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Season may have ended early for damaged whaling ship
Posted by jossc on 16 January 2009.
Damaged? Whaling fleet catcher boat Yushin Maru II in Surabaya harbour for repair
According to intelligence received by our investigators in Surabaya, East Java, the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru II, which has been forced into a port in Indonesia for repairs, may be returning to Japan, and not the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Rumours are rife about the ship's condition. It left port this morning without switching on its Automatic Identification System, and our information suggests that ship had arrived in Surabaya with damage to its propeller, rudder and navigation systems. Apparently they were able to repaire the propeller yesterday, but we couldn't find out whether the rudder and navigation had also been fixed.
There are conflicting reports of her destination, but our Southeast Asian office was informed by authorities in Surabaya that Yushin Maru II, which acts as a catcher boat for the whaling fleet, will be returning to Japan. Which would of course be great news for the whales.
"If it is true that she is returning to Japan, it will make a significant dent in the number of whales killed in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary this season and we are delighted by that," says our international whales campaign coordinator Sara Holden. "But one ship out of action is not enough. A full investigation of the whaling operation should be begun immediately and the government of Japan must make a commitment to stop squandering taxpayers' money on this sham whaling programme."
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Free the Tokyo Two! Two of our researchers or currently about to go on trial in Japan as a result of their investigations into the illegal sale of whalemeat supposedly collected for 'scientific' purposes. Please, if you haven't done so already, take a couple of minutes to add your voice to the protest against Juno and Toru's unjust incarceration.
Not Credited Properly
I think Greenpeace should credit this article properly before making it sound like its their doing.
Thanks, to this news, goes to a combined effort on the part of Jakarta Animal Aid, Earth Island Institute, The Green Party of Australia and Senator Bob Brown, Peter Tagliaferri, the Mayor of Fremantle, Western Australia, former Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell, the Indonesian Forestry Department and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
And Greenpeace if you truly had "investigators" in Indonesia why didn't they do anything? Normally you just hold a sign saying greenpeace but you didn't even do that?
I got a letter from Greenpeace earlier in 2008 asking for donations for a southern ocean campaign and I donated, somebody needs to keep an eye on these whalers. Instead they took my money and basicly said to Japan "your free to whale". Greenpeace later claimed they were swaping to a "massive campaign" within Japan. Where is it? all I see is a campaign to free your criminals. Its quite ironic how you say Sea Shepherd are criminals, at least their members aren't in jail.
Just like in Iceland when a Sea Shepherd member sunk a whaling boat, Paul Watson flew over to Iceland and said "arrest me, he was just following my orders". Greenpeace you need to do the same! the CEO of Greenpeace international needs to stand up and take the responsiblity for his orders.
Japanese Whalers
Now that the Yushin Maru 11 has been ejected from Idonesia and Greenpeace has become excited by the news. I remain extremely dissapointed that you decided to abandon your commitment to try and prevent the killing of the Whales in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary despite the fact that I and others like me donated our money to aid you in this endevour.I wrote to Greenpeace in the later part of 2008 about this and quieried why Greenpeace spent so much time criticising your sister environmental organisation Sea Shepherd.At least they have run a very succesful campaign for the last few years and have been remarkably succesful in disrupting the Japanese whalers.I would remind Greenpeace that if they had sent a ship in support of Sea Shepherd at this time ninty percent of those Whales that are killed could have been saved. May I again apeal to your good sence to act as won with Sea Shepherd. This is the time for concerted and united action to end Whaling once and for all.
Whaling
It is disgraceful that Greenpeace has not sent a ship to Antarctica this year after campaigning vigorously and having raised so much money for this purpose. Sea Shepherd are doing a fantastic job but have had to spend the last couple of weeks returning to Hobart for fuel. It could have made a huge difference If Greenpeace had been there but instead the Japanese have been able to continue whaling completely unhindered during this period.
Seems a lot of people are