Sea Shepherd and Forest Rescue Hook Up in Daring Anti-Whaling Move

By B. McPherson
The following video is horrific. This action is taking place in a whale sanctuary. These intelligent peaceful beings are being killed in a slow, brutal way. Anyone who eats the flesh of these creatures takes on the pain and sorrow of the whale.



Sunday morning the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Forest Rescue, a non-violent direct action conservation group teamed up to create what is developing into an international incident.

According to the Sea Shepherd’s news page, three Forest Rescue men with the help of the anti-whaling activists, boarded the Japanese whaling security ship, the Shonan Maru #2. They are now being held on board. The activists maintain that the boarding of the vessel took place within Australia’s territorial waters and must return the Australian nationals to their country. This tactic was used to divert the Shonan Maru from tailing the Sea Shepherd’s vessel the Steve Irwin. The whalers’ stance is that the action took place in international waters.

This year’s anti-whaling campaign in the Southern Ocean Wildlife Sanctuary sees the activists down to two vessels after the high tech Brigette Bardot suffered serious damage from high waves and had to be towed to safe harbour.

While research is allowed in the whale sanctuary, and the Japanese maintain that is why they are attempting to kill about 1000 whales there per year, few people outside the whaling industry believe it. The painting of “Research” on the sides of the whaling vessels does little to convince those opposed to the slaughter, especially when whale meat reaches the commercial markets and little peer reviewed scientific papers have been forthcoming from that country. Australian scientists can now conduct their whale research by non-kill methods.

The Japanese are divided about the whale hunt. Some support is unconditionally, others are just as passionate in condemning it. Last year two Japanese activists, the Tokyo Two, were jailed for their part in exposing corruption within the industry.

Location: 27 Collie St, Fremantle WA 6160, Australia

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