Ocean Sentry
(From abc.net.au)- The anti-whaling ship the Steve Irwin is withdrawing from its pursuit of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean to refuel. The captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society”s protest ship, Paul Watson, says the move will leave the Japanese fleet free to slaughter whales over the next fortnight. Captain Watson says the Steve Irwin has prevented the fleet from catching any whales for the past two weeks.
But he says now the protest ship needs to refuel, there is nothing standing in the way of the Japanese whalers.
“It’s frustrating but we had to do this last year – we don’t have any choice,” he said.
“It will probably take us two weeks and then we’ll be back again.
“Last year we chased them until March and the only time they were able to kill whales was when we came back.
“Unfortunately we only have the one vessel and we don’t really have any support down here, so we don’t really have much choice.”
Captain Watson says the Japanese fleet “refuels illegally”.
“They bring a supply vessel in. You’re not allowed to do that but they do it anyway and nobody does anything. We don’t have that luxury.
“Australia should have a boat down in these areas, especially in the Australian Antarctic Territory, where there seems to be no monitoring of exploitation of anything – whales or fish or anything.”
