10 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Joel Capolongo (Deck), USA

Sunday January 8th saw the most intense action of the campaign to date. We launched our helicopter early in the morning to go on a scouting run looking for the Japanese whaling fleet. By 8:15 am, it had come back. The Japanese were 35 miles ahead. 2 hours later, the fleet appeared on our radar confirming the pilot's good news. By 11:00 am, the Nisshin Maru whale processing ship was visible on the horizon. 45 minutes later, our first action team was launched in a zodiac, the zodiac I got the privilege to be chosen to be on. Minutes later, the other two zodiacs were launched from the Farley Mowat and they followed close behind.

The zodiacs had one purpose: to keep the Nisshin Maru occupied and to keep it from running away like it had done the last time we encountered it on Christmas Day. We needed to buy time for the Farley Mowat, so it had a chance to catch up and intercept the Nisshin Maru. A few minutes after we left the Farley Mowat, we were on top of the Nisshin Maru. We circled their ship in our small zodiac several times, sizing up the enemy and waiting for the signal. After getting a close-up view of the Maru, it was very easy to see small pieces of whale blubber and sinew hanging from the lower railings along the hull of their ship as well as blood in the water which was being pumped off the flensing deck. The Nisshin Maru had a tape recorded message in English playing over their loudspeaker warning us not to attack their vessel. Several minutes passed. Our other zodiac also enlisted to engage the Maru arrived. Perhaps sensing trouble from the 2 much smaller, but faster and more agile Sea Shepherd watercraft, the Maru began to run. Now was our time to spring into our nonviolent direct action.

Two of our three zodiacs were equipped with devices we had made to foul their propeller; basically two buoys connected with steel cable and rope that we would place in front of their ship in hopes that the Maru would run it over, it would pass underneath their hull and into their propeller at the stern of their ship causing their ship to slow down dramatically or be stopped completely. The Maru was running at full speed away from the Farley. Both zodiacs deployed their devices repeatedly. None seemed to work against the goliath Nisshin Maru ship. One of our zodiacs ran into engine trouble and had to return to the ship. The zodiac I was in was still operating at full capacity. Although none of our efforts had worked up to that point, we had to keep trying. The Maru was putting distance between itself and the Farley, the very thing we wanted to prevent.

Running out of options and having lost both of our propeller fouling devices, all hope seemed lost of slowing the Maru. We went back and picked up one of the buoys that we had deployed earlier but had been detached from the steel cable. The line was cut and a part missing and we could only hope it was entangled around the prop. We scrounged for supplies on the zodiac and decided to use the anchor of the zodiac and some rope to make an impromptu device to try one last time. We deployed and redeployed the device close to 10 times and to our dismay, none ever made it into their propeller. We had been trying for close to an hour to bring the whale killing behemoth to a halt. We finally got a signal from the helicopter to return to the Farley which we did.

While we may have failed to damage their ship and slow them down, we did chase them away from the area in which they had been stationed to collect the carcasses of the whales that the killing ships would bring it. We sent them a clear message: your lawless activities will not go unnoticed and will certainly not go unchallenged. We threw a monkey wrench in the Japanese whale killing operation. Business did not go on as usual for the Japanese on Sunday, and the whales we are trying to protect were made the benefactor.

Seeing the Japanese ships up close and in person like that really brought the magnitude of the events in focus for me. The Japanese are out here killing whales while all of the governments that are in a position to end the slaughter are turning a blind eye. It is a sad reality that the enforcement of international law is left up to a motley volunteer crew of 44 people from around the world. The fact that we have been called pirates and terrorists is not only laughable, but insulting. We are the ones out here trying to prevent the piracy and terror inflicted upon this delicate ecosystem and the creatures that inhabit it. This is no longer something I just read about in a magazine or watch on a video: this is a reality. Whales are dying en masse for the palates and profits of a nation.

The excitement of the day was almost outdone the next day in which we actually did catch up to and side swiped one of their supply vessels, an event I'll let another crew member update on.

Joel Capolongo

(pictured at left onboard zodiac)

09 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat sideswipes Japanese whaling vessel Oriental Bluebird - 2 of 2

To the left you can see the crew of the Farley Mowat on the bow of their ship. They continue to chase the outlaw Japanese whaling fleet out of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary after sideswiping the Japanese whaling supply ship Oriental Bluebird (see previous blog).

09 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat sideswipes Japanese whaling vessel Oriental Bluebird - 1 of 2

Captain Paul Watson ordered the Japanese-owned Panamanian ship Oriental Bluebird to leave the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. The Japanese supply ship was waiting to rendezvous with the Nisshin Maru to continue the off-loading of whale meat for transport back to Japan.

"I informed the Oriental Bluebird that I was acting under the authority of the United Nations World Charter for Nature to uphold international conservation regulations prohibiting the slaughter of whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. When they refused, we backed up the message by slamming our starboard hull against their starboard hull," said Captain Watson.

For more on this story please read our News Release

08 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat catches Japanese whaling vessel - 4 of 4

The Zodiac crew cuts in front of the Nisshin Maru's bow. Crew on this Zodiac: Joel Capolongo (facing camera), Wessel Jacobsz in sweatshirt, and Steve Sikes in back.

When the Farley Mowat came within a half a nautical mile of the Nisshin Maru, the factory ship began to run north. They have been running all day and they have not been whaling. The whalers are now 17 miles outside of the Australia Antarctic Territory.

The last time the Farley Mowat intercepted the Japanese whaling fleet (on Christmas day, Australian time), the whalers fled westward for 11 days and covered over 3,000 miles. They went from the extreme east end of the whaling area to the extreme west end of the area. For 11 days no whales were killed.

The bottom line for this day - no whaling today and the whalers are on the run once again.

08 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat catches Japanese whaling vessel - 3 of 4

Zodiac crewmembers throw a fouling line into the path of the Nisshin Maru's propeller to attempt to slow down the whaling vessel.

08 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat catches Japanese whaling vessel - 2 of 4

The Sea Shepherd helicopter gets aerial pictures of the fueling tanker and whale meat transporter, the Oriental Bluebird.

08 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat catches Japanese whaling vessel - 1 of 4

On January 8th (Australian Western Standard Time) when the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's flagship Farley Mowat intercepted the Japanese factory whaling ship Nisshin Maru, the whalers were 36 nautical miles inside the Australian Antarctic Territory.

The first Sea Shepherd Zodiac crew sets off for the Nisshin Maru. Two more Zodiacs and a helicopter follow.

06 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Emily Hunter (Quartermaster), Canada - 2 of 2

Pictured at left, on an iceberg in Antarctica, Emily Hunter spreads the ashes of her father Robert (Bob) Lorne Hunter. For more of the story, see the blog entry below.

06 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Emily Hunter (Quartermaster), Canada - 1 of 2

Today I headed up on the helicopter with Captain Paul Watson where we first went over a pod of whales that were each 50-feet long and then continued onwards to an iceberg that we later declared the Bob Hunter Iceberg. The late Robert (Bob) Lorne Hunter was my father. And it has been just over 8 months now when he had passed away on May 2nd of 2005. One of his wishes was to have his ashes scattered at different parts of the earth. So far we have had a good friend of his spread some of his ashes in northern Canada near the Artic in a canoeing trip - a canoeing trip he used to always attend. In September, my mother and myself met with the Farley Mowat in the Galapagos Islands, on the equator and spread my father's ashes in a private ceremony in Tortuga Bay. This journey to the Galapagos Islands was one that I had promised to make with my father, as my father and myself were world travelers and we would quite often go to new places together and sometimes show one another a place we had already visited that the other one had not. In this case, my father had never visited the Galapagos Islands, but very much wanted to, and I had already done so in 2004 when I volunteered for two and a half months on the Farley Mowat.

