14 DAY TRIAL // The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) has issues an official call for assistance to the Greenpeace Foundation, for stopping the illegal Japanese whaling currently going on in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
SSCS is requesting that Greenpeace send one of its two available vessels to Antarctic waters, so as to close a trap that Sea Shepherd has laid for the whaling ships seeking to kill endangered whales in the Antarctic.
At this point, the largest SSCS ships, Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, are chasing the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru, while being followed in return by two harpoon ships. The latter don't hope to achieve anything else but keep an eye on these two vessels.
This is very important for them because they can radio ahead to the factory ship, and her accompanying harpoon vessel, about the SSCS' fleet whereabout, allowing the two to evade it.
The third Sea Shepherd vessel, the high-speed, monohull trimaran Gojira, is scouting ahead for the factory ship and her escort. The SSCS has also deployed radar-enabled weather balloons and a small helicopter to track down the two missing Japanese vessels.
But they have been running for the past 13 days, and the Society does not have an extra vessel to keep up with them. As such, they are turning to Greenpeace for assistance in ending Japan's 2011 whaling campaign in the most effective manner possible.
“All that is needed to shut down the Japanese fleet by 100 percent, is a third large vessel to keep the third harpooner occupied, but Sea Shepherd does not have another large vessel,” a press release says.
“The Greenpeace Foundation, however, has two ships in Taiwan. One Greenpeace ship in the Southern Ocean could shut the door on the killing of whales completely, and all Greenpeace would have to do is just show up,” the Society says in the statement.
“Greenpeace is raising substantial funds in their ‘campaign’ to defend whales in the Southern Ocean. Sea Shepherd believes that Greenpeace has a moral obligation to use these funds to end whaling in the Southern Ocean in the most effective and efficient manner possible,” it adds.
“Sea Shepherd is formally requesting the assistance of the Greenpeace Foundation to cooperate in achieving the total shutdown of illegal Japanese whaling activities,” the document says.
SSCS is offering to provide Greenpeace with the coordinates of the whaling fleet. If Greenpeace accepts, then the Japanese ships could return home nearly empty-handed. However, some say that this will not happen.
Sea Shepherd was formed when Captain Paul Watson left Greenpeace decades ago, over the argument that the latter's tactics were too mellow. It remains to be seen whether what the two groups have in common can bridge that gap.