Sydney, NSW - Hardline whaling opponents attempting to stop Japan's annual whale hunt in the Antarctic said Sunday they had intercepted and photographed its whaling fleet using pilotless drone aircraft.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it located the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru off Australia's western coast Saturday using the drones, the first time this season it has made contact with the whalers.
However, other Japanese ships shielded the vessel "to allow it to escape," Sea Shepherd said in a statement.
"We caught them due west of Perth," founder Paul Watson told Reuters by satellite phone from the ship Steve Irwin. "For the next few days we will be chasing them. We are heading south."
The two drones are equipped with cameras and detection equipment and allow Sea Shepherd to monitor the whaling fleet from a distance, he said.
Watson said Sea Shepherd's three ships were well outside Antarctic waters when the Japanese vessel was seen. The Sea Shepherd waited for the Nisshin Maru after hearing from fishermen it had sailed through the Lombok Strait in Indonesia on its voyage to Antarctic waters.
The Sea Shepherd society's annual attempts to stop the Japanese whale hunt by "direct action" have been widely criticised by other environmentalists and governments, particularly Japan. However, it also has influential supporters.
Watson said sympathisers in New Jersey in the United States contributed to the cost of the two drones.
An international moratorium on whaling has been in place since 1986, but Japan exploits a loophole allowing whaling for scientific purposes to justify its annual hunt.
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--- In MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL@yahoogroups.com, "MalcolmB" <malcolmb2@...> wrote:
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> Sea Shepherds monitor Japanese whaling with drones
>
> The Canadian Press
>
> Updated: Sat. Dec. 24 2011 8:55 PM ET
> VANCOUVER — An international non-profit society dedicated to protecting marine mammals says it is using drones to monitor a Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.
> The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said in a news release Saturday that it deployed one of the drones to intercept the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru about 800 kilometres off Western Australia's southwest coast.
> Canadian Captain Paul Watson who is onboard the ship, Steve Irwin, said the drones also allow the conservationists to keep track of the whalers when they try to escape.
> "What they do is they put these harpoon vessels on our tail and they relay our position to them (the Nisshin Maru) and it keeps the Nisshin Maru away," said Watson during a telephone interview. "So with the drone we're able to, you know, keep abreast of where the Nisshin Maru is."
> He said as of Christmas Day, two Japanese harpoon vessels were still trailing his ship, the Steve Irwin.
> Watson said one of the drones was donated by two companies from New Jersey.
> According to media reports, the Japanese whaling expedition left earlier this month and plans to take 900 whales.
> Watson said the Japanese are hoping to cull 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales, but haven't killed any animals yet.
> Watson said three Sea Shepherd ships, the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker and the Brigitte Bardot, which are crewed by 88 people from 25 different countries, are monitoring the Japanese fleet.
> He said the Sea Shepherd ships left Western Australian and Tasmanian ports about one week ago and will be monitoring the fleet until March, when the whaling season is expected to wrap up.
> Conflict between the conservationists and Japanese is nothing new. An at-sea collision between whalers and conservationists last January sunk one Sea Shepherd boat.
> The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was formed in 1977 and has had a controversial history.
> The group sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, trying to block them from firing harpoons at whales.
> The group's tactics have drawn praise from supporters and vehement attacks from critics.
> Watson made a lot of enemies in Newfoundland and the Maritimes with his opposition to the annual seal hunt.
> In 2008, two crew members of a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship, the Farley Mowat, were charged and convicted of interfering with the hunt.
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