And today, I had the opportunity to spread my father's ashes in Antarctica in this anti-whaling campaign in opposition of the Japanese fleet. This was a campaign my father also wanted to be apart of, (in the 2002 Sea Shepherd Antarctica campaign), but for his own reasons he was unable to and I remember him having much regret about not being able to be apart of that campaign. Thus, he has now not only been able to join the Farley Mowat and SSCS again on one last campaign and a campaign that was important to him, but also he has now been able to help protect and save whales once more.

Furthermore, today when I spread my father over an iceberg in Antarctica, I could only feel genuine happiness. For I know my father would have been so thrilled to have been able to be here and been apart of this campaign, as well as, to be able to be apart of the planet from the north, the equator, and now the south in a physical and spiritual manifestation. I could feel my father smiling and chuckling over us today because he truly is one with this world and in our hearts fighting the good fight for this spectacular planet of ours. Moreover, as we left, we declared the iceberg the Bob Hunter Iceberg by Captain Paul Watson and myself imprinting the name Bob with our footprint on it leaving it with his name written on it. He'd surely been glee with laughter with that one!

And I left the icebergs with these words: "This one's for you Dad," when I looked towards the Farley Mowat and towards our mission to seek and stop the Japanese in there slaughtering of the whales here in Antarctica.

By Emily Hunter

03 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Joel Capolongo (Deck), USA - 2 of 2

Here, Joel is pictured with fellow crewmember Allison Lance Watson during the Christmas Day confrontation with the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru. They are about to deploy a mooring line per Captain Watson's order.

03 January 2006

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Joel Capolongo (Deck), USA - 1 of 2

I left New York on Thanksgiving day, November 24th, 2005. Nearly 6 weeks have passed since then. So far the experience has definitely lived up to my expectations. The people of Australia were extremely gracious hosts and supported us in the most helpful ways imaginable. While I would like to have done more to intervene in Japan's campaign to kill whales, we have confronted them once thus far (at 4am on Christmas morning, what a gift!) and are hopeful for another chance to encounter them so we can do what set out to do; harass, obstruct, and intervene in Japan's killing of whales in the Southern Oceans.

Apart from that, the experience of being in Antarctica and the Southern Oceans has been amazing. The sights we take in on a daily basis defy description. Seeing whales, dolphins, penguins, and seals in their natural environments and not behind glass in a zoo or an aquarium has been a truly magnanimous experience. Sailing past icebergs that are tens of miles long and hundreds of thousands of years old force you to put your existence in perspective and make you realize that the human species is just a small link in the extensively connected chain that make up the fragile environments of the Earth. Being in such pristine surroundings has definitely given me a new perspective and renewed zeal with which to fight for the defense of the Earth and the majestic creatures that inhabit it.

So here we are off the coast of Antarctica in the new year. The battle is far from over. The Japanese have been on the run for weeks and have killed very few whales; far less than their quota. Spirits are high and the mood is one of hope; hope for the Earth, hope for the preservation of the gentle aquatic giants that inhabit these waters, and hope for one more chance to act with vigor in defense of the things that the Japanese are so callously seeking to destroy.

31 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

New Year's in the Southern Ocean

Short of sinking the entire Japanese whaling fleet, the next best thing is to keep the killers on the run.

And they are on the run. They have not stopped running since Christmas day when the Farley Mowat first intercepted them. They are now over one thousand miles to the west of that interception point and still running. And we are still pursuing although hundreds of miles behind. The Esperanza is still dogging the Japanese factory ship and one harpoon vessel, and the slower Arctic Sunrise is trailing astern along with us.

The entire Japanese whaling fleet is running and scattered and being pursued by three conservation action vessels. Three harpoon vessels and the spotting vessel are unaccounted for but it is not likely they are killing whales because they need to transfer the dead whales to the Nisshin Maru for processing and that has not happened in eight days.

And we have riled up the politicians in Japan and in Australia. The Japanese are screaming piracy and eco-terrorism as they continue to terrorize the whales and the dolphins. Environment Minister Ian Campbell is being exposed for a fool by making contradictory statements about how he will have the Farley Mowat investigated and calling Captain Paul Watson "deranged" for trying to save whales.

Campbell has said that Sea Shepherd's actions have "set the cause of saving whales back years." His solution, of course, has been to do nothing but talk and act as an apologist for the Japanese whalers. Captain Watson has been saving whales for thirty years and has saved thousands of them, whereas Mr. Campbell has yet to save one whale. Sea Shepherd is not overly impressed with Mr. Campbell's opinion on the subject.

"Let me see," said Captain Watson. "I'm apparently deranged for trying to prevent the illegal killing of whales according to Ian Campbell. Yet he does nothing to oppose the illegal mass slaughter of whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory by Japan. Personally, I view being called names by a politician to be a compliment. The man refuses to answer my recent letters and e-mails, refuses to discuss the issue with us, and has nothing more constructive to add to this issue than petty and trivial remarks. He asked how could he not respond to the threat Sea Shepherd presents to the Japanese? Yet he does not respond to the threat and the lethal assault that the Japanese are inflicting upon hundreds of whales."

Ian Campbell is blowing hot air, however, and posturing for the Japanese. He has absolutely no authority over a Canadian captain of a Canadian-flagged vessel with an international crew. "I'm sure he will harass us if we should return to Australia," said Captain Watson. "But we have as much experience with being harassed by politicians and bureaucrats as we have with whalers so were not losing sleep over it."

The crew of the Farley Mowat sends Happy New Year greetings to the crews of the Esperanza and the Arctic Sunrise.

While the rest of the world is bringing in the New Year with champagne and parties, the crews of these three conservation vessels are chasing whalers across the remote southern ocean at the bottom of the world.

The crew of the Farley Mowat have a New Year's resolution: We need to do everything we can to rid the world of the obscenity, the blasphemy, the cruelty, and the crime of whaling.

29 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Trevor Gulik (Chief Engineer), Canada

From the Engine room of the M/Y Farley Mowat

The selfless acts of the people defending the rights of an innocent existence may be revered in the future stories of our time, and people will look upon those who fight to promote there own ideals of existence as one great socially-selfish act. These selfish acts will inevitability bring humanity and co-existing life to its knees before the great relentless power of nature and its unlimited energy.

Through the mist, only the radar can see the two ships off in the distance. Uncertain, we head off in their direction with anticipation. I tweak the engines to allow for the ships max speed and at eleven knots the Esperanza appears through the mist. As if in a dream, we pass by the protest ship and then make visual contact with the enemy. We now know we have found the whaling fleet and gear up for what we have all worked so hard to achieve. With a few course changes by both ships in a volatile sea, the whalers try to coward us with aggression but our Captain knows this is just a game of chicken and holds his position with resolve. The Japanese turn away when they see us defends ourselves by deploying a prop fouling line and with their tails between there legs they run like the murdering cowards they are!

Trevor Gulik

Chief Engineer / Farley Mowat

28 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Darren Collis (Quartermaster), U.K.

