Countering Japan’s Ministry of Truth

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Overfishing: Oceans Are Dying

This is the Hall of Fame for all around the world Sea Shepherd Conservation Society advocates. This is our tribute for supporting our cause and for defending the Oceans and

George Orwell would have understood the silliness of the Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research. Using the word “research” to justify a commercial slaughter of endangered and protected whales is very Orwellian.

And of course in the tradition of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, the media releases of the ICR simply reverse the facts. When a Japanese whaler rams a Sea Shepherd ship they simply report it as the Sea Shepherd ship ramming a Japanese whaler, and when the whalers attack Sea Shepherd, the ICR simply reports it as an attack by Sea Shepherd on the whalers. In the wake of yesterday’s deliberate ramming of the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker by the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2, the ICR predictably issued a media release entitled “Anti-whaling ship Bob Barker Attacks the Nisshin Maru.”

Well, since these guys describe themselves as scientists, I would like to provide some scientific facts to counter their propaganda.

The first fact is that it is not technically possible for the Sea Shepherd ships Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin to attack or ram a Japanese harpoon vessel. The reasons are simple: every ship in the Japanese fleet except the Nisshin Maru is faster and more manoeuvrable that the two Sea Shepherd ships. The top speed of the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker is around 17 to 18 knots. The top speed of all three Yushin Maru vessels and the Shonan Maru 2 is 22 knots. These harpoon vessels can catch the Sea Shepherd vessels but the Sea Shepherd vessels cannot catch them.

Only our vessel the Ady Gil was capable of superior speeds and the Shonan Maru 2 neutralized the Ady Gil by ramming it while it was stationary in the water, splitting it in two, and destroying it.

Our ships can match the speed of the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru, and this is the vessel we interfere with. We have never rammed it, and it would be suicide to attempt to ram it because what the Nisshin Maru lacks in speed it more than makes up with size, being some ten times larger and heavier than the Steve Irwin or the Bob Barker.

Below is the latest media release by the ICR. It is interesting that they did not release any video of the collision yesterday with the Bob Barker. Our video clearly shows the Yushin Maru 3 as the vessel responsible for the ramming.

But despite this the ICR issued the following release to which I will add my commentary:...

Source: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society