Sea Shepherd No Longer Alone in the War Against Whaling

Avid watchers and followers of the hit Animal Planet TV show Whale Wars will be ecstatic to hear that the Sea Shepherd crew finally has another ally to help them in their war against commercial whaling on the high seas. This past week, it was announced that New Zealand’s Earthrace crew will be joining the fight, making their combined effort quite the ominous force to be reckoned with.

Image source: seashepherd.org

The Earthrace ship (recently renamed the Ady Gil) is said to look like something out of the future or perhaps a form of alien watercraft. It is a tri-hull wave piercer, built 78 ft (24 m) long and is capable of going underwater to a depth of 23 ft (7 m). The shape of the ship allows it to cut through the waves, rather than sail on top of them, as most boats do; and it can travel at a speed up to 40 knots. Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd’s crew and flagship Steve Irwin, said “we’ll be using it to intercept and block harpoons”. This will be an extremely helpful tactic, considering that the Japanese whalers have a “thing” for explosive harpoons.

The explosive harpoon may be one of the cruelest ways for a whale to meet its grim fate. The harpoon is shot into the whale and explodes inside the body; if that doesn’t work, whalers will then start to use rifles or a penthrite harpoon. Due to these barbaric methods, it can take some whales over an hour to die. What’s worse, there is no limit on the number of weapons that can be used to kill a whale, nor a limit on the amount of time it takes for the animal to die. They have to suffer through every twisted bit of gore that man sees fit to put them through, even in areas that are supposed to be their sanctuaries.

Yes, that is right, Japan also hunts in what are supposed to be protected whale and sea life sanctuaries; protected by the IWC at that. Even more ridiculous is the way the Japanese attempted to appeal to the International Whaling Commission, stating the Steve Irwin ship endangered their lives in the Southern Ocean last year (where one of the sanctuaries is located). “We cannot tolerate such audacity,” Jun Yamashita—a Japanese delegation member—told the commission. “We ask for all appropriate measures, including a ban on the ship from leaving port, so that we can prevent these acts from being repeated.” It seems to me they just want to be able to do their illegal whaling stints without being under watch or under attack.