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NZ minister Carter stated on Feb 16 that the tanker Oriental Bluebird was alongside the Nisshin Maru with the fire still going
To me this also is under the category
"anything but normal"
The tanker is there to supply fuel to six vessels and has even more fuel on board than the Nisshin.

Hello Dave, I tried to post this message under your Valentines blog but I'm not sure if it's too out of date at this point for you to update it. On the Sea Shepherd website they claim something that is indeed very bizarre:
"Greenpeacers have betrayed the whales. They are eating them."
Is this true? Here's more of an excerpt of what they have to say:
In promoting their theme that Japanese whale eating culture must be respected, a video distributed by Greenpeace depicts a Greenpeacer visiting a Japanese grandmother in her home. He sits down and eats whale with her, and politely tells her that is was delicious.

"We are making it very clear that we have no problem with Japanese culture or eating whale," said Emiliano Ezcurra, an Argentinian Greenpeace activist who helped design the campaign.

Hi Bob.

The Whale Love Wagon show that Sea Shepherd is talking about is produced for Greenpeace in Japan, not by Greenpeace. Both of the presenters, Ivan and Yuki, are independent of Greenpeace - they're not Greenpeace staff. Ivan's choice to eat whale meat was his alone and not endorsed by Greenpeace.

The idea behind Whale Love Wagon is to investigate all aspects of whaling, and we welcome free speech and debate on the issue. That the Whale Love Wagon folk are eating whale meat is meant neither as an advert for, or a condemnation of eating whale mea. Instead it's part of a discussion with one elderly woman who remembers eating it frequently in her youth, but rarely does so any more. Recent research shows that 95% of Japanese people rarely or never eat whale meat anymore, but there is an historical element to its consumption and this should not be ignored.

Bear in mind that this was one small part of a ten-episode series, and should be considered in this context. Apparently, future episodes of Whale Love Wagon will show the merits of whale watching, as well a Japanese village that saved a stranded whale. Whale Love Wagon is designed to show every facet of whaling and doesn't shy away from confronting issues that some people might find unpleasant.

That said, we hope everyone - in Japan and in other countries - will learn from Whale Love Wagon, and come to their own conclusions about the validity of whaling in the 21st century. We remain clear in our position that we do not think there should be commercial whaling in the 21st century, and hope to convince others, including many in Japan, to also take this view.

While Emiliano did say what you quote above, what he was trying to say was unfortunately 'lost in translation'. He had no intention of advocating eating whale meat, he was making reference to the elderly lady in the Whale Love Wagon episode, who we will not condemn for her view - we simply want to change her mind!

The same media article says that Emiliano said that Greenpeace has no problem with whaling on Japan's coast. That reporting was not a fair reflection of his comments, nor does it reflect the view of Greenpeace. We do not oppose local subsistence hunting, but oppose all commercial whaling and Japanese coastal whaling can be considered commercial whaling.

Now, I don't want to get into another situation here where Sea Shepherd supporters start attacking the blog, or posting off-topic comments - so please, if there's any further discussion on the Sea Shepherd's press release about, Greenpeace - please let's move it to the forum

Bob - you can also read Jun Hoshikawa, Greenpeace Japan's Executive Director's excellent article on Greenpeace Japan's campaign on our Defending Our Oceans site.

And before you judge Whale Love you should watch the latest episode.