14 DAY TRIAL // This December 18, three Sea Shepherd ships left Australia and headed for the open sea. The vessels are on their way to the Antarctic, where they will confront Japanese whalers as part of the organization's latest anti-whaling campaign, i.e. Operation Relentless.
On its website, Sea Shepherd details that the ships taking part in this campaign are The Steve Irwin, The Sam Simon and The Bob Barker.
The crew aboard these three vessels is made up of over 24 volunteers coming from as many as 24 different countries. These folks are all ready and willing to do everything in their power to keep the Japanese whalers from slaughtering whales swimming around the Antarctic.
The vessels are expected to reach their destination in about a week's time, Sea Shepherd says.
As reported on several occasions, commercial whaling was banned back in 1986. However, the whalers that the organization is now after have been given permission to kill 1,035 such marine mammals.
This is because they have claimed that their hunts are carried out for research purposes.
“The crew on these ships carry with them the hope, the aspirations and the expectations of people from across the world who hope to see the end to this slaughter,” commented on this campaign Jeff Hansen, the managing director of Sea Shepherd Australia.
“The Steve Irwin's course is set for due South. Within a week my crew and I will be among our much-loved clients, the whales. We will not return until peace has been restored in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” added Siddarth Chakravarty, the captain of The Steve Irwin.
Just last year, the Sea Shepherd organization managed to save the life of 932 whales that the Japanese whalers were looking to kill. Besides, the green group says that, over the past 9 years, it kept over 4,500 whales from being slaughtered.
As reported, Sea Shepherd Australia was put in charge of the organization's anti-whaling campaigns after Sea Shepherd USA was banned from coming anywhere near Japanese whalers. This injunction was issued towards the end of 2012.