In the Southern Ocean where the whales swim, amid tussle between Japanese whalers and conservationists, the Japanese whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru is on fire:
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — A sailor is missing after a fire broke out on board a Japanese whaling vessel sailing off the coast of Antarctica, New Zealand’s maritime authority said.
Most of the crew of the Nisshin Maru was evacuated to other vessels in the Japanese government-run fleet and about 20 sailors remaining on board brought the fire under control, said Steve Corbett, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand.
With a crew missing and the ship incapacitated by fire in the rough open sea, the Japanese has called for helped. The Greenpeace’s Esperanza is responding to the distress signal and this is the third distress call it responded to in six days.
Earlier, there were clashes between the Japanese whaling fleet and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Sea Shepherd has been the most aggressive conservationist group so far as far as this whaling season is concerned. Its ship, the Robert Hunter and Japanese whaling Kaiko Maru, which was hunting whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, collided:
Anti-whaling activists say one of their vessels and a Japanese whaling ship have collided near the Ross Sea, sparking a distress call from the Japanese crew.
Each side is blaming the other for the collision:
The two sides blamed each other for the clash near Antarctica late on Monday which holed a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship, the Robert Hunter.
According to The Age:
In nearly 20 years of protest against Japanese whalers, there have been other clashes on the water. But never has such a determined attempt been made to disable the fleet.
The small US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its 60-odd black-clad activists upped the ante this week to the point that Greenpeace, the whalers’ usual foe, now risks being seen as ineffectual.
There is a decade-old moratorium on whale hunting in the area but the international ban is being practically ignored by Japan. Also this week, Japan unsuccessfully organized a forum aimed to undo the moratorium:
Only 35 of the IWC’s 72 members took part in the meeting, with 26 anti-whaling countries, including the US, Britain and Australia, deciding to stay away. Their boycott drew an angry reaction from the pro-whaling nations, which accused them of “imperialism”.
The oddest about the clashes is that, when it involves human lives, the whales and the conservationists are helping each other out. For instance, during an earlier skirmish between Sea Sheppard and Nisshin Maru when two members of the former were missing, both declared truce and directed their effort into searching for the missing persons. Call it tragic comedy in the high seas but:
Two missing Sea Shepherd activists have been found safe in the Antarctic, and hostilities have resumed against the Japanese whaling fleet.
Sea Shepherd ships have since gone back to port for refuelling.
Of all distress signals, the third latest is probably the most serious. Not only there is fire on board Nisshin Maru, the ship stranded and a sailor missing, it is possible that the ship might be drifting to the world’s biggest Adelie penguin colony at Cape Adare, Antarctica, causing environmental damage through oil leakage. Greenpeace’s Esperanza is ready to aid the stranded ship and tow it to port. The Japanese however disagrees with theat assessment:
“There’s no threat of oil leakage at all, and no worries over environmental pollution from the Nisshin Maru,” said Kenji Masuda, of the Fisheries Agency.
And refusing Greenpeace’s offer:
A spokesman for the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which is carrying out the whaling, said other ships in the fleet could tow it from the area if required.
According to Defending Our Ocean, Esperanza has reached Nisshin Maru. There are several other ships nearby, including the US Coast Guard ship Polar Sea.
My take?
The whalers should just take up the offer and cut the season short.
In any case, Greenpeace’s conservation mission has turned into a rescue mission.
p/s — the body of the missing person has been recovered.