Pirate Sailor

I am a pirate sailor
and I live upon the sea
I got no time for cities
It's the ocean life for me

So landlubbers get a-walking
Hotel this never be
There's no time for your tantrums
No time for "oh poor me"

There's tie-downs to be tying
Food for 43 and me
Icebergs to be avoiding
and floors to be scrubbed clean

There's no place for wimps and whiners
No time for the cowardly
Let's show the world our metal
and sail on to victory.

     - By Darren Collis

27 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Mathieu Mauvernay (Documentarist) from Paris, France

When I think about this confrontation, many feelings come to my mind.

Firstly, I can't still believe it happened. It's like a dream. I knew from the first Antarctica campaign, 3 yrs ago, that it would be quite difficult to find these whalers who don't care that they are bringing species to extinction. So, seeing the Nisshin Maru closer and closer and closer was incredible. Myself and all those who believe in what Sea Shepherd is doing can thank Paul Watson for his perseverance and bravery.

Secondly, I won't lie, for 15-20 minutes, I was scared. I saw from the monkey deck that this huge factory ship, with "Research" written on it (how dare they!), was ready to ram us, right in the middle of our port side. People could have died in this Force 8 freezing Antarctic ocean storm.

I could have been one of them, but, it seems that for those whalers a life of a human being doesn't matter more than the life of a whale. All that counts is money and greed. Anyway, those minutes, on X-mas day, would stay in my memory forever and ever. I would say that one has to take some risks some time if one wants the world to change and future generations to be able to see beautiful creatures. Otherwise, just stay at home and watch the end of the world on TV.

Finally, I feel proud because we did our best on the 25th of December to make the perfect X-mas gift to the whales. We were 200 meters from success and we can't blame ourselves. The line to break their propeller was dropped and the Nisshin Maru changed course.

After this confrontation, I would just conclude that action is the only way to save this planet.

BRAVO FARLEY MOWAT !!!

26 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Quartermaster Jon Batchelor "GeDDeN"

Pictured: GeDDen repairing the ship's crane.

26 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat crewmember Quartermaster Jon Batchelor "GeDDeN"

Coming up on my bridge shift and seeing a few extra faces peering out the windows was quickly explained by the two blips on the radar. The discussion as to whether or not the blips were icebergs or ships had been settled before I arrived with the conclusion being reached that they were in fact ships.

But that only opened the larger question. Are they THE ships?!? Well, we can't potentially be going into a confrontation without our colors being flown! I grabbed the Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger flag and ran up to the bow for a quick and wild ride trying to juggle the flag in the ridiculously strong wind and keeping my footing with the massive pitching and rolling. Flags up, now the ship is ready. Word spread quickly despite the fact it was only 4am. The bridge became more and more packed with curious crew and media when the first ships image came floating back thru the fog.

"That's a rainbow all right!" came the confirmation that we were looking at the Greenpeace ship the Esperanza. That left the larger blip in the in the distance as only one real possibility. The Nisshin Maru. All the planning with the Zodiacs, the Sea Doos, the flying zodiac - all for nothing in this encounter as the seas prevented anything from being deployed off our ship.

The Nisshin Maru started edging away and disappointment started entering when their captain decided to try and play chicken with us. They turned to starboard putting them on a collision course with us. Not only did we have the right of way, but for him to think that the Sea Shepherd would back down just shows his utter lack of knowledge about our history. Paul kept cool even though getting a little excited as were the rest of us. In the end it was the captain of the Nisshin Maru that turned away and ran.

Ahh, just another day aboard the Farley Mowat.

Jonathan aka GeDDeN

25 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Merry Christmas to the Greenpeace crew from the Sea Shepherd Crew

The Captain and crew of the Farley Mowat send their best wishes on the Christmas day to the Captains and crews of the Greenpeace ships Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise. The crew of the Farley Mowat and both Greenpeace ships share the common experience of spending Christmas in the waters off the coast of Antarctica.

There is probably no more beautiful place on Earth to spend Christmas than these waters peppered with mammoth icebergs and waters where whales, seals and penguins swim.

This Christmas morning our crew were able to see crewmembers on the Esperanza for the first time as the Farley Mowat approached the Japanese whaling fleet.

What can be more in the spirit of Christmas than devoting this time to serving the whales, the oceans, and the Earth.

To read the Farley Mowat crew's individual greetings to the Greenpeacers click here.

24 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Sea Shepherd Intercepts Whaling Fleet in Southern Ocean - #6 of 6

Both ships were on a collision course and the Nisshin Maru's bow was plunging high out of the water as she came at full speed towards the Farley Mowat.

Captain Watson ordered a mooring line deployed behind the Farley Mowat. As soon as the Nisshin Maru saw the line they turned and backed off to avoid their prop being fouled.

At 0600 Hours the Nisshin Maru was heading west into heavy seas with the Farley Mowat on her tail.

Captain Watson notified the Nisshin Maru that they were in violation of International law and that acting under the authority of the United Nations World Charter for Nature, he was ordering them to depart the Southern Oceans and return to Japan.

The Farley Mowat continues in hot pursuit.

No whales will be killed on Christmas Day.

24 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Sea Shepherd Intercepts Whaling Fleet in Southern Ocean - #5 of 6

A few moments later the factory ship turned and came towards the Farley Mowat despite the fact that the Farley Mowat, on the starboard side of the Nisshin Maru, had the right of way.

24 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Sea Shepherd Intercepts Whaling Fleet in Southern Ocean - #4 of 6

The Nisshin Maru sped up as the Farley Mowat came alongside.

24 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Sea Shepherd Intercepts Whaling Fleet in Southern Ocean - #3 of 6

The Farley Mowat passed the Esperanza and headed to the Japanese factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, coming alongside.

24 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Sea Shepherd Intercepts Whaling Fleet in Southern Ocean - #2 of 6

Captain Paul Watson calculated a possible interception course by dropping out of the chase behind the Greenpeace ships Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise. He headed due west and caught the fleet as they attempted to head south towards Porpoise Bay. At 0200 Hours they were spotted on radar.

24 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Sea Shepherd Intercepts Whaling Fleet in Southern Ocean - #1 of 6

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat intercepted the Japanese whaling fleet at 0400 Hours on Christmas Day [Australian EST(Eastern Summer Time)].

24 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Australians overwhelmingly want their government to stop Japanese whaling

The Melbourne Age polled its readers on the lack of action by the government of Australia. http://theage.com.au/polls/national/results.html

Should the Australian Government do more to halt Japanese whaling? Yes - 93% No - 7% It is evident that Australians want to defend the whales but their government does not.

23 December 2005

Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Blog Entry by Crewmember Alex Cornelissen

Why did the Japanese whalers run?.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat had approached to within 30 miles of the Japanese position when they took off at full speed north and they are still running.

They know that Greenpeace can bark but they also know that Sea Shepherd bites. They also know that Sea Shepherd is not interested in witnessing the killing of whales. Our objective is to stop the killing.

- 1st Officer Alex Cornelissen The Netherlands.

In November 2003, Alex dove into the harbor at Taiji Japan along with Allison Lance Watson to cut the nets to free 15 dolphins. He was jailed in Japan for three weeks and has no regrets. "Three weeks in jail to save the lives of 15 dolphins, sounds like a good trade to me," said Alex.

Pictured: Alex, Paul Watson, and friends from the Green Party in Melbourne (in front of the Farley Mowat ship)

23 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Cowardly Pirate Whalers Flee from the Whaling Grounds - The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat is in Hot Pursuit

The Japanese whaling fleet is on the run. The entire fleet is heading northeast out of the whaling area at 14 knots.

The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat is in pursuit, and was heading towards the area where the whalers were operating when they turned and fled northward.

