Broken winch puts end to whale hunt - Greenpeace

[Barrett808]

Broken winch puts end to whale hunt - Greenpeace

A broken winch on the Japanese whaling mothership stranded in the Ross Sea has ended this year's whaling season, according to Greenpeace.

The whaling ship Nisshin Maru, which used the winch to haul the animals' carcasses on board for processing, remains stranded in the after last week's onboard blaze.

Karli Thomas, a campaigner aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza, said the environmental organisation's offer to tow the ship out of the pristine Antarctic sea remained open.

...

Spokesman for the whalers, Glen Inwood, disputed Greenpeace's claims about the winch.

"It is certainly not in anyone's interest to give any information, or correct information, to Greenpeace. They are not a signatory to anything down there. Maybe the skipper was just having a laugh," he told Radio New Zealand.

The ship's wiring had been replaced, the gauges had been tested and safety checks were being carried out.

Though the ship was not yet moving, the engines were going, Mr Inwood said.

(more)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/3970664a7693.html

Rescue Center confirms disabled whaler's engines not going

The National Rescue Co-ordination Centre says the engines on a stricken Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean are not operating, and work is still being done to repair them.

The engines were shut off when the Nisshun Maru caught fire in the Ross Sea last week and the ship has been disabled there since. One crew member died in the fire.

A spokesperson for the whaling fleet, Glenn Inwood, told Morning Report that the engines had been restarted, but that the ship had not yet moved anywhere.

However, Steve Corbett, a spokesperson for the rescue centre, says he has spoken to the crew on the ship, who say that while the engines may have been turned over once or twice, they are definitely not running.

A decision on the future of the Nisshin Maru and the whaling season is expected to be made later today. There has been concern the ship will need to be towed.

Winch status unknown

Mr Inwood told Morning Report he could not confirm whether the winch used to haul the whales on board the processing deck is working or not. He says the processing deck is where last week's fire broke out.

Greenpeace's expedition leader, Karli Thomas, who is on board the nearby Esperanza, says they have had word of the winch problem directly from the Nisshin Maru. She says a broken winch means the vessel cannot bring any whales on board.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200702221018/rescue_centre_confirms_disabled_whalers_engines_not_going

[Ian David]

1. Where's your Godilla NOW?? n/t

[ohio2007]

2. Broken winch ? aint that a 'Biatch'

[Plutonium Page]

3. Beware of ICR spin

Keep an eye on that Inwood guy. "Why?" you ask...


Well, the Greenpeace Ocean Defenders blog is a good thing to read every day, especially this entry:


Sorry, Mr. Inwood, could you say that again?

Yesterday, Sakyo spoke to the fleet's expedition leader via radio, and asked him if the fleet were starting whaling again, that he'd heard this in the media. The reply was that there was still a lot of work to be done on the ship. They have managed to start the main engine, but the winch is broken down - due to oil pressure trouble, and the factory deck of the ship is taken apart. They have told us that they want to get across the line of 60 degrees south, and head north to Japan as soon as possible.

So where did we get that information from that came as such a surprise to the whalers? From an interview done by their own spin doctor - PR man for the Institute of Cetacean Research, New Zealander Glenn Inwood, who just hours earlier had put out a statement saying that the fleet is about start whaling again.

"The normal whale research program ends around late March, so we still have three to four weeks left and the fleet is going to continue with the work there," Mr Inwood was today quoted as saying, in several parts of the media.

So, we're getting conflicting reports from the fleet a mile or so away from us, and Mr Inwood, thousands of miles away on land.

In other words, just consider the source when Inwood speaks. He's speaking for the ICR. I guess he's kind of a Karl Rove for the whaling industry.

[roody]

5. Many thanks to the activists in Greenpeace

and Sea Shepherd Society.

[Coventina]

4. As Nelson Muntz would say....

HA-HA!!!!


You know, I really thing the Japanese whaling fleet need to start listening to the universe. They are getting some pretty strong messages that what they are doing is WRONG WRONG WRONG!

[Barrett808]

6. ICR: Engines "turned over" but "the skipper's decided to shut them off again"

Whalers say crippled Japan ship restarted

The captain of a Japanese whaler crippled in Antarctic waters has managed to restart the engines and will soon decide when and how to leave the area, a spokesman said Thursday.

The vessel has been disabled since a fire erupted below decks a week ago, sparking fears of an environmental catastrophe should any fuel leak.

A spokesman for Japan's whaling programme, Glen Inwood, said the ship's crew had made sufficient repairs to restore power to the vessel and that safety checks were being carried out.

