HARPOON OBAMA (Sink his policies)

Please urge President Obama to protect whales and help stop Iceland’s defiant whaling program. Take action now at:

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=72&ea.campaign.id=11405

RICHARD FREEMAN SENT THIS

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/22423/japanese+whalers+to+face+new+enemy+in+godzilla/

A controversial animal-rights group preparing to embark on its annual harassment campaign against Japanese whalers has stepped up its effort this season by enlisting the aid of ... Godzilla.

RICHARD FREEMAN WHALING: ANTI-WHALING ACTIVISTS GET SUSPENDED SENTENCE

After trying to bribe officials of other countries to back their sick little games and gearing up to kill and capture dolphins, Japan has enacted another atrocity. Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, who exposed widespread corruption in the Japanese whaling industry, were given a one-year suspended sentence. At the same time, the criminals behind the whale meat embezzlement walked free.


The politically motivated and unjust sentence has brought the eyes of the world once again on Japan and its treatment of cetaceans.


The pair intercepted one of numerous boxes of whale meat embezzled from the whaling programme as evidence. These boxes were taken for private use by the crew of the Nisshin Maru whaling ship in violation of the whaling programme's regulations, and this amounts to a misuse of public funds.


After two years of living under bail conditions, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were convicted with trespass and theft. It seems that animal welfare, democracy and free speech mean little these days in Japan, especially when money is involved.


Junichi said... "While the court acknowledged that there were questionable practices in the whaling industry, it did not recognise the right to expose these, as is guaranteed under international law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on which our defence was based, supersedes domestic criminal law, but the judgment did not properly take this into account."


Japan has already drawn criticism from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for its treatment of Junichi and Toru, and as Professor Dirk Voorhoof, an international law expert and defence witness in the case, said...


"This conviction is very likely to earn Japan more criticism for its failure to respect its obligations under international human rights law."


Vigils are being held at Japanese embassies around the world and hundreds of thousands of people have already signed a Greenpeace petition calling for justice. The case has already been taken up by Amnesty International, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and by celebrities like Bryan Adams and Benicio Del Torro.


The good that will come of this is that the international community and lay-people all over the world will see the corruption, spinelessness and downright cowardice of the Japanese courts - people totally without honour.
Industry whistleblowers have continued to speak with Japanese media about corruption and wrongdoing in the whaling industry, and interest in the story keeps growing. In the last fortnight articles in major newspapers such as Tokyo Shimbun and Kyodo have covered the issue. Japanese journalists are growing more and more interested in the corruption and underhandedness in what is a tax-funded industry.


You can help the Tokyo Two by telling the Japanese foreign minister just how disgusted you are at the corruption in Japan’s courts.


http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/whaling/ending-japanese-whaling/whale-meat-scandal/Activism-is-not-a-crime-Write-to-Japans-Foreign-Minister/

STOP NORWEGIAN WHALING

April is a dangerous time for whales in Norwegian waters: it marks the start of whaling season. This year up to 1,286 minke whales will die from exploding harpoon and rifle wounds. Norway needs to know that this is unacceptable, NOW.

Norway is one of just three countries defying the international ban on commercial whaling, undermining its reputation as a progressive nation concerned with animal welfare. The sheer size of whales, coupled with the challenging hunting environment, means that there is simply no humane way to kill these animals at sea.

Norway’s own data shows that at least one in five hunted whales suffers a long, agonising death. Some take over an hour to succumb to their injuries. Imagine the pain.

Read on..

RICHARD FREEMAN: Whale war escalates

Whaling vessel sinks sea shepherd anti-whaling ship

Japanese security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 has deliberately rammed the Ady Gil and caused massive damage to the Sea Shepherd catamaran.

Six crewmembers; four from New Zealand, one from Australia, and one from the Netherlands; were rescued by the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker. None of the Ady Gil crew was injured.

Captain Chuck Swift of the Bob Barker said that the attack happened while the vessels were dead in the water. The Shonan Maru No. 2 deliberately rammed the Ady Gil, ripping eight feet of the bow of the vessel completely off.

