Features National
Ida Torres on May 9 2013
As their US arm continues to be mired in legal battles with Japan in the US courts, militant conservation group
Sea Shepherd has to turn to donations outside the country in order to reach the 4 million dollars needed to fund their activities. The money is primarily needed for their campaign against Japan's whaling fleet next year.
Environmental extremist group
Sea Shepherd is now trying to have criminal charges filed against Japanese whalers in the Netherlands. As two of the group's ships sail under Dutch flags, they the country's authorities to prosecute the Japanese for acts of piracy for intentionally ramming their ships during their recent scuffle in the Southern Ocean.
The fleet and crew of the extremist anti-whaling group
Sea Shepherd arrived in Australia on Wednesday, claiming victory in this year's campaign against Japan's whalers, and calling for free passage for founder
Paul Watson. Three of their four ships, the Steve Irwin, Bob Barker, and Sam Simon docked with an estimated $1.03 million in damages, while the fourth ship, the Brigitte Bardot, remains at an undisclosed location with Watson believed to be aboard, as he is still wanted by Interpol.
After the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) released a video over the weekend countering the claims of Japan’s Institute of Cetecean Research (ICR) that it was the conservationist group that was to be faulted for the altercation that happened on February 25, the
ICR has released today its own video and statement to support its earlier claim. In the statement, the ICR described the actions of the SSCS as “malicious and unacceptable.”
Environmental extremist and anti-whaling group
Sea Shepherd has issued a statement that accuses Japan's fleet of spilling oil in Australian waters. Using four vessels to try to obstruct Japan's yearly whale hunt in the Southern Ocean, Sea Shepherd says it has collected samples from the oil slick it discovered on Sunday near the Sun Laurel,
the whaling fleet's re-supply ship. In addition, the group says one of Japan's harpoon ships has tried to crash into them as they prevented the transfer of a dead whale to the Nisshin Maru mothership.
The
Australian government's Environment Minister Tony Burke has ordered a ship with Japan's
whaling fleet to immediately leave the country's economic zone, warning that it is not welcome in Australia's territorial waters. The Shonan Maru No. 2 entered Australian territory off the Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean yesterday afternoon, presumably while being
pursued by environmental activist group Sea Shepherd.
The anti-whaling activist group
Sea Shepherd announced on Wednesday that it was claiming an early success by locating Japan's fleet before a single whale has been killed in their Southern Ocean hunt. The extreme environmentalist group hasn't engaged the Japanese ships in any way at this point, but they say they are now tailing the Yushin Maru No. 3, one of the fleet's harpoon ships, at a northern latitude.
The growing legal issues against extremist animal rights group Sea Shepherd have prompted founder
Paul Watson to step down from the position of president of the U.S. and Australian chapters. The fugitive Canadian national has given control of the renown anti-whaling organization to Bob Brown, a former politician and leader of the
Australian Greens party.
