Paul Watson: Chasing the whalers - part 4

Paul Watson

The crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat welcomed the New Year in unique style.

While the ship's helicopter was away on a three-hour reconnaissance flight, the ship parked alongside a beautiful iceberg. On small floes around the berg were numerous Adelie penguins. A large sperm whale swam nearby while a mother humpback and her calf circled the iceberg the entire time.

Sixteen of the crew earned their Penguin Swim Club status by diving into the zero degree Celsius water to swim with the penguins. To qualify for the certificate, a swimmer must go in with only swimming togs, or nude, whichever they prefer.

When the helicopter returned, Farley Mowat resumed her course westward.

The helicopter crew had spotted a dead sperm whale on the surface 35 miles away. Farley Mowat investigated and found a sperm whale of approximately eight meters in length. There were no visible wounds and the body was attracting dozens of seabirds. Cause of death is unknown.

Dozens of fin whales were also spotted from the helicopter. A search of an area 150 miles long and 60 miles wide failed to spot any whaling vessels. We will send the helicopter up again tomorrow to continue the search.

The Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru and one harpoon vessel continue to flee westward at top speed.

[Greenpeace reports that the faster of its two ships in the area, Esperanza, remains within a mile or two of the Japanese factory ship, and that the vessels have covered 1864 miles (more than 3000km) in five days. Greenpeace says the Japanese ships have moved north of the killing zone declared for their whaling programme. - Ed.]

The whereabouts of the four other whaling vessels remains unknown. While the Greenpeace ship Esperanza keeps dogging the factory ship, we search for the other vessels.

Could the harpooners be whaling? Not likely without the factory ship. The harpooners have no facilities to process the slain whales. Could the spotting vessel Kyo Maru be acting as a processing ship? There is a small possibility, but it is unlikely considering that the vessel does not have the deck space for cutting up a whale.

Eight days since Christmas without a whale being killed, the fleet scattered and running aimlessly. Are they waiting for military assistance from Japan? Their objectives remain a mystery but everyday that whales are not killed costs them money and spares the lives of whales.

* Paul Watson is founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.