"The Japanese whalers have now escalated this conflict very violently," said Captain Paul Watson. "If they think that our remaining two ships, The Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin, will retreat from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the face of their extremism, they will be mistaken. We now have a real whale war on our hands now and we have no intention of retreating."

Despite round-the-clock efforts to save the Ady Gil the ship finally sunk. Fortunately all fuel and lubricants had been removed before she finally went down.


The CFZ support the brave eco-warriors of Sea Shepherd and take heed of their example in dealing with the enemies of justice.

RICHARD FREEMAN: THE STEVE IRWIN ATTACKED BY JAPANESE WHALERS

The CFZ have often followed the courageous endeavours of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group, and in particular the ship named after the legendary Australian conservationist and crocodile expert Steve Irwin.

In December 2009 the Steve Irwin was ten days at sea after departing Fremantle, Australia, and has had a Japanese ship trailing them for days. The Shonan Maru No. 2 security ship is reporting the Steve Irwin’s location, preventing them from closing in on the whaling fleet.

Sea Shepherd entered French Antarctic territorial waters after receiving permission from the French Base at Dumont D’Urville in an attempt to lose the tail ship. The Shonan Maru No. 2 followed in pursuit into French waters without permission. The French base confirms that the Japanese ship neither requested nor received permission to enter French waters.

The Steve Irwin sent a helicopter back to film the Shonan Maru No. 2 in its illegal pursuit. In response, it is believed that the crew of the Japanese ship activated their Long Range Acoustical Device (LRAD) at the Sea Shepherd helicopter. LRAD is a military class weapon.

“This was an extremely irresponsible thing to do,” said helicopter pilot Chris Aultman. “That device can cause nausea and disorientation and the use of it against an aircraft is both extremely dangerous and grossly irresponsible.”

The helicopter returned to the Steve Irwin for safety from the LRAD, at which point the Shonan Maru No. 2 increased speed and aimed their water cannons in an apparent attempt to destroy the helicopter on the landing pad. This occurred while the crew was attempting to secure the helicopter. This could have easily caused the helicopter to crash causing the deaths of those inside it or around it.

Captain Watson responded by deploying a 150-metre line aft of the vessel to force the Shonan Maru No. 2 to maintain a safe distance. The Sea Shepherd ship is undamaged and the crew safe.
Sea Shepherd has reported the incident to the French authorities. The pursuit continues.

“The situation is now very dangerous,” said Captain Paul Watson. “We have deliberately led the Japanese ship into thick ice in order to lose them in the ice. The icebergs could easily damage either vessel.”

The CFZ applaud the crew of the Steve Irwin and are disgusted at the continued, cowardly activities of the Japanese whalers.

RICHARD FREEMAN: Sonic Assasins

The battle to save Antartica’s whales from the Japanese whaling fleet is becoming almost science fictional. By February 5th the valiant crew of the Steve Irwin of the Sea Shepard foundation had successfully foiled all attempts to slaughter whales by heading off the harpoon ships with inflatable boats whilst being filmed by helicopter.

The whaling ship Nisshin Maru aimed a sonic weapon known as Long Range Acoustical Device (LRAD) at helicopter pilot Chris Aultman of California and Animal Planet cameraman Ashley Dunn of Tasmania.

"At first it was just a loud noise," said Aultman. "Then they turned up the volume and we could feel it in our legs and chest." Aultman retreated out of range of the device, but was shocked they used it. "It was extremely irresponsible for the whalers to aim that device at the helicopter," said Captain Paul Watson. "They were doing nothing but filming and presented absolutely no threat to the ships. They demonstrated absolutely no regard for human life."

The LRAD was then aimed at the small boats and the Steve Irwin. This sonic attack was followed by the Nisshin Maru apparently turning into the Steve Irwin, and allegedly attempting to actually ram it at full speed. Captain Paul Watson ordered the small boats to act like fighter planes in a dogfight.

