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Hey Dave this is so scary, can you guys please make sure we don't get any postings about distress calls coming from you guys? Thanks!

Hey also, was there any (or as many) distress calls last year?

Dave on the Esperanza: Thanks Alice - we'll be careful. I'm not aware that there was any distress calls last year!

Hey just to add to that last post, I just heard a news report on ABC's Triple J (12:02pm AEST) that the Nisshin Maru is on fire, 120 people have been evacuated (to other ships), 1 person is missing and Paul Watson was quoted as saying he's "pretty sure this year's Japanese Whaling season will come to an end today as a result of the fire".

Aww, that's not good to hear. So the entire incident lasted for almost two hours? I hope you have some more information soon.

Dave on the Esperanza: The two hours was tied into the distress call - and relating to the rescue centre's dealing Esperanza in particular. The incident itself could have taken more or less time

I created a thread on the forum about this »

Al">http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/274C2CBC-0E75-4EF9-AB44-D6DE63A3D818.htm">Al Jazeera has a slightly misinformed article about this. It gives the idea that GP was involved in this.

Hey Pepijn - I think they used our photo because we've probably photographed the NM more than anyone else!

Probably, it seems a bit ironic that GP knows the outside of the vessel better as its crew.

I was more referring to the tag line they use on their front page "Fire breaks out on Japanese whaler. One crew member missing from vessel, part of fleet targeted by protesters."

It's odd to see how (in-)accurate various media are. I've already seen five different numbers for the crew (161, 141, 181, 148, 120). Also found two news sites who already say the crew member is dead. Let's hope they're wrong.

hmm so something doesn't add up. The news reports say that you guys are about 370nm away from NM. On the 9th Feb, when Sea Shepherd found the NM and posted their location, you guys said you were about a days sailing away. 15knots for 24 hours (if you sail @ night as well) means that max you could be away from NM then was 360nm.

12 Feb there was a distress call, which should have again given the location.

15 Feb, you guys are still no closer to NM than you were a week ago.....sorry...but as a financial supporter of Greenpeace, I kinda wanna know what's going on.....

Hey Ben - it's not that simple. For a start, we haven't even told the media our current position - yet I've seen everything from 150nm up to 370nm and even more in today's media. No idea where they're getting their figures from.

About the 9th of February. Remember those maths problems from school?

"If train 1 leaves station A at velocity X on its way to station B, and if train 2 leaves station B at velocity Y on is way to an unspecified location".

Well, trains don't leave to unspecified location. Ships, however can. The whole story is far more complicated than I can discuss here. But I can be hypothetical.

What if we had steamed at, say, 15 knots until we had arrived at the location given by the distress call, and arrived there, say 24 hours later?

When we got there, chances we would have found that the whaling fleet was nowhere to be seen. What if they had stormed off at 15 knots, 24 hours before? We would have arrived, found nothing, and would then have to decided on whether they had gone east, west, north or south. If they had sailed in roughly the same direction that we had arrived from, then they might have been 360nm behind us!

Tracking ships at sea is rather complicated, I'm afraid. So cleverer methods need to be used. As a Greenpeace supporter, I'm sure you'll understand that we can't just plonk our tactics onto the web where everyone - includig whalers - can see them!

It occurs to me that Greenpeace somehow didn't feel like interfering in the action between the walers and Seashepherd. I'm a Greenpeace supporter as well and I'm not too pleased that Greenpeace did nothing this year :(

Hi Henry - at the times that the Sea Shepherd/whaling fleet incidents took place, we were not in the same area, though we do have our ship, the Esperanza, herein the Southern Ocean at the moment. In terms of interfering or not - I refer you to this blog article.

Hi,
This is very sad to hear and I am hopeful the crew member is found safe. As for the Al Jazeera article, usually when there is writing under the photo it discusses the photo itself and then in parenthesis, they put the credit for the photo. So what I gather is that they are crediting GP with the photo credit and not saying that is a GP boat. Anyhow, there is a wealth of information out there and lines can get crossed. Keep up the great job you are doing I appreciate all what you are doing.

