14 DAY TRIAL // A press release from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) finally reveals the purpose of the seemingly-erratic maneuvers the ships engaged in chasing the Japanese whaling shop have been performing over the past few weeks.
After the MY Bob Barker left Wellington, New Zealand, fully resupplied and refueled, the SSCS announced that the ship would head for Macquarie Island, to rendezvous with the MY Steve Irwin.
The ruse was to make the Japanese whaling fleet believe that the two ships would be in the same place at the same time. This convinced the Japanese to send two of the ships in their fleet to chase the Bob Barker all the way to Macquarie Island.
This happened on February 22. Since then, the two vessels have been tracking down the Steve Irwin. However, it was never SSCS' intention for its two ships to meet. The Bob Barker sailed straight for the rest of the whaling fleet, which is now unprotected.
The only security ship the Japanese had is chasing the Steve Irwin. This leaves the Bob Barker with a huge window of opportunity to harass the illegal whaling fleet, and prevent them from reaching their yearly whale quota.
According to Sea Shepherd, it would take at least a week for the other two Japanese ships to catch up with the rest of the fleet. They are now on a wild goose chase, since the Steve Irwin is actually heading to the mainland to refuel.
By tracking the SSCS ship, the Yushin Maru No. 3 and the Shonan Maru No. 2 have entered the Australian Economic Exclusion Zone, where they are in contempt of bans issued by the Australian Federal Court and the Government of Australia.
“We have placed the Japanese security ship, the Shonan Maru No. 2, and the harpoon vessel, the Yushin Maru No. 3, a great distance from the whaling operations and the factory ship Nisshin Maru,” SSCS leader, Captain Paul Watson, says.
“It could take them more than a week to return. It was a very successful ploy that has allowed the Bob Barker to be free of its tail and to knock out two of the Japanese ships from the game for more than two weeks,” he adds.
“Because we lost our scout vessel, the Brigitte Bardot, we have been handicapped this season. But despite that, we have chased this outlaw fleet more than 16,000 miles from west to east and from north to south. I am confident that we have severely impacted their kill quota once again,” he concludes.