Sea No Evil

Sea Shepherd’s continuous opposition to illegal Japanese whaling is bearing fruit. There is a limit to just how deep in debt the Japanese government is willing to go to continue to subsidize an industry that loses money and diminishes the prestige of Japan in the eyes of the world.

Last month, Sea Shepherd prevented the killing of whales for more than three weeks and that not only cost the whalers by ensuring they will not get their quota, it also forced them to use over 2500 tons of fuel in the pursuit and that conservatively would have cost them over two million U.S. dollars spent on fuel without a slain whale to show for it.

Disruptions over the last few years have resulted in the whalers unable to reach their quotas. Last year’s devastating fire onboard the Nishiin Maru costs millions of dollars in repairs.

Japan is spending tens of millions of dollars bribing small nations to vote to overturn the global whaling ban imposed in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission. They are spending money on public relations and sending armed Coast Guard units to the Southern Oceans.

The Institute for Cetacean Research is presently in debt on interest free loan repayments to the Japanese government to the tune of  over 37 million U.S. dollars.

The demand for whale meat in Japan is falling. The whaling industry is in deep financial trouble and without government subsidies would have died years ago.

The Japanese whaling industry is nothing more than a glorified welfare scheme and the whaling industry executives and whaling crew reduced to nothing more than pathetic beggars existing on hand-outs from Japanese tax-payers.

“We must continuously hound them, we need to constantly nip on their heels and harass them, blockade them, worry them and annoy them,” said Captain Paul Watson. “We will never rest, never retreat and never surrender to their illegal acts of cetacide. We intend to be in their face, up close and personal until we vanquish those vicious harpoons from the waters of the Southern Ocean forever. We will make whaling into the most expensive and embarrassing issue for Japan that we can.”

The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin is presently heading south towards the coast of Antarctica in search of the Japanese whaling fleet in round two of Operation Migaloo. Once located, the Steve Irwin will once again intervene and harass the Japanese whaling fleet with the objective of shutting down all whaling activity.

Captain Paul Watson has also responded to recent criticisms that what Sea Shepherd is doing is unsafe and puts human life at risk.

“Of course it’s unsafe.” He replied. “We’re not ocean posing down here, pretending to take risks, pretending to be heroes. This is a bloody risky venture and it always has been. As Captain John Paul Jones once said, ‘give me a fair ship and I’ll sail her into harm’s way.’ I have a fair ship and that is exactly what I am doing, sailing into harm’s way to block explosive harpoons, taking on a hostile whaling fleet that outnumbers us 7 to one and taking on one of the most powerful and ruthless nations on the planet. Would we die to save a whale? Why not? People are dying right now to defend oil wells and for religion. How much more noble it is to take these risks for an endangered species and for the future heritage of this planet. I could proudly die for this cause and one day I surely will but I can’t imagine the alternative of doing nothing as these magnificent sentient beings, these gentle armless Buddha’s are cruelly slaughtered and exterminated”

The following article from the Asahi, Japan’s National newspaper illustrates the financial situation that the Japanese whaling industry now finds itself in:

Asahi, National Japanese newspaper
Japan’s research whaling now facing problems at home
02/09/2008
BY KENJI OYAMADA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Japan’s research whaling has long been criticized from around the world as commercial whaling in disguise. Now, research whaling faces a domestic blow–stagnant sales of whale meat.

A series of accidents involving whaling ships last year and disruptive protests from overseas activists have also hurt the finances of a government-affiliated foundation in charge of research whaling.

The problems have become so big that the Institute of Cetacean Research, an outside body of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, is struggling to pay back its interest-free loans to the government. The institute received a total of 3.6 billion yen in interest-free operational loans from another government affiliate, the Overseas Fishery
Cooperation Foundation, in fiscal 2006.

The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986, but the whaling convention allows Japan to catch whales for scientific research.

According to the foundation’s settlement of accounts for fiscal 2006, it failed to pay back about 1 billion yen of the loan package. The institute had planned to repay all of its debts by the end of July last year, but the government allowed it to repay the loans in installments over four years from fiscal 2007.

The institute first received a public loan package of 1.2 billion yen in its fiscal 2001 accounting year when the quantity of whale catches increased. It supplied 2,450 tons of whale meat to the domestic market in fiscal 2000 and 2,620 tons the following year.
The amount supplied to the market gradually increased to a high of 5,560 tons in fiscal 2005, and the annual amount of loans correspondingly rose to 3.6 billion yen in fiscal 2005 and 2006.

