14 DAY TRIAL // Green group Sea Shepherd is happy to announce that the Japanese whaling fleet has more or less willingly put an end to this year's poaching season in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and is now heading back home.
In a blogpost published earlier today, Sea Shepherd explains that, according to information at hand, the Japanese ships are no longer cruising the waters of the Antarctic Treaty Zone. On the contrary, they are well on their way to their native lands.
The organization expects that, all things considered, it will take the whaling fleet about three weeks to arrive at their planned destination.
“Sea Shepherd is proud to announce that the Japanese whaling fleet has left the waters of the Antarctic Treaty Zone (ATZ), ending whale poaching in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary for this year,” Sea Shepherd writes on its website.
“Today at approximately 0215 AEDT, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) signal of the Nisshin Maru was picked up shortly before the factory vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet crossed 60° S.”
“It can be confirmed that the vessel is on a northerly course, traveling at approximately 10-11 knots, with its destination set for Japan, and arrival scheduled in approximately three weeks,” it adds.
Sea Shepherd goes on to explain that, during the ten years that the organization has until now spent protecting marine mammals in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, the Japanese fleet has never before turned its AIS on while still in whaling grounds.
The conservationists detail that, on the contrary, they used to keep it switched off so as to avoid being easily located by the organization's ships and the crew aboard them.
Hence, the Captain of The Steve Irwin, Siddharth Chakravarty, maintains that the fact that the whalers have activated their AIS must be interpreted as a means to acknowledge defeat and to surrender.
“By giving away their location and intent to return to Japan, the whalers are signaling certain surrender,” Captain Siddharth Chakravarty said in a statement.
Now that the Japanese fleet's whaling season in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary has come to an end, the Sea Shepherd vessels that have spent some 3 months fighting to protect marine mammals in these waters are also ready to return home.
Thus, The Sam Simon returned to Williamstown, Melbourne, on Saturday. The Bob Barker and The Steve Irwin, on the other hand, are expected to reach Wellington and Hobart, respectively, sometime around March 22.