Two Greenpeace ships the Esperanza and the Arctic Sunrise are also in pursuit. The Esperanza is able to keep up with the fleet and the Arctic Sunrise is falling behind. The position of the Japanese fleet at 2000 Hours on December 23rd was 62 Degrees 35 minutes South and 143 Degrees and 34 minutes East. This put the fleet more than 200 miles north of the position where they were discovered whaling on the 21st of December.

The Japanese have not been whaling today. They are running.

With clearance from the Australian government, one of the Japanese ships was approaching the port in Hobart, Tasmania, to drop off a whaler suffering from appendicitis and refuel. However, the sick man was extracted from the ship by a rescue helicopter. The Australian government has now avoided the embarrassment of having a Japanese whaling ship in an Australian port while their fleet is illegally whaling in the Australia's own portion of the Antarctic Territory.

Captain Paul Watson believes that the Australian government has decided to support illegal Japanese whaling indirectly by doing absolutely nothing to oppose their illegal activities. "By being willing to open up an Australian port to a Japanese whaler to refuel, they have sent a signal of acceptance of the Japanese exploitation of whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory," said Captain Watson. "Imagine the port of Hobart being used by a Japanese submarine in World War II for refueling. Japan does not recognize the Australian claim to the Antarctic territory but then again, Japan did not recognize Australian sovereignty at all sixty years ago."

"Now the Australian government is claiming that the Greenpeace protest is counterproductive," continued Captain Watson. "The fact is that it was the Japanese ship that closed in on the Greenpeace vessel yet Environment Minister Ian Campbell scolded Greenpeace for not respecting the rules of the road. It appears that the Japanese can do no wrong in the eyes of the Australian government. Maybe now the question should be asked: "What really is going on here Mr. Campbell? Are you representing the people of Australia or the corporations of Japan?"

Perhaps it is time once again to remind the Australian government of the crimes being committed by Japan:

1. The Japanese are whaling in violation of the International Whaling Commission's global moratorium on commercial whaling. The IWC scientific committee does not recognize this bogus research that the Japanese are using as an excuse.
2. The Japanese are killing whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
3. The Japanese are killing whales unlawfully in the Australian Antarctic Territory.
4. The Japanese are targeting fin whales this year and humpback whales next year. These are endangered species, and thus, this is a violation of CITES, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.
5. The Japanese are in violation of IWC regulation 19(a) The IWC regulations in the Schedule to the Convention forbid the use of factory ships to process any protected stock: 19. (a) It is forbidden to use a factory ship or a land station for the purpose of treating any whales which are classified as Protection Stocks in paragraph 10. Paragraph 10(c) provides a definition of Protection Stocks and states that Protection Stocks are listed in the Tables of the Schedule. Table 1 lists all the baleen whales, including minke, fin, and humpback whales and states that all of them are Protection Stocks.
6. In addition, the IWC regulations specifically ban the use of factory ships to process any whales except minke whales: Paragraph 10(d) provides: "(d) Notwithstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10 there shall be a moratorium on the taking, killing or treating of whales, except minke whales, by factory ships or whale catchers attached to factory ships. This moratorium applies to sperm whales, killer whales and baleen whales, except minke whales." Fin and humpback whales are both baleen whales and are subject to this moratorium.

Six blatant violations of international conservation law and all the Australian government can do is to scold Greenpeace for being the victims of aggressive attacks by the Japanese whalers.

"Australia may not be Denmark, but something is clearly rotten in Canberra over this issue. What really is going on here Mr. Howard?," asks Captain Paul Watson.

21 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Greenpeace Obstructs Sea Shepherd's Efforts in Antarctica

On December 21, the two Greenpeace ships Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise located the Japanese whaling fleet about 240 miles from the position of the Sea Shepherd vessel Farley Mowat. They did the usual things like take pictures and hang banners. One picture of the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru shows the Japanese hanging their own banner that states Greenpeace Misleads.

This is actually something that Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whalers can agree on. Greenpeace has deliberately misled Sea Shepherd and betrayed us.

Shane Rattenbury, the expedition leader on the Arctic Sunrise initially refused to post the position of the Japanese fleet to prevent this information getting to Sea Shepherd. He was adamant that Sea Shepherd not find the Japanese fleet. The position was released by Greenpeace after Sea Shepherd was informed of the position from an independent source.

For seven months, Captain Paul Watson has been negotiating with Greenpeace to cooperate in working together to find the Japanese whaling fleet.

"Now we find that instead of cooperating, Greenpeace is being obstructionist and making efforts to deliberately keep us away from the Japanese fleet. It is a mystery to me why they would do this since they know we are capable of shutting down the Japanese whaling operations."

Greenpeace has a large war chest and their ability to locate the Japanese fleet is greater because of the resources they have available to them.

"The problem has been that Greenpeace has been unable to stop the Japanese after a decade of campaigns where they have chased the Japanese ships displaying their protest banners," said Captain Watson. "You would think that after a decade of expensive campaigns that Greenpeace would have realized that the Japanese fleet does not give a damn about protests. Sea Shepherd is not down here to protest, we are down here to enforce international conservation law and to stop the illegal whaling operations of Japan."

The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat is expected to reach the area where Greenpeace has sighted the Japanese fleet in approximately 24 hours.

Captain Paul Watson, (a cofounder of Greenpeace Foundation), and Emily Hunter, (the daughter of the late Robert Hunter, the first President of the Greenpeace Foundation) are both onboard the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat. They are both very disappointed that Greenpeace has decided to take a hostile position to obstruct Sea Shepherd efforts in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in Antarctica.

Emily Hunter said, "I was born and raised with Greenpeace as the daughter of Greenpeace cofounders Bob and Bobbi Hunter. This is not the Greenpeace of my parents. The people in Greenpeace who are now trying to stop us from confronting the Japanese fleet were not around back then when the first Greenpeace voyages with Paul Watson and my parents first confronted the whalers."

The Sea Shepherd campaign to find the whalers continues.

18 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

The Voyage of the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat - In Search of Outlaw Killers in a Sanctuary for Whales

The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat came upon our first iceberg of the season this evening. Wraithlike it emerged from the heavy fog. We had spotted it on radar hours before so we knew that it was big but we found ourselves utterly surprised by the immensity of the structure that loomed before and above us.

It was a flattop. Two hundred feet in height and over a half a mile wide. It was like passing an aircraft carrier in a canoe. This ghostly crystalline ship with sides as smooth, sheer, and as milky white as porcelain struck all the crew with jaw-dropping awe, even those of us who have been to these Southern waters before.

Magnificent.

Our patrol of the Antarctic's Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is now underway and today we begin the search for the pirate whalers from Japan.

There are six ships out here on these waters, six ships whose objective is obscenely murderous and whose operations are a flagrant violation of international conservation law.

The Greenpeace Foundation is also down in these waters searching for the same killers. It is their two ships and our one against the six ships of the Japanese fleet.

I read today how a group of courageous and compassionate divers cut loose an exhausted humpback whale just outside of San Francisco. They removed over twelve crab traps weighing 90 pounds each with the ropes tangled around the tail and flippers.

"When I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at me," said Diver James Moskito. "When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles," Moskito said. "It swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one. It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see you. I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience."

So much effort and courage to save one whale. At the same time that the Japanese fleet is firing horrific exploding harpoons into the backsides of fleeing whales. Then the whalers electrocute them as they thrash and struggle and bleed profusely into the frozen sea for up to twenty minutes as their screams gurgle through the water in bubbles of blood and explode into the air with humanlike outbursts of unimaginable pain.