Aiming to strengthen “ecological research,” the institute increased the research whaling quota to 850 catches in the season covering 2005 and 2006, compared with 440 in the previous season.

The amount of whale meat supplied to the market jumped by 30 percent over the same period, and the institute, which does not aim to make a profit, cut the price of whale meat by 20 percent.

The lower price, however, reduced revenue from whale meat by 6 percent, institute officials said. Meanwhile, the cost of whaling rose by 10 percent because the institute increased the number of whaling vessels from five to six to meet the higher quota.

One institute official acknowledged that the 20-percent price cut was “too much” when operational expenses are taken into account. In the institute’s settlement of accounts for fiscal 2006, it posted a loss of 700 million yen. It also did not provide reserve payments to the government that had previously amounted to tens of millions of yen annually.

Officials of the institute and the fisheries ministry said a fire and other accidents involving whaling vessels last fiscal year contributed largely to the loss. They said the institute should be able to balance its budget this fiscal year.

Escalating protests by activists against Japanese whaling vessels forced them to suspend operations in January.

While whaling resumed soon afterward, further protests by activists could suspend operations anew. If that happens, the supply of whale meat may be reduced, further hurting the institute’s budget.

The Tokyo-based research whaling company Kyodo Senpaku was formed in 1987 by
consolidating whaling departments of Japanese fisheries companies. Due to the global protest against whaling and waning profitability, three major fisheries companies withdrew from Kyodo Senpaku’s operation in 2006.

The company became a publicly supported whaling monopoly, whose purpose is
to maintain Japan’s whaling tradition. Kyodo Senpaku is a for-profit company that collects, processes and sells wholesale whale specimens on behalf of the research institute.

In the year that ended in October 2007, Kyodo Senpaku recorded sales of 6 billion yen with a net profit of 5 million yen.

Most of the revenue came from commission fees on sales of whale meat to wholesale markets and charter fees of its whaling vessels paid by the institute.

One problem facing the company is its difficulty in recruiting young workers willing to stay long enough to learn whaling skills.

In addition, the long and distant voyages are a turn-off for young people, company officials said.

Critics have questioned the government’s policy of maintaining the country’s whaling tradition at any cost when it faces a huge financial deficit and other problems.

Captain Paul Watson and his crew of international volunteers are anxious to refuel, re-supply and complete repairs as soon as possible in order to return to the Southern Oceans.

News that the Japanese whaling fleet has resumed killing with the death of five whales today has been received with sadness, anger and a determined resolve to return to obstruct the whalers.

“We shut down whaling operations for most of January. We stayed down as long as we dared to prevent whaling until the end of the month. We achieved that goal,” said Captain Paul Watson. “Now we have a new objective and that is to return as soon as possible to continue our campaign to stop the illegal slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and in the Australian Antarctic Territorial waters.”

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is disappointed with the stance that the Australian government has taken in refusing to uphold an Australian court ruling banning Japanese whaling in the Australian Antarctic Economic Exclusion Zone.

“Taking pictures of whalers illegally killing whales is not the way to enforce the law,” said Sea Shepherd Executive Director Kim McCoy. “If the police saw a bank robbery taking place they would not take pictures of the heist. They would arrest the criminal. We fail to see why Japanese poachers are being given free rein to violate Australian law.”

Australia’s announcement that they have agreed with Japan to disagree on whaling is not going to save any whales. Australia’s position that they are “disappointed” in the resumption of whaling means nothing unless the government acts on this disappointment to stop the poaching of whales by Japan in Australian waters.

Captain Watson is warning Japan that anti-whaling activities will escalate and will become stronger every year.

“This is going to be a never ending trip to the dentist for Japan,” said Captain Paul Watson. “We intend to remain a constant, nagging, festering pain to their intentions to continue to illegally kill whales. We will never surrender our efforts to protect the defenseless whales from the barbaric cruelty that Japanese harpoons inflict upon these highly intelligent, socially complex, gentle beings. As long as Japan continues to invade the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, we will continue to defend it.”

Sixteen of the Steve Irwin’s crew will be staying with the ship. The departing eighteen crewmembers will be replaced by Sea Shepherd volunteers from Australia and around the world.

Japan has now officially announced that they will not kill humpback whales this season. Migaloo and the other humpbacks are safe, at least until December 2008.In a deal brokered by the United States, Japan has agreed to remove the humpbacks from the death list for this season. There have been no reports from the Japanese fleet on how many humpbacks if any have been killed so far this season.

