Dancing with Death Machines at the Bottom of the World

“What an awesome way to begin the New Year,” said captain of the Gojira Locky MacLean of Canada. “Our three vessels dancing dangerously through the ice packs locked in confrontation with the three harpoon ships of the Japanese whaling fleet. It was both deadly and beautiful. Deadly because of the ice and the hostility of the whalers and beautiful because of the ice, and the fact that these three killer ships are not killing whales while clashing with us.”

The three Japanese harpoon vessels the Yushin Maru, Yushin Maru #2, and the Yushin Maru #3 attempted to block Sea Shepherd’s vessels including the Steve Irwin, Bob Barker, and Gojira from the pursuit of the Nisshin Maru factory ship.

The entire Japanese whaling fleet is on the run, and when they are running they are not killing whales. Sea Shepherd’s ships are chasing the slower factory ship the Nisshin Maru, while the faster Japanese harpoon vessels are chasing after Sea Shepherd’s fleet. Despite their speed, the harpoon vessels are not faster than the Gojira, and the Gojira, with aerial surveillance assistance from Sea Shepherd’s helicopter the Nancy Burnet, is hot on the tracks of that floating abattoir the Nisshin Maru.

“We’ve got them before they were able to kill a single whale. They are not whaling today and our challenge now is to make sure they don’t kill any whales in the coming days,” said Sea Shepherd campaign leader Captain Paul Watson.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-110101-1.html