The small boats retaliated by threatening to foul the props of the harpoon vessel. Steve Roest, of the UK, was injured when he became disoriented, dizzy and was knocked down, cutting open his head. Ship's doctor David Miller from Perth sutured the wound with five stitches. Captain Paul Watson received rope burns when he fired a speed line in front of the Yushin Maru to force them to retreat from an attempt to cross the bow with a fouling line.

"The attacks by the three ships became so aggressive we had to fire flares and speed lines over their head to force them to back off," said Captain Watson.

The small boats also retaliated with rotten butter bombs. The Steve Irwin retrieved both boats and the helicopter by going in tight circles with the three harpoon vessels circling on the outside blasting the crew with LRAD's and towing fouling lines. Finally, the harpoon boats fled with the Steve Irwin pursuing them into the Ross Sea.

GUEST BLOGGER CORINNA DOWNES: Whale meat again

George W Bush really was a nasty little sod. Even in the last few weeks of his administration he was engaged in talks to undo the global moratorium on commercial whaling and extend unprecedented authorisation to the government of Japan to kill whales off its coastline and in international waters. Wildlife Extra has the Whole Story but Corinna is incensed..

So, in the final throes of its reign, the Bush Administration organised some closed-door meetings and discussions with the Japanese Vice-chair with a view to reaching a compromise over their whaling activities. It seems that this would have legalised Japan’s ongoing ‘scientific’ research activities, which would even stretch its ‘scientific’ fingers to include a whale sanctuary.

Hmm, now according to my dictionary the definition of the word sanctuary is: A reserved area in which birds and other animals, especially wild animals, are protected from hunting or molestation. Does this mean, then, that this word does not exist in the Japanese language? Well, of course yes, it does. So, I can only assume, then, that it means the complete opposite in Japan than it does in every other country of the world.

Since the global commercial whaling ban came into force in 1986, Japan came up with the idea of doing some scientific research into whales. The Embassy of Japan in Australia issued the following explanation for the annual slaughter:

“In order to obtain appropriate scientific data for the proper management of whales, only using non-lethal research method is insufficient and lethal method is required:

While certain information can be obtained through non-lethal means, other information requires sampling of internal organs such as ovaries, ear plugs and stomachs. For example, while the population age structure and reproductive rates of land mammals can be determined by observation over a long period of time, such is not the case for whales since they spend most of their life underwater. In this case ear plugs are needed for age determination, ovaries are needed to establish their reproductive rates, and stomachs are needed for the analysis of their food consumption (whales might have consumed large amounts of fish, so as to give an adverse impact on commercial fisheries and the balance of the marine ecosystem).

Of course, the lethal research method is only applied to whale species which are already determined as abundant, and the small take for research purpose will not produce a negative impact on overall stocks of those species.”

Well, over 15,000 whales have been killed in the name of this scientific research. And you can, perhaps, visualise how much meat is left over after the relevant bits and pieces have been removed. And, perhaps, you can also guess where this meat conveniently ends up. It has, after all, been eaten in that part of the world for the best part of 2,000 years.

Waste not, want not eh?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The latest whaling news is that the outgoing Icelandic government has increased their whaling quota as well. Iceland is already bankrupt financially. It looks like it is also bankrupt morally. See you in the gutter guys. I hope you like it there.

WHALE STORIES OF CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL INTEREST

Two stories on the excellent Wildlife Extra website are of more than considerable interest to people of a cryptozoological persuasion.

The most recent comes from the west coast of Ireland where, in September, there were the first confirmed sightings of blue whales since records began.

The other story is much older, but as it is accompanied by the only pictures of four Arnoux’s beaked whales (Berardius arnuxii), observed from a helicopter during an Antarctic expedition, we decided to include it. For more details go here.

NEWS FROM THE CETACEAN NATION

THE WORLD’S SECOND LARGEST ANIMAL RUNS AGROUND IN IRELAND

A 64 foot fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) the second largest animal in the world ran aground alive near Courtmacsherry in the west of Ireland this January. The animal was in poor condition with its bones visible through its blubber. It was hope that the animal could be saved as putting such a huge creature to sleep is hard as it takes a vast amount of drugs and shooting it with high powered firearms would be the only option.

