Greenpeace: We found the whaling fleet

[Barrett808]

We found the whaling fleet
Posted by Irene onboard the Esperanza

Around midnight a few dots appeared on our radar screens, moving much faster than the other icebergs. The night was foggy with poor visibility, and "quiet excitement" is how I would describe the atmosphere on the bridge. When the fleet discovered we were here they immediately took flight. I went down to the control room for a while, to have a cup of coffee with Bent who rules over the machines. When I came back up on the bridge we had met the catcher boat Yushin Maru. We are currently following the mothership, the Nisshin Maru. We have tried to call her on channel 16 but got no answer.

As long as the fleet is on the run they cannot hunt, but if they resume whaling our intention is to take direct non-violent action to protect the whales. This will be a short update - it's been a long night and my contact lenses are glued to my eyes. I'll be back to tell you more as soon as I can.

http://weblog.greenpeace.org/whales/2008/01/we_found_the_whaling_fleet.html

[InvisibleTouch]

1. I like to hear this:

"As long as the fleet is on the run they cannot hunt"

Nicely done.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. Go Greenpeace !

[TomInTib]

3. Damn, I would love to be there.

What a worthy, excciting mission.

Oh, to be tweny or thirty years younger....

[BlueJazz]

4. I wish Greenpeace had a Submarine.....not to Torpedo but to

...ah..."Pester" the Fleet.

[pscot]

13. A few cannons might also be useful

n/t

[bananas]

5. I wonder if we can track this on google earth? nt

[GliderGuider]

6. Watson must be some ticked off that GP beat him to the prize.

I wonder what will happen when he gets there - will GP try to keep him from ramming the Marus?

[Barrett808]

7. In the past, GP has tended not to interfere with SSCS

They've said they're going down to "stop" the hunt, but unfortunately the whalers are usually undeterred by GP's tactics. The harpooners are very good, and they'll shoot just over a protester's head to hit a whale.

Iréne says the fleet is "on the run" (mastcam: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/photosvideos/live-webcam ), but I'm not sure that's easy to distinguish from "looking for whales".

[Barrett808]

8. Update: No hunting while the whaling fleet is on the run

No hunting while the whaling fleet is on the run
Posted by Irene onboard the Esperanza

You should be able to spot the factory ship Nisshin Maru in front of us on the mast webcam (http://www.greenpeace.org/international/photosvideos/live-webcam). I've turned the webcam on the bridge wing around so that the catcher ship Yushin Maru no 1, right behind us on our starboard side, should be visible. They are merely dark shadows as it is still foggy. We currently sail at high speed like a little convoy.

While the Nisshin Maru runs the hunt cannot continue, and we want to keep it that way. The catcher boats need to be able to offload their catch and haul it onto the mother ship, where the whales are butchered and put in the freezer.

Should they try and resume whaling we intend to do everything we can to stop them, by putting ourselves between the harpoons and the whales.

- Iréne

http://weblog.greenpeace.org/whales/2008/01/no_hunting_while_the_whaling_f.html

[Zachstar]

9. Bedford Incident!

No no im not comparing the end of the story to this. I am just comparing their excitement to that part of the book where they flush out the Soviet Submarine.

Greenpeace did good tracking down a fleet. If this crap ever ends I hope they will use their skills to track down pirates to call in airstrikes on.

Let us hope that Sea Shepherd also remains nonviolent. After what happened last time I will consider any hostile action to be that of a pirate.

What puzzles me is that their ship used movement comparison to locate the fleet. If the .gov was giving the whaling fleet updates on the tracker and obviously they were equipped with ESM warning gear...

Why did they not slow down and go quiet in order to let the tracker pass?

[losthills]

10. This is great, and I thank you for posting,

but you know what rips me up?

I just went to both NPR and CNN, and neither one of them are covering this.

Is this not news?

And that's the way it always is with environmental issues and with protests. They keep it in the dark, while they give us hourly updates on Britany's meltdown.....

[GliderGuider]

11. CBC Radio covered it this morning.

Yet one more reason to have a real public broadcaster.

[losthills]

12. Yeah, NPR used to be great.

Believe it or not.....

[cedric]

14. This is the bloke I admire

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/12/20/18468010.php

Maybe foolhardy but nothing like giving it a shot.