Whale Slaughter Continues in Southern Ocean

B. McPherson

Japanese whalers hauling mother and baby onto factory ship.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Australia is reporting a continuing whale slaughter in the Southern Ocean. In an area that is closed to commercial killing, the Japanese “Research Vessels” continue to kill whales. The thinly disguised whaling vessels kill and chop up the whale carcasses aboard the factory ship Nisshen Maru.

The Sea Shepherd Society has attempted to stop the slaughter by blocking the slipway of the factory ship to prevent dead whales from being processed. They are sometimes successful, but find most of their success in preventing the harpoon vessels from making the kills in the first place.

Sunday night the tables were turned on the Sea Shepherd vessel the Bob Barker which found itself the target of the harpoon ships. They were towing steel cables behind in order to tangle and disable the Bob Barker’s propellers. They were unsuccessful.

During the incident, the harpoon vessels crossed the bow of The Bob Barker a total of eleven times, towing steel cable in an effort to disable the propeller and rudder of the conservation ship. It was the third such attack on The Bob Barker this year. Sea Shepherd Australia

These truly are wars being fought in the frigid, dangerous waters of the Antarctic. In spite of Australia’s and New Zealands’s public stand against the Japanese whaling fleet, little seems to be done to prevent them from killing whales in what is supposed to be a sanctuary. It is not just the Aussies and Kiwis, the will to prevent  commercial killing of whales seems lacking by other signatories to the treaty.

Operation Relentless is fighting its tenth year in this war.