Sadly the animal died of natural causes. It was probably very weak and ill before it ran around. The creature was buried using two JCBs.

Many fin whales have been recorded off the Irish coast since September 2008. The International Whale and Dolphin Group were working closely with operators to record the whales in the area through photo-identification, where unique markings are recorded to enable them to recognize individuals. To date they have more than 60 fin whales and 10 humpback whales recorded (mostly from West Cork).

SPURNING JAPANESE

According to Greenpeace sources in Surabaya, East Java, the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru II, has been forced to abandon her whale-slaughtering mission and return to port in Indonesian. The Ship has a damaged propeller, rudder and navigation system. The Yushin Maru II being out of commission will significantly decrease the number of whales killed in the southern ocean this season. It is not know if this damage was due to the gallant efforts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Meanwhile two Greenpeace activists are awaiting trial in Japan for their part in exposing a whale meat scam. Japanese whalers hunt Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) for ‘scientific research’ (what ever the hell that means) but the whale meat is sold on illegaly for huge profints. In 2006 505 minke whales were butcherd by the Japanese fleet.

Not content with this atrocity, Japan is making a mockery of international law by re-flagging and using the refueling tanker, formerly known as the Oriental Bluebird, after it was fined by the Panamanian government for breaching international environmental law Now named the Hiyo Maru - the vessel is still operating with the whaling fleet, without a permit and despite the fact that Japan has ratified a treaty which seeks to ban the practice of reflagging to circumvent environmental law.

SINK THE BASTARDS!

In December 2008, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin, named after the late, lamented conservationist and crocodile expert, perused the Japanese whaling fleet across the Antarctic.

They found Japanese whalers in the Australian Economic Exclusion Zone at 64°26 South and 132° 40' East. The Steve Irwin launched a Delta boat with a crew to attack the Yushin Maru II with rotten butter bombs. The Sea Shepherd crew pursued and delivered 10 bottles of rotten butter and 15 bottles of a methyl cellulose and indelible dye mixture.

Pursuing this ship and several others the Steve Irwin prevented them from whaling. Captain Paul Watson said… “The Japanese whalers are still targeting whales in the waters of an established international whale sanctuary and thus they are still in violation of international conservation law and acting under the principles of the United Nations World Charter for Nature, we will continue to pursue, harass and intervene against their blatantly illegal lethal assaults on the whales."

The Steve Irwin has a crew of 40 international volunteers and a film crew onboard producing the series Whale Wars. Last year the Sea Shepherd crew pursued the Japanese whaling fleet from early December until mid-March. That intervention cost the whalers over $70 million in lost profits and saved almost 500 whales.

Everyone at the CFZ would like to send out our thanks and admiration to these brave people.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY NEWS: A whale of a tale

The North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is one of the rarest animals in the oceans.

Called the right whale because it was the ‘right whale’ to hunt on account of its slow swimming speed and great size, commertial whalers reduced it almost to extinction.

The brilliant Wildlife Extra website reoprts that a right whale was seen 5 miles south of Faial Island in the Azores by biologists from Whale Watch Azores and the University of the Azores. This is the first record of a right whale in these waters since Jack The Ripper was in the news, back in 1888!

Lisa Steiner of Whale Watch Azores and Monica Silva from the University of the Azores
Watched the whale for more than an hour. It was identified as a right whale from photographs and the callouses on its tale flukes mean it was identifiable as the individual 3270 which was last seen in the Bay of Fundy on the US/Canadian border on the 24th September 2008.

A record of the 325 known right whales is kept by the New England Aquarium.

In related news, over forty North Atlantic right whales have been seen in the Gulf of Maine, leading right whale researchers at NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center to believe they have identified a wintering ground and potentially a breeding ground for this endangered species.

Picture credit: First North Atlantic right whale seen in the Azores since 1888. Lisa Steiner/whalewatchazores.com.