I cannot express to you, my friends, just how it pains me to know that these butchering criminals are even now pursuing helpless whales as we search for them. At this moment, the hot blood of a whale is most likely pouring into these frigid waters. Every day that passes means the oceans are robbed of the life of more of these gentle giants.

What sort of beings are these whalers? They slaughter the whales without thought, without mercy or remorse. What sort of culture can support such a barbarously cruel industry? How can the nations of the world stand by and allow Japan to contemptuously continue to kill the whales and get away with it just because they are the economic bullies of Asia?

Right now, an intelligent, sociable, incredibly unique creature is being hauled through the anus of a belching steel factory ship where men scurry like cockroaches over the warm body slicing through the flesh with their efficient knives, spilling the entrails onto the deck, and ripping the fetuses from the bodies of mothers who will never feel the joy of birthing and nursing their offspring.

What these men do out here in these lonely, remote, and hostile waters is unforgivable. They wage a relentless slaughter on creatures whose brain size alone should exempt them from our savageness.

They turn these great and gentle leviathans into frozen boxes of meat to be consumed by a people who separate themselves from the pain and destruction and who give not a thought to the murder they endorse and promote.

"Murder!" Is that too harsh a word? I don't think so. These are mammals whose brains are more complex and larger than our own, whose communication abilities put us to shame and whose social interrelationships are much more solid than ours. Their numbers have been vastly diminished by centuries of merciless human predation and now we kill them in the name of science to research why their numbers are declining, although the real motivation is to turn their carcasses into hundreds of millions of dollars to fuel corporate profits and to grease the palms of the politicians that allow the bloody illegal carnage to continue.

What we have down here in the Southern Oceans is an international Whale Sanctuary where Antarctic piked whales are systematically butchered, along with the endangered fin whales and next year the endangered and beloved humpback whales. We also have the Japanese killing whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory without a murmur of protest from Australia because of economic threats from Japan. We also have the flagrant violation of the global moratorium on commercial whaling that supposedly has been in force since 1986.

The killing of whales in these waters is clearly illegal, it is viciously cruel, and it is immoral.

In a world of six and a half billion people, a few volunteers from twelve different nations are down here without support from any government, doing the job that the world's governments should be doing. With limited resources, we are battling an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars in order to save the lives of thousands of threatened whales.

Why? Because someone has to care and someone has to act and someone must enforce the rule of law against an arrogant nation that ruthlessly plunders the seas and exterminates intelligent life without mercy.

The Rising Sun has no place in a world where the Sun does not rise. The Japanese must take their cruel harpoons and their flensing knives, their factory ship and their insatiable greed from this Sanctuary and let the whales live in peace.

14 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Position: 51 Degrees South and and 142 Degrees East

The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat is now heading southwest to search for the Japanese whaling fleet. With two Greenpeace ships coming from the west and with our ship heading west, the Japanese fleet should be between us.

09 December 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Voyage to Save the Whales

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society flagship Farley Mowat will depart from Berth 3 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, at 0800 Hours on December 10th, 2005. The conservation vessel departs Melbourne with a crew of 44 from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Bermuda, South Africa, and Brazil. The ship will stop briefly in Hobart in Tasmania to take on a helicopter and a pilot, and then will proceed south to Antarctic waters to hunt for the Japanese whaling fleet. Two crew will depart in Hobart and one will join. A total of 43 crew will proceed southward from Tasmania to Antarctica.

The objective of the campaign is to intervene against illegal Japanese whaling operations with the objective of shutting down their unlawful operations. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is operating in accordance with the United Nations World Charter for Nature that allows for non-governmental enforcement of international conservation laws in international waters beyond national jurisdictions.

Thanks to the generosity of the citizens of Melbourne, the Farley Mowat was given generous financial and material support to enable the international volunteer crew to dedicate the next month and a half to defending the whales in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary from the ruthless, illegal slaughter by the Japanese whaling fleet.

"We have our sights set on protecting the whales from their killers. It will be a dangerous and uncomfortable voyage against a cruel and hostile opponent in a harsh and hostile environment," said Captain Paul Watson. "We intend to do everything we can with the resources available to us to save as many whales as we can, and we intend to be a thorn in the side of the Japanese whalers this year and every year hence that they target the gentle giants of the deep. This is the 21st Century and the time for this bloody barbarism must end. Humankind must end its ignorant and arrogant war with whalekind. It's time for the Japanese to grow up and join the 21st Century."

22 November 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Action Vessel Farley Mowat Arrives in Australia

It took us 31 days to make the trans-Pacific crossing from San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos to Melbourne, Australia. We made it. The crossing was 7,000 miles with a brief stop at Pitcairn Island to pick up provisions and 6 sacks of Pitcairn Island's mail and then a brief stop in Wellington, New Zealand, for fuel.

We now have 12 days to make all the preparations needed to head south to the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary.

The Japanese whaling fleet is presently heading south from Japan.

We are on schedule with the campaign.

In Melbourne, we need to get some engine repairs, load fuel, oil, helicopter fuel, provisions, and take on crew. We will then proceed to Hobart, Tasmania to load the helicopter we are purchasing for this campaign.

The Farley Mowat will be berthed at Victoria dock in Melbourne for the next 10 days.

28 October 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

The Perils and Pleasures of Pitcairn Island

There is nothing that can make one appreciate the remainder of the day more than having cheated death and dismemberment in the morning.
 
Today was such a day. It began early enough with the sighting of the high peak of Pitcairn Island at 0530 Hours. We dropped anchor at Bounty Bay at 0700 hours but had to weigh anchor again at 0800 when we found that we could not hold the bottom.
 
First Officer Alex Cornelissen took the ship a mile off to drift while I took a shore party to the island to clear immigration.
 
Bosun's Mate Colin Miller of Canada readied the boat and chose Ryan Rittenhouse of the U.S. to assist him. Also in the boat, aside from my self were photographer and biologist Gunter Schwabenland and 2nd Cook Roberta Kleber, both from Brazil; Quarter Master Lisa Moises of Germany; 2nd Engineer Willie Houtman of New Zealand; and James Pacheco of the U.S.
 
The 8 of us headed in and I took the control of the Zodiac inflatable to bring it into the small dock area on the island. To say it looked ominous is an understatement. There was thunderously heavy surf breaking into the entrance of the tiny harbor. The pounding of the surf on the beach cracked across the water.
 
I could see an islander on the end of the dock pointing out our approach so I angled the Zodiac and shot forward with the intention of racing ahead of the breaker and quickly darting into the relative calm behind the short seawall.
 
That was the plan, and it was dependent on timing and the nerve to dash behind a roller and follow it in, not too close, but close enough to give some time to stay in front of a following sea.
 
I hit the throttle and the inflatable dashed forward but a side swell came up deflected off the seawall and the Zodiac hit and rode over the top. Unfortunately, Ryan Rittenhouse sitting in the bow was tossed over the side as he was filming the surf with his video camera. He grabbed the safety rope with one hand and raised his camera to James Pacheco to grab as he hung shoulder deep in the white water on the forward port side.
 
Unfortunately, his weight turned the Zodiac and slowed us down. I saw Ryan look behind and yell, "There's a big one coming."
 
I looked behind and knew instantly that we were in trouble. The incoming wave rolling menacingly towards us, rose fearfully high. I saw the curl forming and with Ryan over the side we did not have the speed to avoid the inevitable.