Japan still intends to continue to kill 50 endangered Fin whales and 935 piked (minke) whales. Japan put the humpbacks on the list at the 2007 International Whaling Commission meeting primarily as a bargaining chip to broker for support of their commercial whaling activities on other species. That tactic failed and Japan set forth to punish the pro-whale nations of the IWC by announcing the quota for endangered humpbacks.

Unfortunately this is only a temporary respite for Migaloo and his species. Japan is determined to continue to escalate their kill quotas and to expand to other species. The Japanese are planning the construction of a much larger whale processing vessel to replace the aging Nisshin Maru.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society hopes that Australia will closely monitor Japanese whaling operations to ensure that no humpbacks will be killed. The Japanese whaling fleet has a long history of under reporting catches to the IWC.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be returning to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to intervene against Japanese whaling operation directed at endangered fin whales and piked whales.

The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin will be stopping briefly in Melbourne to pick up essential engine parts and to refuel before returning to the Antarctic coast. The Steve Irwin has just spent two weeks patrolling the Eastern side of the Japanese hunting area. Japan has always started their whaling on the Eastern end but this year to throw off opposition they traveled via the Lombok Straits and down the Western side of Australia to begin their killing at the extreme Western side of the zone. The Steve Irwin should be in this area by the first week of January 2008.

The decision to call off the humpback whale kill for this season is the result of intense international public opposition to the targeting of humpback whales. Operation Migaloo has been a success, at least for this season. Now we have to concentrate on defending the 985 whales including the fifty endangered fin whales that Japan is training their harpoon sights on right now.

It’s finally here! Public Displays of Affection Los Angeles - Series Two, featuring Ladytron, Great Northern and DJ Taina is coming to Hollywood & Highland on September 27, 2007.

Just like last time, the only way you can get into the show is to take public tansportation. Your Metro ticket is your concerpt ticket - it’s that simple. Word to the wise… It’s going to be packed, so plan your trip and arrive early.

This is the kickoff event of a very busy weekend for Global Inheritance. While your ears are still ringing from Ladytron, we’ll be getting ready to open the Swerve Festival at Barnsdall Artpark on Hollywood Boulevard.

Continue your love affair with public transportation, carpool, ride a bike or even skateboard to Swerve Festival and cash in on a special gift bag of festival swag and a chance to win tickets to the film screening of your choice at the fest.

We’ll be posting a lot more about the festival soon, but here is some info to get you started…

Swerve Festival (a Fuel TV initiative) is a new annual festival celebrating the West Coast creative culture inspired by art, film, music and action sports. This three-day festival will spotlight some of the most exciting work to come of this dynamic group of innovators including Doug Pray’s, Surfwise, Anton Corbijn’s Control, We Are Scientists, Black Angels, Oh No! Oh My! AND MORE. Proceeds from the Swerve Festival will help support future PDA events in the Los Angeles area.

Spend the last weekend of September with Global Inheritance!
For more information on Swerve Festival visit http://www.swervefestival.com

In blatant violation of international and U.S. law, five members of the Makah tribe illegally shot and killed a resident Gray whale on Saturday, September 9, 2007.  The killing took place in the coastal waters off Washington State, near the Makah village of Neah Bay.

According to eye witness accounts, a Gray whale was harpooned at 9:30 am, a quarter mile off Seal and Sail rocks, two miles east of Neah Bay. The whale was apparently shot 22 times and fled towards the sea. The U.S. Coast Guard placed a 1,000 yard safety perimeter around the whale and ordered Makah fishing boats not to enter the zone. Makah fishermen were demanding the whale, despite the fact that five Makah tribal members have now been arrested.  The whale fled westward, trailing a harpoon line attached to yellow floats and a stream of blood from multiple gunshot wounds. It died hours later, some 10 miles west of Neah Bay.

Dave Sallee, a non-Indian fisherman of Forks, Clallam County, said he saw two boats surrounding a Gray whale and pursuing it as it pulled buoys through the water that appeared to be attached to the whale by harpoon lines. Sallee said he heard a total of 21 shots.

Ben Johnson, the tribal chairman, was reached while consulting with the tribe’s attorneys. He confirmed that the tribe has been seeking an exemption from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act so that it could take up to five Gray whales per year. However, Johnson confirmed that the tribe has not yet secured that exemption.

In 1999, the tribe received a permit to whale from the National Marine Fisheries Service, allowing it to hunt on the outer coast of its homeland on the north Olympic Peninsula at Neah Bay. That permit is now tied up in court challenges. But even if it were in force today, if the whale was taken within the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as appears to be the case, the take would be in direct violation of the permit.