"The engines have been turned over and obviously the skipper's decided to shut them off again," Inwood said. "I'm not sure why that's the case but I'm hoping it's just to continue the checks on the vessel."

The Nisshin Maru, carrying more than 1.3 million litres of fuel, is just 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the world's biggest Adelie penguin colony at Cape Adare on the Antarctic coast.

Inwood said no decision had been made on whether the whaling season will continue or if the fleet will return to Japan.

The main concern was whether the processing deck was able to be used again, following extensive damage during the fire.

Offers of help to move the stricken ship over the past week have been rejected, drawing a warning from New Zealand that Tokyo faced international condemnation if there was any fuel leakage.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, but Japan has continued hunting for what it calls scientific research.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070222023116.mb8zk6ny&cat=null

[ileus]

7. Should have bought a WARN winch...

[Barrett808]

8. Greenpeace: Sorry Mr. Inwood, could you say that again?

Sorry Mr. Inwood, could you say that again?
Posted by Dave and Sara, on the Esperanza

The beauty of bearing witness - one of Greenpeace's core principles - is that you can provide window onto the reality of what is right in front of you. In the last week, the difference between what we see and hear, here in the Ross Sea, and what we are "told" from land could not have been more stark.
Yesterday, Sakyo spoke to the fleet's expedition leader via radio, and asked him if the fleet were starting whaling again, that he'd heard this in the media. The reply was that there was still a lot of work to be done on the ship. They have managed to start the main engine, but the winch is broken down - due to oil pressure trouble, and the factory deck of the ship is taken apart. They have told us that they want to get across the line of 60 degrees south, and head north to Japan as soon as possible.


So where did we get that information from that came as such a surprise to the whalers? From an interview done by their own spin doctor - PR man for the Institute of Cetacean Research, New Zealander Glenn Inwood, who just hours earlier had put out a statement saying that the fleet is about start whaling again.

"The normal whale research program ends around late March, so we still have three to four weeks left and the fleet is going to continue with the work there," Mr Inwood was today quoted as saying, in several parts of the media.

So, we're getting conflicting reports from the fleet a mile or so away from us, and Mr Inwood, thousands of miles away on land.

Earlier today, a according to Stuff.co.nz, "spokesman for the whalers, Glenn Inwood, disputed Greenpeace's claims about the winch".

"It is certainly not in anyone's interest to give any information, or correct information, to Greenpeace. They are not a signatory to anything down there. Maybe the skipper was just having a laugh," he told Radio New Zealand. He also said that although the ship was not yet moving, the engines were going. He added that "we might even start whaling again as soon as today".

Well, Glenn, two things - we might not be a signatory to anything down here, but Japan is - signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, which is designed to protect the environment here, and secondly - it's no laughing matter down here. Not only has one person lost their life, but we've got a drifting whaling factory ship, an environmental threat, and dozens of crewman working and no doubt freezing their asses off in the Ross Sea. It seems rather bizarre for Mr Inwood to reckon that the whaling fleet's expedition leader, who is currently trying to deal with getting a broken-down 8,000-ton ship out of Antarctic waters, has the time and inclination to make up stories just to mislead Greenpeace. And if this is the case, which is doubtful, then Mr Inwood is also insinuating that the New Zealand authorities are also being mislead.

Maritime New Zealand's Steve Corbett has been widely quoted today:

"'The engine hasn't been started and is not running, though they have managed to turn it over a couple of times', he said, citing information from the captain of whale chaser Yuishin Maru."

So what's going on here? How come we're getting one story from the ICR's spokesman, and a completely different story being fed from the whaling fleet to both ourselves and Maritime New Zealand?

We know what we see and hear, and we know what Mr Inwood is reported to have said and put out in his own press releases - we leave you to decide who is bearing witness to the truth.

Well, we can tell you for sure - we've been watching the Nisshin Maru from the bridge of the Esperanza for days now, and apart from a lone puff of smoke from its funnels, we haven't seen any evidence to suggest that they've got the engines actually up and running.

(more)

http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders/archive/2007/02/sorry_mr_inwood_could_you.html

[flvegan]

9. I'm normally not one to laugh at someone's misfortune, but

ha-frikkin-ha.

What happened with the sailor that was killed during the fire? Was his body removed and returned to Japan or what? Seems sort of...disrespectful if they've stowed it somewhere.

On edit: misfortune of the whaling fleet, not the deceased (just wanted to be clear).