I felt the water pulse upward from behind and beneath as we were rapidly propelled forward on the face of the wave at breath-taking speed. I could not turn to race into the harbor without giving the wave a broadside which would surely capsize us and throw us all into the water. Instead, I fought to keep the boat straight as we surfed abruptly forward. I saw that Ryan somehow managed to get himself back into the boat just as we dove downward and plowed into the foam, filling the entire boat with water as the surf dashed us forward and onto the boulders in front of us.
 
As we struck the vessel slid sideways and our port side slammed into the rocks where Ryan had been hanging over the side. If he had not gotten back into the boat, it could have been fatal.
 
For a split second, we were high although certainly not dry on the rocks. I yelled to the crew to get out and they quickly did so, sliding over the side just before another wave slammed into us, once again filling the boat with water.
 
I was the only person left in to boat, remaining behind the wheel trying to raise the outboard. It was jammed in the rocks. Colin was frantically pushing on the bow and Ryan was shoving on the stern.
 
Suddenly, a woman with a blue shirt who I later found out was Police Chief Meralda Warren was waist deep in the surf pushing and a group of island men were bringing a line across the harbor to the Zodiac.
 
The islanders and my crew were taking a big risk as they pushed and shoved the boat between the devil's brew and the rocky shore. Finally, I was able to raise the outboard. The line was attached and pulled the boat back into the surf where another wave swamped the boat but was unable to dash it back on the rocks as other islanders pulled me towards the Quay and alongside where they lowered a hook from a crane. I quickly attached it and the boat was pulled from the sea.
 
I looked across the water and saw that my crew were all standing on the shore.
 
The Zodiac was lowered onto the dock where I found that we had busted up the blades on the prop and cracked the fiberglass bottom of the Zodiac. The damage could be repaired.
 
Ryan lost his camera but there were no injuries, not even minor ones. Lisa had lost her sandals. Gunter's entire bag of cameras were dry and untouched and my bag containing the passports for the crew plus the mail going ashore was soaked but I had wrapped both passports and mail in plastic bags and everything was dry.
 
I shook hands with Mayor Jay Warren who had arrived on the dock with boxes of bananas, papayas, coconuts, eggplants, carrots, and green onions for us. We gave him our hearty thanks.
 
Meralda Warren, soaked and barefoot ,introduced herself as both police officer and immigration officer. I handed her the passports and she stamped us into the colony.
 
We were quickly informed that our experience was not unique. The Landing at Bounty Bay is notorious. Mayor Warren's own daughter had her arm almost severed in a similar accident less than a year before and had only returned to the island a week before our arrival after ten months of hospital care in New Zealand.  
 
We then walked up the steep grade to Adamstown, a road that for two hundred years had been a dirt path until only two weeks ago when it had been solidified in concrete, the recent construction immortalized in freshly dated inscriptions by islanders before the concrete set.
 
We visited the Port office. We had agreed to take the island's mail to Wellington, New Zealand. We mailed our letters which ironically would be delivered back to us for re-delivery in Kiwiland.
 
After a brush with fate, it is always best to take a contemplative walk, and I did, meeting up with the rest of the crew who were bound for the same destination. A young man named Andy Christian accompanied them. We climbed the lava slopes upwards to a large triangular hole in the mountain called Christian's Cave. From up there, we could see thirty miles out to sea, the sheer immensity of blue cradling such a small rock in its midst. There were a dozen shades of blue surrounding the island; from turquoise blue to deep indigo inky blue and two miles off was a small black speck - the Farley Mowat.  
 
We are so small against the sea and sky.
 
Sitting there in Christian's cave, where Fletcher Christian once sat and brooded as he looked out to the changing yet changeless sea was enlightening. Two hundred years later, one of his own descendents stands beside us as we look over Adamstown, linked with the history of the island and linked with the reality that our fates are often determined by our own choices.
 
Fletcher Christian came to this island to escape the wrath of the British Empire only to die three years later, murdered by the very women who had promised him paradise on earth. Pitcairn is a paradise but one that has taken a toll in suffering and deprivation.
 
I smiled that fate had not left us as corpses on this remote Polynesian shore. Perhaps some other distant shore, at some other time but not today.
 
Mayor Jay Warren and his wife Carol invited the eight of us to lunch. It was a delicious meal of baked beans, homemade bread, home grown cabbage salad, tea, fruit juice and a desert of banana coconut pie.
 
The islanders took a boat out to the Farley Mowat where Ryan Rittenhouse and I went back onboard to allow the remainder of the crew to visit the island.
 
We went back in a large aluminum longboat. They loaded our damaged Zodiac into it. The Pitcairn boat crew timed it perfectly as we shot out of the little harbour and climbed the slope of an incoming roller and literally flew over the top, the entire craft airborne as we pancaked down with a kidney-jarring smack.
 
The rest of the crew were given the opportunity to go to the island, and we sent back gifts of spices, condiments, videotapes, and two good mooring ropes.
 
At 1730 Hours, the longboat returned with the entire shore crew and with six large sacks of mail for delivery to Wellington.
 
So, for the next two weeks, we are an official mail boat on the Pitcairn to New Zealand run. It is indeed an honour.
 
I have been to islands around the world and I've met islanders ranging from the cruel to the gentle, from the pilot whale killers of the ferocious Faeroe Islands to the dedicated rangers of Malpelo, Cocos, and the Galapagos, from the dolphin killers of Iki island in Japan and the sadistic baby seal killers of the Magdalen Islands to the gentle peoples of Bermuda.

But I can say with all honest,y that I have never met a braver, friendlier, more interesting group of islanders anywhere on this planet as friendly nor as interesting as Pitcairn Island.

I love this place and my crew shares my opinion that we have been privileged to have had the opportunity to visit Pitcairn, even if it did almost kill us.

27 October 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Henderson Island Report from Captain Paul Watson 
 
Henderson Island
24°22'South & 128°19'West
 
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society research ship Farley Mowat stopped at Henderson Island today to conduct observations of the ecological condition of the island and to do a wildlife survey. This island is considered one of the most remote places in the world.

In fact, since departing the Galapagos on October 14, we have not seen any other land and only one other vessel - a Japanese longliner some 750 miles northeast of this location.

Henderson Island is indeed the far side of the world. We are in the extreme southeast of Polynesia. This lonely coral island is 14 square miles and is situated about 100 miles northeast of Pitcairn, the closest neighbor. The next closest island, some 400 miles away is Mangareva.

The name of the island as it is today originated when the island was rediscovered by Captain James Henderson of the British East India merchant ship Hercules. The Hercules called at Pitcairn on January 18, 1819, and had sighted Henderson the previous day. The Hercules was engaged on trading voyages between India and South America, and was instrumental in commencing the long association of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (at first through their Calcutta committee) and the Pitcairn Islanders.

Today, the Farley Mowat circumnavigated the island keeping off one-quarter mile. The island is about five miles long and two and a half miles wide. The water is quite deep all around the island.

This is not a volcanic island despite its relatively high elevation of 31 meters. It is, in fact, a coral atoll that was once thrust upwards by an earthquake.

Despite appearances, (i.e. dense vegetation and trees), it is a desolate place without fresh water because of the porous limestone that makes up the island. There is a freshwater spring but it bubbles up from beneath the sea some 20 feet offshore and is accessible only at low tide. There is also little soil, but despite this, the island is covered in dense undergrowth with stunted trees. It is a difficult island to walk upon because of razor sharp limestone ridges and fissures.

