A Minor Victory

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Japan whaling fleet accused of using tsunami disaster funds

Other news from the Sea Shepherd Society

In the Name of Science - A Review of Scientific Whaling (PDF)

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The Steve Irwin is Free!

In my email today...

The Steve Irwin is Free, Thanks to Thousands of Donations!

Dear BB2,

Sea Shepherd supporters rock!

Due to the generosity of our supporters around the world, we have raised over USD$735,000 to save our flagship Steve Irwin—less than two weeks after the launch of our SOS! - Save Our Ship fundraising campaign! Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible for us to fund a bond to release the vessel from detainment! Together, we will continue to make a difference.

As many of you are aware, on July 15, our flagship vessel the Steve Irwin was detained in the Scottish Shetland Islands pending our ability to fund a bond we estimated to be in the amount of USD$1,411,692.87. The detainment was ordered by British courts due to a civil lawsuit brought against us by Maltese fishing company Fish and Fish Ltd.

The British court set the bond today at £520,000 (approximately USD$846,290). Thankfully, we were able to post the bond earlier today, and the Steve Irwin will soon depart to the Faeroes for Operation Ferocious Isles. The Steve Irwin will join the vessel Brigitte Bardot and her crew, who are already onsite defending pilot whales.

I sincerely thank everyone who donated to help Save Our Ship. Your help enabled us to Free the Steve. However, despite everyone’s best efforts we didn't quite raise the entire amount and had to cut into our already scarce budget to meet the bond amount and Free the Steve. We face the ongoing costs of Operation Ferocious Isles, the transit of our vessels from the northern hemisphere to the southern for Operation Divine Wind, and then the cost of that Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign as well. We are all on the same crew, despite our different roles and varying locations. We all feel that inner drive to protect innocent lives and ecosystems, and I know many of you have given what you can— but please keep your donations coming in. Without your help, we cannot continue this important work.

We are in a war to save our oceans from ourselves, and if we lose, we all lose because if the oceans die, we all die – it’s as simple as that. Thank-you!

For Our Oceans and for the Steve Irwin,

Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President
Sea Shepherd

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Can You Help?

CLICK THIS IF CAN YOU HELP

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Whale Wars Returns

Tonight season 4 of Whales Wars begins on The Animal Planet Station at 9:00 PM. Join the Sea Shepherds and the newsest addition to their fleet of 3 ships as they try once and for all to end the Japanese whale slaughter in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

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tsunami worries

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UPDATE: All missing crew members are alive and well.

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Great News for the Whales

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Captain Paul Watson and the Sea Shepard fleet have caused the Japanese whalers to abandon their Scientific Research Hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary:

On Friday, Japan said it was bringing home its four whaling ships, weeks before the usual end of the annual cull in mid-March, citing the need to protect their crew from Sea Shepherd's sustained harassment.

Japan -- which hunts the ocean giants under a loophole to a global ban that permits lethal "scientific research" -- has killed 172 whales this season, only about a fifth of its target, the fisheries agency said.
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Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tokyo had summoned the Australian, New Zealand and Dutch ambassadors and made "a strong request to take effective measures to avoid the recurrence of Sea Shepherd's obstructionist activities".

But...

Australia -- which last year launched legal action against Japan's whaling programme at the International Court of Justice -- and New Zealand earlier on Friday said they hoped Japan had given up whaling for good.

Deplorable...

Japan has long defended whaling as part of the island nation's culture and makes no secret of the fact that the meat ends up in restaurants.

Tomoaki Nakao, the mayor of Shimonoseki, the port from where the whaling ships leave each year, said: "I want Japan to maintain a firm stand and continue appealing to the world about the legitimacy" of scientific whaling.

Just what is legitimate about killing whales in a sanctuary for food and calling it scientific study?

More

Latin America urges Japan to stop whaling!

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

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WHALE WARS

[Click photo to view full episodes on-line]

The Sea Shepherd Society

An Introduction to the Sea Shepherd Society

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Whale Wars

On January 5th the Japanese security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 intentionally rammed the Ady Gil, a high tech, carbon fiber, trimaran belonging to the Sea Shepherd Society. The Ady Gil was accompanying the Bob Barker, the Sea Shepherd's new ship.

The Sea Shepherds, on their annual campaign to stop the Japanese from whaling in the *** whale preserve in persuit of the Japanese whaling vessel the Nisshin Maru. The Japanese are taking whales under the guise of research - a loophole in the treaty.

The Japanese whalers claim that the Ady Gil caused the collision and offered this video as evidence.


But in the following video from the Bob Barker it can be clearly seen that the Shonan Maru made two course corrections to aim at the Ady Gil just prior to the collision.


MORE:

The Sea Shepherd Society

Aby Gil the boats designer has pledge to rebuild the boat which bears his namesake.


On 1/8/2010 at 17:20 (GMT) the last known position of the Ady Gil was reported to the Australian Rescue Coordination Center, as it was sinking and would pose a navigational hazard for several more hours. Fortunately, all fuel and lubricants had been removed form the Ady Gil hours earlier.

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WHALE WARS

WHALE WARS RETURNS

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Captain Paul Watson and the crew of the Steve Irwin take on the Japanese whaling fleet.

Larry King interview with Paul Watson and several crew members

"Whales Are Dying" Music Video from The Red Paintings on Vimeo.

Orchestral art-rock band, The Red Paintings, collaborated with
Sea Shepherd to record this song the night before the Steve Irwin
left Australia for the latest campaign in Antarctic waters.
Lyrics were written by lead singer, Trash McSweeney in conjunction
with the Sea Shepherd's founder and president, Captain Paul Watson.

Whale wars is returning to the Animal Planet cable network this Friday June 5th at 9pm E/P.
Check your local listing for show times.

If the show is published to YouTube, as it was last season, I will post the videos here. Check back early the following week after each show to see if I have found them.

As last season, if I do find the shows, I don't expect them to last forever.

MUSIC VIDEOS

SONG OF THE WHALE - TANGERINE DREAM
Videos of whales set to the music of Tangerine Dream

WHALE RIDER - ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER
Scenes from the movie Whale Rider tell the story of the coming of age of a young Maori girl.
Music by Andreas Vollenweider.
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Lest We Forget - Last Whale Standing

[WARNING SOME SCENES DISTURBING]

From YouTube:

We created our video "Last Whale Standing" to help spread the word about annual killings of hundreds of innocent whales.

Video consists of three different parts so please watch till the end. In first part we showed you different kinds of whales which humans killed for thousands of years. In second part we showed you how they kill whales today in our modern world. And third part dedicated to people who try to stop slaughter of innocent whales.

We also want to emphasize that whales are killed not only by Japanese whalers, but also commercially in Norway and Iceland, as well in USA, Russia, Greenland, Canada, Bequia, Faroe Islands, Indonesia and illegally in many others countries such as South Korea and Philippines.

More Here

Yogzatot - Whales, Whalers and Anti-Whaling Movement Website.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Website.

Whale Wars

SAVE THE WHALES

Whale Wars

Captain Paul Watson and crew take on the Japanese whaling fleet.

Note: the full length videos linked here have been taken down at Youtube. In addition Splashcast has also announced they are stopping the video service I used to create the full length videos here. View the 5 minute introduction video and follow the links to the Sea Shepherd website to keep informed of their latest campaign.

Check back in the summer of 2009 as the latest campaign, currently under way, is broadcast on cable and satellite.

Introduction: Goals and Missions - The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society 5:03

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Song of the Whales - French captioned

Don't Kill the Whales - with music by Yes