The permit also would require the whale to be secured with a harpoon from a traditional canoe before being dispatched with shots from a high-powered rifle. Sallee said he saw no canoe in the water. The canoe, he said, was tied up to one of the motorized boats at the time. This shooting is a violation of Makah tribal law, U.S. federal law, and international law.

The following violations have occurred:

1. The Makah whalers have not been granted a permit from the Federal Government.
2. The Makah whalers would not be permitted to take resident whales, even if granted a permit.
3. The Makah whalers have acted in contempt of the rulings of the 9th Circuit District Court.
4. The Makah whalers must harpoon the whale from a traditional canoe if granted a permit. They did not.
5. The Makah whalers are not permitted to use small calibre firearms to shoot the whale.
6. The Makah whalers were not sanctioned by the Makah tribe.
7. The Makah whalers have not been sanctioned by the International Whaling Commission

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) will demand that the federal government prosecute these criminal whalers to the full extent of the law. If the federal government fails to prosecute, then SSCS will initiate or join a lawsuit against the government for failure to uphold federal law.

“The men who shot this whale are not traditional whalers,” said Captain Paul Watson, founder and president of SSCS. “They are just common criminals, thugs out for a thrill with their guns, and their actions are no different than the cruelty that NFL football star Michael Vick recently pled guilty to. If the government prosecutes Vick for fighting dogs and fails to prosecute these criminals for torturing a whale, then the government will be displaying racist discrimination saying that animal cruelty is justified if the perpetrators are Native American and not black. The bottom line is, these five men knowingly and blatantly pumped 22 shots into a defenceless animal and watched as it fled, bleeding and dragging floats behind it. This whale suffered for hours before finally dying, and there can be no justification for their cruelty and contemptuous indifference to the law.”

The killing of this whale by the Makah ranks as one of the most prolonged deaths of any whale killed in modern times. The Japanese have been observed taking up to 40 minutes to kill a whale. The Norwegians were recently documented killing a whale over a period of 15 minutes. The Makah killing took hours and inflicted intense suffering and stress upon the unsuspecting animal.

“There is nothing traditional or respectful about the way this whale was killed,” said Captain Watson. “This was a vicious assault on a protected animal in an area off limits to killing whales in blatant violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act by thugs who were not endorsed by their own tribal council. These five men acted illegally and sadistically, and they must be prosecuted for their crime.”

The Norwegian whaling vessel Willassen Senior was sunk in the northern harbor city of Svolvaer on Thursday evening, August 30, 2007.

The following is a translation of an original Norwegian News Report:

Norway: Whaling Vessel Sunk

The night before Friday, the whaling vessel Willassen Senior sank in the North Norwegian harbor city of Svolvaer. No person was onboard when the 89 foot long vessel sank. It could have been sabotage.

“At this point we can’t discount anything,” says the police chief in Svolvaer, Jon Martin Bye, to the tv-company NRK.

Norwegian whaling vessels have many times earlier been sabotaged. In 1992, there was a failed attempt to sink the ship Nybraena, that however experienced damages of hundreds of thousands of kronor. In 1997, saboteurs failed to sink the whaling vessel MS Elin-Toril.

New work from Jeff Soto. September 8th - October 6th 2007. Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York City. Opening reception Saturday, September 8th, from 7-9pm.
For more info go to www.jonathanlevinegallery.com

Sea Shepherd’s Operation Ragnarok stands down with the announcement that Iceland will not resume commercial whaling for the next year. However, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will continue to monitor the trade discussions as Iceland seeks to find ways to skirt international law in an effort to sell toxic whale meat to the Japanese public.

Icelandic Fisheries Minister Einar K. Guofinnsson has announced that the Icelandic government will not issue new quotas for whales when the present quota expires on August 31st.

“I will not issue a new quota until the market conditions for whale meat improve and permission to export whale products to Japan is secured,” said Guofinnsson. “There is no reason to continue commercial whaling if there is no demand for the product.”

Iceland has been deterred by condemnation from the International Whaling Commission for their illegal slaughter of whales. They have been deterred by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which will not authorize the sale of Icelandic whale meat to Japan. And they have been deterred by international public criticism.

Much of that public awareness came about because of Sea Shepherd’s Operation Ragnarok. The announcement in April 2007 that Sea Shepherd was sending its ship Farley Mowat to intervene against illegal Icelandic whaling generated a great deal of media attention towards the issue.