It is not a comfortable place for people to live, although a few people once did live here, but none permanently since five hundred years ago. Whatever happened to the Polynesia people on Henderson, remnants of a people marooned from far off Mangareva, is a mystery.

We could not pass by this island without making an observation on the state of the marine wildlife here.

The island is reported to have an abundance of lobsters, crabs, octopus, and a limited number of reef and shellfish species.

The island is also Southeast Polynesia's only turtle nesting site. It is the green turtle that hauls ashore here to continue its lineage. Unfortunately, we missed them. The eggs are laid between January and March each year, and we arrived over two months too early to bear witness to their visit.

The islands once hosted 17 species of breeding seabirds and 9 species of resident land birds, five of which were flightless including three species of pigeons. It is the Dodo of Mauritius that is most famed extinct flightless pigeon. We have forgotten the other species we have exterminated, three of which once lived on Henderson, victims of Polynesian settlers.

A large buried garbage midden along the North coast beach bears a grim testament to human habitation. The evidence shows that during the time of Polynesian settlement on the islands that tens of millions of birds and fish were slaughtered by only a small population over some five hundred years.

The Polynesians also tried to introduce agriculture and the evidence of this is the presence of bananas, swamp taro, coconuts, ti shrubs and candlenut trees. There is also evidence that pigs were brought to the island, but there are, fortunately, no signs of pigs on the island today.

Evidence of basaltic stone tools suggests a trade partnership with Pitcairn and Mangareva. In return, Henderson exported sea turtles and exploited the valuable and much sought after red feathers of the Henderson Parrot, fruit dove, and red-tailed tropic bird.

The island is now home to the surviving colonies of birds. Unfortunately, the one human legacy left behind is rats, and they continue to prey upon seabirds and their eggs to this day.               

The people of Henderson died out when contact with Mangareva and Pitcairn was cut off around 1500. There were not enough trees large enough on Henderson to make canoes and the people were effectively marooned.

Polynesia society collapsed on Mangareva due to over-population and the limitation of resources. In other words the ecological law of finite resources dictated such a collapse just as similar occurrences happened on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The problem was too many people and not enough food. Mangareva society slid into the chaos of war, famine, and cannibalism.

The first Europeans landed on the island in 1606. The passing Spanish ship found the island without any human habitation upon it. This discovery was reported by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. He named it San Juan Bautista and reported it was only inhabited by birds.

Henderson Island may be uninhabited, but the British officially put claim to the island in 1819.  In 1937, Henderson was visited by the cruiser H.M.S. Leander, and new signboards were erected to reaffirm British sovereignty. The Henderson signboard read: This island belongs to H.B.M. King George VI. It was visited by H.M.S. Leander on 6th of August 1937. Signed J.W. Rivers-Carnac, Capt. R.N.

In connection with the Leander's visits, Flight Lieutenant R.A.R. Rae from a Walrus aircraft took aerial photographs of each island. A flagpole, with the Union Jack flying, was also erected and charted on the island. In December of 1940, the Royal Navy discovered that the Union Jack had been replaced by a Nazi Swastika. The landing party sent ashore also discovered this notice: With apologies to King George VI, this island is now the property of the Greater German Reich.

So even here on the very far side of the world, the ridiculous squabbles of European nations was felt as humanity slaughtered each other elsewhere to possess as much "dirt" as possible, even when the "dirt" had no practical use other than as a "possession."

When I look at these lonely shores, I think of the first human inhabitants, those Polynesians that were marooned here so long ago. It is not difficult to imagine the stress the islanders felt when they realized that no more trade canoes would visit again. They would have wondered what happened. They would no longer have access to stone tools and to canoes. Equally distressing is that there would be no more marriages with off-islanders, condemning them to incestuous relationships that would exaggerate genetic defects.

At some point, the last inbred survivor of Henderson Island would have looked out over the waters. Having had no contact for generations with the outside world, such an outside world would have become a myth and an ancient memory. Henderson or whatever name they themselves called the island would have been the entire world and their world simply did not provide enough for them to survive.

But as their numbers declined and their society slowly sank and disappeared, they hungrily destroyed numerous species and laid waste to their fragile little eco-system.

It is amazing how events in history connect. Here we are lying offshore this island while en route to a campaign to protect whales in the waters around Antarctica.

Almost two hundred years ago in 1819, a large enraged sperm whale rammed and sank the Yankee whaling ship Essex in the area near the Marquesas. It was this incident that inspired the story of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

The survivors of the Essex were left with only open boats. They managed to reach the shores of Henderson Island and departed again on December 20th, 1820. Three of the boats set out for South America, 4300 miles away and were rescued on the way, but not until being forced into cannibalism to survive.

Three Essex crewmembers decided to stay on Henderson Island and were rescued by the British ship Surrey on April 18, 1921, after spending 107 days on the island.

Henderson has had hundreds of years to heal itself from the first Polynesian settlers and those Europeans that were briefly marooned, and although those species of birds driven to extinction by the human invaders are gone forever, the green turtles still come and the surviving birds still nest. Octopus and lobster are still in the shallows and the island survives as best it can.

To me the one great attraction of this island is that it no longer is a home to humans. There are so few places where humans have not occupied.

But this virtue is not the fault of lack of trying by people. In 1881, an Australian company prospected the island for guano but were luckily deterred by the relative scarcity compared to other islands. The idea was abandoned.

The Pacific Phosphate Company unaware of the previous survey investigated guano exploitation again in 1907 and came to the same conclusion that the venture would not be commercially viable.

The last attempt to spoil the island came in the early 1980's, when the American millionaire Arthur M. "Smiley" Ratliff attempted to first buy and then lease Henderson Island. Ratliff proposed to bulldoze the vegetation to make a cattle ranch, build a mansion and a small settlement, and build an airstrip. Ratliff visited Pitcairn in April 1981, and the Pitcairn Island Council approved of his plans. Through the lobbying efforts of the Royal Society of England and the American Smithsonian Institution, his request was turned down by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This decision to protect the natural environment of the island was later strengthened by the signing by these authorities, of the Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region on 16 June 1988. This was an important decision, insuring the preservation of the island in its natural state. It would have been a complete disaster for the island's ecology if Ratliff, or anyone else, had been allowed to settle on the island.

Today the island is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We humans on the Farley Mowat have visited but we have taken nothing that belongs here, well hardly nothing. Not a fish, a shellfish, a stone, or a bird but one of the crew brought back a coconut and I am happy to report it was one of the most delicious coconuts I have ever tasted.

Our purpose is simply to bear witness and to report on what we have observed.

Unfortunately, we observed a great deal of plastic trash on the beaches. We recovered a few objects like a plastic broom, a broken toilet seat, an old life ring from a vessel called the Pan Venture, and a few bottles but the high surf made it impossible to remove more than a few pieces of trash.  We were forced to leave behind thousands of plastic bottles and bags, chunks of Styrofoam and other assorted junk. We also observed quite a few plastic nets with floatation buoys.

It was a dangerous landing and departure. The surf was far too rough to land a boat so the shore party had to swim in between the reef in high surf and come back the same way. First Officer Alex Cornelissen was smashed by a large breaker against the coral but fortunately escaped with only minor cuts and bruises.

We did not stay long. We left Henderson to our stern without a light to mar her coast and watched as her dark outline blended into the darkness of the tired day. It was with joy that I saw her disappear knowing that life still survived in her shallows and on her cliffs and sandy beaches. But it was also with a tinge of sadness knowing that even here in the remote vastness of the mid-South Pacific that the plastic debris of modern society blights the beaches and surrounding waters.

