Fw: The Death Star Returns to the Land of the Rising Sun

Captain Paul Watson
Sunday, February 25, 2007 5:11 AM

The Death Star Returns to the Land of the Rising Sun

No More Whales Will Die This Season.

Finally, the burnt out hulk of the whale killing floating factory
called the Nisshin Maru is limping out of the Antarctic treaty
zone, the stench of rotten whale meat lingering in its wake.
The whale killing fleet is now slowly heading north to Japan.
There will be no stopping in New Zealand for repairs. A stop
there will result in legal issues that could tie the ship up for
years and the whale meat onboard would be confiscated.

The whaling fleet has a long way to go to reach Tokyo and
the crew will be mourning the loss of one crewmember and
remembering the opposition by Sea Shepherd that left their
decks reeking of rotten butter and awash with the blood of
the whales caused by Sea Shepherd crew sealing the bloody
deck flensing outlet drains. It is a ship that reeks of death,
burnt flesh, gore and blood, and it looks and smells like
the Death Star that it is.

The image of the Nisshin Maru retreating from the Antarctic
Whale Sanctuary is joyous news for all people who love
whales. This ship is the single greatest whale killing machine of
all time and the only thing more pleasing to us would be to see
its total destruction. Fortunately this did not happen, because
the sinking of the ship would have been an ecological disaster.

Whaling is now officially ended for the 2006/2007 season and
the unofficial final whale body count appears to be less than
500 whales of their 960 targeted Piked whales. It is not known
how many of the targeted Fin whales were killed.

The Nisshin Maru is severely damaged. The main engine was
started but electrical systems are barely functioning. The whale
processing equipment is ruined. The winches used to haul up
the whales are inoperable. The cargo of whale meat onboard
has been partially if not completely spoiled by loss of
refrigeration and intense heat. In addition the whale meat has
been contaminated by chemicals used to fight the blaze and
spilt during the fire.

The disaster has highlighted the fact that the Nisshin Maru is
an environmental disaster waiting to happen. This year,
Antarctica's wildlife was spared the tragedy of an oil and
chemical spill that would have occurred if the 8,000 ton ship
had sunk with hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and
an unknown amount of chemicals like ammonia and chlorine.

This is the second serious fire on the Nisshin Maru in 10 years.
The vessels are not ice-class. Japan has put their pride before
any concern for the protection of Antarctic eco-systems and
wildlife. Their lust to kill whales has become obsessive and is
blinding their common sense.

"What Japan has just demonstrated over the last 10 days,"
said Captain Paul Watson, "is a total contempt for
international concerns for the environmental protection of
Antarctic wildlife. This whaling fleet is an ecological time
bomb and the potential for disaster is a real and ever present
danger when they are down in the Whale Sanctuary illegally
slaughtering endangered whales."

The whaling fleet spotting vessel the Kaiko Maru is also
heading home marked with the scars of their deliberate
collision with the Sea Shepherd ship Robert Hunter. The
Japanese crew on both the Nisshin Maru and the Kaiko Maru
saw first hand the dedicated courage of our international
volunteers in action during the confrontations. They were days
they will not soon forget.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is already preparing
to return to the coast of Antarctica in December 2007 to once
again intervene against illegal Japanese whaling activities.

"We have discovered weaknesses with the Japanese ships
that can be exploited given the right equipment. We learn
more about these ruthless killing machines every year." Said
Farley Mowat Captain Alex Cornelissen. "Next year if they
return to kill Humpbacks and Fins, we will have to take a
more aggressive stand to stop these poachers."

The targeting of 50 Humpbacks and 50 Fin whales for the
2007/2008 season is a line in the sand where the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society is prepared to take a stand.

"We cannot abide, tolerate or ignore such a blatant slaughter
of the highly endangered Humpbacks." Said Captain Paul
Watson. "The Humpback is the symbol of our organization
and a part of our logo and we will defend this species as
aggressively as we can. Our position on the Humpbacks and
the Fins is zero tolerance"

The 2006/2007 campaign is now officially over. The efforts
of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have highlighted
the on-going illegal activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.
Our message was that the Japanese whalers were killing highly
endangered whales in an international whale sanctuary in
violation of the global moratorium on commercial whaling.
Japan is engaged in numerous international crimes and they
must be opposed and they must be shut down.

This year, call it fate, call it karma, or call it the will of God
but whatever it is, the results have been wonderful for the
whales and all of us at Sea Shepherd are extremely satisfied
with the ignoble retreat of the ruthless killers of the gentle giants
as their disgraced and damaged ships limping shamefully home
stinking with the corpses of their innocent victims.

Our message to the Japanese whalers. "We hope your damages
are so severe you will not be back next year but if you are, we
will be there waiting for you and we will not be as polite as we
were this year." Said Captain Paul Watson.

The Sea Shepherd ships Robert Hunter and Farley Mowat are
now docked in Melbourne. Preparations have already begun to
outfit a campaign to intervene against the possibility of a return
of the whaling fleet in December.


Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org


"Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all."
- Walt Whitman


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