Whalers refueled, set to start hunt again
by Takver Wednesday January 04, 2006 at 01:35 AM

The Japanese whaling fleet is set to commence whale hunting after an absence of ten days, after refueling inside the Antarctic Treaty area. They have about half a day of travelling to the whale hunting grounds near Antarctica. The two Greenpeace vessels, Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship, Farley Mowat, continue to shadow the fleet, and in particular the factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru.

greenpeace_nisshin_maru_refuel.jpg, image/jpeg, 167x250

Photo: from the Greenpeace Defending Our Oceans Blog

On January 2 the Nisshin Maru and one of the Japanese hunter ships met with a sea tanker to take on fuel. The surprise was that the transfer occurred at 60 degrees 26 minutes South, inside the Antarctic Treaty area.

Andrew from the Greenpeace ship, Esperanza, said "Given the distance traveled, almost 2,000 nautical miles (3,700km) over the past eleven days, you would think they'd go another 26nm (48km) just to avoid refueling in the specially protected treaty area."

"I assume they have completed an environmental impact assessment, and filed all the necessary paperwork for such an operation in the treaty area - it would be arrogant in the extreme to violate the treaty right in front of a Greenpeace ship (and of course we took tons of photos)."

Antarctica is a declared nature reserve and land of science under the Antarctic Treaty, of which Japan is a signatory. Refuelling the whale fleet could be in breach of the strict Protocol for Environment Protection under the treaty. Emergency plans to deal with marine pollution must be drawn up co-operatively for ships operating in the treaty area, "particularly ships carrying oil as cargo".

Shane Rattenbury, from Greenpeace said "We do not believe that Japan has made the necessary notifications to the Antarctic Treaty about this,"

The Japanese Whaling fleet is likely to try to resume the hunt shortly with no whales slaughtered for the last ten days.

"The whalers have got a season that's about 100 days long. Their quota is 945 whales," Mr Rattenbury, expedition leader for Greenpeace, told AAP. "If you lose, say, 10 per cent of those through bad weather, they've got an average they need to catch of 10 a day and it's gone 10 days now without having any whales. That starts to add up pretty quickly. They're under a bit of pressure to get on with the business."

Sources:

1. 60° 26' South - Whalers take on fuel - Andrew on the Greenpeace Ocean Defenders Blog, January 2, 2006
2. Whaling set to resume: Greenpeace, News.com From AAP, January 03, 2006
3. Antarctic Treaty

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