Whalers On Run, Pursued By Three Ships
The Age
Tuesday January 15, 2008
THE Rudd Government's attempt to raise pressure on Japanese whaling through surveillance by the Customs patrol vessel, the Oceanic Viking, faces a renewed test as the whalers keep running from the Antarctic.
Almost a week after it left Western Australia, the patrol vessel was yet to reach the factory ship, Nisshin Maru, which could be on a course taking it further from the Australians. When the Oceanic Viking does catch up, it may be many days before whaling resumes as pressure intensifies from environmentalists closer to the Nisshin Maru. The timing of the Oceanic Viking's mission was chosen to maximise the potential for 20 days of productive surveillance of the fleet, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said shortly before its departure. The mission was on track to collect video and photographic evidence for a potential international legal case, a spokeswoman for Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus said. But Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said yesterday the delay in reaching the fleet may well have cost the surveillance mission its best chance. "Before they were found by Greenpeace, there is likely to have been some of the best and clearest evidence to date, including its operations in the Australian whale sanctuary in the Antarctic," Mr Hunt said. The Government has already been criticised for the length of time it took to dispatch the Oceanic Viking from Fremantle. Mr Hunt said further delays in commencing the surveillance risked showing the mission as a pretence. "It's sending a diplomatic message to the Japanese saying, 'look, despite all the noise and fury, we're not that serious'," he said. The Nisshin Maru was yesterday near Australia's sub-Antarctic Heard Island, steaming north-west out of the whaling grounds. Catcher ships are unable to kill whales for meat unless they are processed quickly, meaning that as long as the Nisshin Maru is on the run, no whaling can take place. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza, which found the Nisshin Maru on Saturday, was keeping contact in the pursuit despite the heavy conditions, maintaining about four kilometres distance between them. An estimated 80 kilometres behind these two ships was the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Steve Irwin. "We're getting closer all the time," said its captain, Paul Watson. Greenpeace suspects that the Nisshin Maru may be headed for a rendezvous with a supply ship, the Oriental Bluebird, so that whale meat can be transferred out of laden freezer rooms and the factory ship can be refuelled. But if it halts for the resupply, the Nisshin Maru faces the prospect that the Sea Shepherd will catch up as it did in early 2006, forcing a sudden flight by the Japanese ship that led to a collision with a Greenpeace vessel. Captain Watson has vowed to put out of action the ship he calls the "Cetacean Death Star".
© 2008 The Age