14 DAY TRIAL // The hard-line anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd got into another confrontation with the Japanese fleet on February 6th, as its flagship, the Steve Irwin, collided with the whaling vessel Yushin Maru #2 in the freezing waters of Antarctica. The collision occurred when the group was attempting to position its ship in such a manner that the Nisshin Maru factory vessel would have been rendered unable to receive a killed minke whale up its slipway, located at the back of the ship. Two harpoon vessels got in front of the Steve Irwin, trying to stop it, and one of them ended up being hit in the process. The event stirred up protest in Tokyo.
"We were in the process of blocking the transfer from the Yushin Maru #2, when the Yushin Maru #1 moved directly in front of the bow to block us. I could not turn to starboard without hitting the Yushin Maru #1. I tried to back down, but the movement of the Yushin Maru #2 made the collision unavoidable," Paul Watson, the leader of the group and the captain of the Steve Irwin, says.
"The whalers have decided to test our resolve. They have escalated this battle to see just how determined we are to protect these whales. We're shepherds and we will do what we can to protect our flock from these murderous poachers," Peter Hammarstedt, the 1st Officer on the ship, adds.
Officials in Tokyo maintain that the move has been a deliberate attack and that the action is unforgivable, which only goes further to show that they have no idea of what they're talking about. The Japanese still think that they can throw dust in the eyes of the world, trying to depict the group standing against their illegal endeavor as terrorist or dangerous. But the fact is the whaling fleet should not be there, or in any other part of the seas, for that matter, under a 1986 UN Charter forbidding global commercial whaling.
Watson explains that the Steve Irwin is now positioned at the back of the Japanese factory ship, which means that no other whaling vessel will be able to unload its cargo for processing. The group has no intention of laying off the hunt, and its members are determined to stop the fleet from killing any more minke whales, of its 900+ yearly quota.
