position on the stern of the Nisshin Maru until the Steve Irwin can assist it. By blocking the stern slipway, the factory ship is unable to load dead whales from the harpoon vessels, allowing Sea Shepherd to effectively shut down their illegal whaling operations.
The Steve Irwin was at port resupplying and left today so I am assuming we will see the Steve Irwin meet up with the Bob Barker and Gojira to resupply both vessels and basically chase the whalers.
It does sound like the Gojira almost went the way of the Ady Gil missing getting nailed by 20 meters.
No sympathy for those who kill whales.
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We ping the list when there is "breaking news" regarding the whalers vs the hippies. And then pan_yan creates a thread for each new episode of Whale Wars which runs in the summer.
At some point there are going to be some dead hippies, you just can’t play games like this at sea.
[No sympathy for those who kill whales.]
Nor for those who eat cows.
That fat bastard running Sea Shepherd is going to get some of his hippie followers killed if he keeps this up. I hope it doesn’t happen, but if it does, I really hope their families sue Sea Shepherd for everything they’ve got and put it out of business.
}:-)4
Yeah, well from what I can tell there will be no more whales killed for atleast 2 months because the Steve Irwin just left port today with enough fuel, food and water to fuel the fleet for the next 2 months. So I don't think the Japanese will meet there quota again and I think this may be Sea Shepherd's most successful year. We shall see.
As a Mariner. I am amazed the Coast Guard has not yanked the Captains License. Although I am against whaling and killing Dolphins.
I own the DVDs and enjoy the show and am absolutely AMAZED no one has been killed, Watson is reckless. Don't get me wrong I am anti-whaling and especially anti-dolphin slaughter that occurs in Taji, Japan. But Watson does not care about the lives of his crew.
The Irwin flies under the Dutch flag and the harpoon interceptor flies under either the Aussie flag or New Zealand flag (can't remember off the top of my head).
And Australia claims the waters that the Japanese hunt whales. Technically they are in international waters so really there is no authority. Sea Shepherd believes they are the coast guard.
“[No sympathy for those who kill whales.]”
“Nor for those who eat cows.”
Nor for those who harvest bell peppers.
I wish the Japanese would sink these hippies and machine-gun the survivors in the water. I hate hippies and I hate these idiots even more.
Why are whales “so special”. No one has EVER given me a decent answer to that. We eat cows that Hindis worship, so does that make us evil.
Is that you, Cartman ?
Whales have a purpose...
...mainly as a food source to those higher on the food chain such as predator type mammals...
These guys are a terrorist organization as far as I am concerned.
Watson doesn not care about the lives of the ships’ crew that are rammed by his band of hippies. And it’s not just whaling ships he “harasses”, it is other fishing vessels as well. One of these days Watson is going to pick on a Russian fishing vessel. Then the “whaling ship” Ivan Rogov will be out hunting for the Great White Whale Paul Watson.
[Nor for those who harvest bell peppers.]
Damn the bell pepperians! Damn them I say!
I grew a few last summer, and executed them all!
Whales/Dolphins bombed Hiroshima.
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