It is a hundred miles to Pitcairn's Island where we will briefly stop tomorrow to secure a few fresh provisions and to mail some letters before continuing on across to Melbourne, Australia.

23 October 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Sea Shepherd Discovers Japanese Longline Fleet Pillaging the Seas of South East Polynesia

Just as the sun was setting on Sunday, October 23, the crew of the Farley Mowat spotted the white hull of a longliner. The Farley Mowat changed course to intercept as the longliner responded to avoid interception. The Farley Mowat closed in on the longliner and identified it as the Kotoshiro Maru N27 bearing the call sign of JRYG.

The vessel was not deploying long lines and did not appear to have the gear on board to do so. It looked more it was fitted out as a packer, a vessel whose job it is to collect fish from other vessels and deliver it to a mother ship. The Japanese vessel was spotted at 15 Degrees 7 Minutes South and 119 Degrees 32 Minutes West in the extreme Southeastern part of the Polynesian island groups. The location is about 740 miles northeast of Henderson Island and 840 miles northeast of Pitcairn's island. This vessel indicates the presence of a Japanese fishing fleet in these waters and the crew of the Farley Mowat will be posting a continuous look-out for illegally set longlines as we transit this area of the ocean.

The Farley Mowat is expected to pass by Henderson Island on October 27 en route to Melbourne, Australia.

21 October 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Having been informed that there is no diesel fuel available in Tahiti, I have changed course and plotted a great circle route to Wellington, New Zealand. We should be there in 19 days. The distance is 4, 183 miles. This will put on a course that will pass close by Pitcairn's Island, where we might stop for some fresh produce and visit the descendents of the mutineers.

20 October 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

It has been 7 days since we departed the enchanted islands of the Galapagos. Today, we are rolling along in tropical seas, spooking thousands of silvery flying fish continuously before our bow. The beauty of the sun sparkling off their wings is stupendous. We saw a large fin whale this morning and we are being escorted by a couple do Shearwaters. We have set up a camera and tripod on the bridge and the task for the day is to see if we can capture the image of one of these remarkable creatures as they propel themselves into the air and glide over the surface of the sea.

At the moment we are at 7 degrees 46 minutes South and 109 Degrees 45 minutes West. We are 1279 miles out from the Galapagos heading towards the Archipel des Tuamatu with Papeete, Tahiti about 2500 miles from our present location. We will stop there for a few hours to take on 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel and then it is another 3500 miles southwest to the Tasman Sea and around the bottom of Australia to Melbourne. We should get there around the 16th or 17th of November which gives us only two weeks to make all the preparations to get to Antarctica to intercept the Japanese whalers.

There is no place on this planet that bestows such a wonderful feeling of complete freedom as being on the rolling waters of the Big Blue. We are over a thousand miles from the nearest point of land, the nearest centralized authority, the nearest points of hominid madness. No television reception out her, no cell-phones, no irritating talk radio shows. Just the blue sky, the blue seas and a twice daily eruption of colour as the sun rises and sets and we all eagerly strain to see the momentary flash of green as the Sun kisses the horizon and disappears until the next day.

How I love it out here. This living shroud of blue from horizon to horizon in all directions. When I am out here, I see the exposure of the misdirected perceptions that call this planet Earth. We don't live on a planet of land. We live on a planet of Water. It is only our land bound prejudices that proclaim Water to be Earth but from Space the truth can be seen for this is the living blue pearl set against the lonely blackness of space. From Space we don't see the brown or the green, we see the blue of the seas and the white misty waters of the atmospheric ocean - the clouds. We dwell in that area where the two great oceans of this planet come together. The shallow ocean that covers the surface and the amazingly deep sea that enshrouds the globe in mists of the magical substance we call water.

All around us are billions of living things ranging from bacteria and zoo and phylo-plankton to the great nations of fishes upon which we daily inflict bloody pogroms of extermination, to the godlike minds in the sea - the whales, sentient creatures that we barely understand yet the more barbarous among us continue to murder in a passionate quest for material profits. When I think of one of these fabulous leviathans screaming in pain from the ripping wound of a harpoon, I despair for my species and I mourn for the victims.

For the most part, we humans think little of these fellow beings, if we think of them at all. But out here, we see them, we marvel at them, we experience them. From the schools of squid that move like living spacecraft through the inky darkness of the waters using organic jet propulsion to the lonely sea turtles exploring the seas endlessly but always returning home to the same beach to carry on their kind, as they have done for a hundred million years.

How we will miss them when they are gone.

I think my entire life has been one of trying to express just how deeply the hominid war against the oceans has affected me. Inside me there is a rage that I have controlled for half a century. I have tried to direct it positively by selecting our opponents based on the degree of their illegal activity. But so much of what is legal is also wrong and destructive and it takes all my will to carry on in this endless, thankless struggle to protect life in the seas.

But there really is no alternative. I do what I must do, with the resources that I have, to the best of my ability and in the long run, that is all any of us can really do.

In a world where the most powerful man in the world is an ecological idiot, where the great masses of humanity have been harnessed into apathy by materialistic trivialities, where large environmental organizations suck the passion out of the movement to make it a business, the chances of success are slim and our victories are always temporary.

But at least we can say we tried and all of you who are in this great struggle, be it to save the forests, to save animals, to save a river, a wetland or to work towards reducing human populations, I can only say you are doing what a true living Earthling should be doing - you are working for our collective survival and that is a legacy that we can all be proud of.

As I close this message, I can see through my porthole. Another school of flying fish has just exploded from the sea and a Shearwater is diving down to capture one,and he does - what a dance of speed and precision it is to see these two species interacting as prey and predator. No fighter pilot could match that Shearwater for maneuverability and decisive action. The Shearwater glides across the swells with his meal and the surviving flying fish carry on their flirtation with flight. Both of them echo the poetry of life at sea and it is this poetry that makes life worth living for all of us.

14 October 2005

Captain's Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat

Position: San Cristobal Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

The Farley Mowat departed from Puerto Ayora at noon on October 13th with an international volunteer crew of 21. Nationalities include citizens of Canada, the USA, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and Bermuda.

The ship proceeded to the island of Baltra to take on 55 tons of diesel fuel and departed at 2200 Hours on a slow course to the island of San Cristobal to take on water.

The Farley Mowat entered the harbour at San Cristobal at 1000 Hours on October 14th after being delayed by an incoming Ecuadorian naval ship that was having engine problems. As we entered the harbor, a large Ecuadorian tuna seiner passed us heading out to sea.

We dropped anchor in the harbor and the crew was shocked to discover that we were in the midst of a large diesel spill and sea lions were swimming through the thick sheen on the surface of the water.

The ship is scheduled to depart this evening. During our first 24 hours, the ship will do a search for longliners and shark poachers before proceeding on to Melbourne.

On the day that the Farley Mowat departed from Puerto Ayora, Captain Paul Watson renewed the contract between Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Galapagos National Park. With our five-year contract ended, Sea Shepherd agreed to keep our fast patrol vessel Sirenian in the Galapagos permanently to assist the Galapagos National Park with interventions against poachers.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society also opened a field office Puerto Ayora just outside the gates of the Galapagos National Park headquarters and beside the office of WildAId.

The distance from the Galapagos to Melbourne, Australia is 7,300 miles. The Farley Mowat should arrive in Melbourne mid-November.