After an 11,500 miles voyage, the Farley Mowat is now in Bermuda and there is no reason to continue on to Iceland. However, Sea Shepherd intends to keep the ship within range of Iceland if there is any attempt in 2008 to kill whales again.

For over twenty years the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been the most aggressive opposition to illegal Icelandic whaling. In November 1986, a Sea Shepherd crew sank half of Iceland’s whaling fleet in Reykjavik harbour. In January 1988, Captain Paul Watson flew to Iceland and demanded to be charged for the sinking in order to stand trial in response to Iceland’s bogus charges of criminality. Iceland refused to lay charges, a silent acknowledgement that they were well aware of the illegal nature of whaling under international law.

“Iceland knew that to put us on trial would in fact put the nation of Iceland on trial,” said Captain Paul Watson. “By refusing to lay charges, Iceland acknowledged that Sea Shepherd’s action was a justifiable policing action.”

Iceland announced last year it would slaughter 30 piked whales and 9 endangered fin whales. They killed 7 piked whales and 7 fin whales and have not been able to market the meat. They cannot ship it to Japan because of CITES restrictions and most Icelanders will not eat whale meat because of the extremely high levels of toxins including heavy metals in the meat.

“In other words, Icelanders will not eat the meat because it’s poison, but they have no qualms about selling poisoned meat to the Japanese,” said Captain Paul Watson.

Despite this, Stefan Asmundsson, an officer at the ministry of fisheries, said negotiations for market access to Japan were ongoing.

“We are talking to the Japanese government but so far we have not reached a conclusion on how best to secure the health and quality of the products,” said Asmundsson. “Hopefully this will clear up soon as the uncertainty is not good for anybody.”

Icelandic whalers angry at the government, insist that they should be allowed to continue to kill whales despite the lack of a market. “In my opinion the minister should not have any say on whether there is a market for our products or not,” said Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, who leads a piked whaling association. “How are we supposed to find markets if we don’t have a product?”

The whalers of course expect the government to compensate them financially until markets are found.

“The whaling industry, like any other industry, has to obey the market. If there is no profitability there is no foundation for resuming with the killing of whales,” said Guofinnsson.

“The bottom line is that whaling is illegal, the meat is unsafe to eat and Iceland is trying to negotiate the sale of a toxic product to the Japanese public,” said Captain Paul Watson. “All of this simply underscores the illegal and immoral nature of Icelandic whaling operations and the people who are encouraging the continued slaughter of whales.”

The Farley Mowat arrived in Bermuda on August 18, 2007 to undergo preparations for campaigns in 2008 in the North Atlantic.

The Farley Mowat dropped anchor in Hamilton Harbour after an 11,500 mile voyage from Melbourne, Australia. The ship and crew stopped briefly at Pitcairn Island and for a month in the Galapagos before proceeding via the Panama Canal to the Caribbean and north to Bermuda.

Along the way, the crew of the Farley Mowat were able to intercept and confiscate illegal longlines that were targeting sharks, manta rays, and large fish. Numerous marine animals were freed from the deadly hooks and released.

Captain Alex Cornelissen took the ship from Melbourne to the Galapagos, and Captain Paul Watson, Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, took the vessel from the Galapagos on to Bermuda.

“Bermuda has always been a friendly port of call for Sea Shepherd ships,” said Captain Watson. Sea Shepherd has stopped in Bermuda many times over the years. The original Sea Shepherd was a guest of the British Royal Navy from March to June 1979, and the Sea Shepherd ship Whales Forever stopped in Hamilton, Bermuda in 1994. The Farley Mowat stopped over in Bermuda from December 2004 to March 2005 and returned in April and May 2005.

“This is a small group of islands with an affinity for the sea and an appreciation for marine conservation. It’s always a pleasure to stop over in Bermuda,” said Captain Watson.

The Sea No Evil Art Show Benefit was a huge success thanks to all the artist, sponsors and volunteers that made the show happen.

Approximately $28,000 was raised the night of the show and we hope to break the $30,000 mark with the rest of the artwork that will be sold on Ebay in the coming weeks.

Approximately 700 people came the night of the show and enjoyed free Veggie Burgers courtesy of PK BBQ, while sipping on the free Vitamin Water, Imperial Beer or Red Bull and Vodka.

Approximately 300 people stayed to hear Paul speak about the plight of the worlds oceans and how Sea Shepherd is making a difference on the high seas. This was the passion behind this event and shortly after Paul spoke 90% of the artwork sold to the highest bidder raising close to $28,000.

Posted are some highlight of the evening.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Ebay listings of donated art… there is still time to contribute to this worthy cause.