PIRATES STICK BY WHALES

By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Columnist
Sunday 28 January 2007

"Every winter, the Japanese whaling fleet heads to the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica on a mission to kill a thousand whales. Ever since the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling in 1986, Japan has used a curious rationale for its whaling. It does not kill a thousand whales for commercial purposes. It kills them for scientific research.
The major whaling nations, Japan, Iceland and Norway, have been persistent in their efforts to reinstate commercial whaling. They say that the IWC is supposed to be a marine resources management agency and that the stocks of certain whales, even endangered species like humpbacks and finned whales, have recovered enough to allow for regulated commercial whaling. At last summer's IWC meeting, Japan scored a symbolic victory by pressuring enough member nations to achieve a one-vote majority in favor of lifting the ban. However, the ban remains in place, because IWC rules require a supermajority to overturn it, and so Japan is back to hunting whales under the rubric of science.
As the Japanese whaling fleet combs the Southern Ocean, harvesting its self-imposed quota of 935 minke whales, 50 humpback whales and 10 finned whales, members of the Sea Shepherd Society are hunting the whalers, intent on intercepting the Japanese fleet and placing their own bodies between the harpoons and the victims, the sentient cetaceans.
I spoke with Captain Paul Watson by satellite phone this week about the Sea Shepherd's campaign. Watson is aboard the Robert Hunter, a fast-pursuit vessel that is one of two ships and a helicopter now deployed by the Sea Shepherd Society in the Southern Ocean.”