Aaliyah - that photograph and boat are both Greenpeace - but from some earlier year, possibly last year. This often happens - with a lack of footage or images from other sources, our stuff gets used, even when we're not directly involved.

Dave & Aaliyah: I almost feel sorry for posting that link :)

Al Jazeera English normally has well balanced reporting about this. The article as it shows now is not the one they had on before. This "Neither boat was involved in the fire on the Nisshin Maru." for example is added to the original later on. Also the tag line on the front page was changed.

Tjee, that's one big typo... retry:

Dave & Aaliyah: I almost feel sorry for posting that link :) Al Jazeera English has generally well balanced news about the whaling. The article as it shows now is modified from the one they had on before. This "Neither boat was involved in the fire on the Nisshin Maru." for example was added to the original later on. Also the tag line on the front page was changed.

I once again want to congratulate GP for their efforts in the Southern Ocean. I think we as supporters have to continue to support them and understand the situation they are in now. The ocean is a wide area and it is difficult to track the whalers down. They have been out there for quite some time now and it would really be a waste of their effort if they gave up their coordinates or tactics as the whalers will definitely be able to access that information and avoid our crew. Let's just trust in our crew and wish them the best in stopping these whalers. That's the important thing and we all can agree with that. As for not helping the Sea Shepherd's ships, again, its a wide ocean. Our crew might not be nearby and even if we are, we must be aware of the tactics these whalers might be using to find the coordiante of our ship and if known, it would ruin our efforts.

heheheh fair enough dave. thanks for the lesson ;) and good luck on the hunt.

Hi all...,
...terribly good news, ...and terribly bad news. Reading an updated Al Jazeera article this morning, ...the bad news is they haven't found the missing person yet, and this was a very serious fire with all but firefighters evacuated. We can only hope and pray there will be no further loss of life. The good news is for the whales, ...that this the flagship of their fleet is pretty much dead in the water. I'm wondering what the ramifications of all this will be? Will the Japanese Fleet now head home? Let's just hope this puts an end to this miserable suffering and violence, ...at least for this year.

i say let the buggers drown in hell.... what they do to whales for so called experiements is bs. i saw tonight on the news they were going to reject green peaces help . so in that case let em burn in hell , just my opinion it might be harsh but its true . keep up the good work green peace.

[ Andrew, Greenpeace web editor in Amsterdam replies: I've been to the whaling grounds three times, and have to say I have nothing against the crew on the ships. I hope they're all safe.

My real issue is with the bigwigs back in Japan making the real decisions. ]

Just updated of this fire break out from tv news a second ago, and I would like to congratulate on this accident which comes too late.

I am just at sea why Japan far extends to the territory of New Zealand for the whale exploitation just for its own sake, despite resound dissaproval from environmentalists throughout the world? Is it another kind of intrusion that should arouse enough attention from New Zealand?

I am definately focusing my attention on campaign against whaling, and I wish whales may lead their lives as freely as we human beings do!

What about the penguins? The japanese whaling ship has thousands of litres of oil which could ruin one of the largest penguin breeding areas. Someone needs to look out for them! Don't stop at whales.

Dave on the Esperanza: Yes, there's a population of Adelie Penguins about 100nm away. We're "monitoring the situation", as people always say on the news...

From SSCS site:

(edited)

Dave on the Esperanza: Orca, all this Sea Shepherd stuff is totally off topic. I've posted it your comment to the relevant thread on the forums. Please continue the conversation there.

On Dutch radio some 30 minutes ago: A PR person from the ICR claimed that there is no danger of oil leaking or the ship going down. He said the damage was in one of the three big freezer compartments. They will continue harvesting whales and the ship is still adrift.

How can anyone that comes face to face with people who choose to be such ruthless killers have nothing against all of them?

Dave on the Esperanza: Adriana - do you have no forgiveness or charity in your heart? There's a man missing from this accident on the Nisshin Maru. He has a wife and two children. The ship is without powe rin subzero conditions. We have no fight with the workers on board the whaling ships - it's something that applies across all Greenpeace campaigns Yes, we try to stop them whaling, but the people we're really after are the bureaucrats of the FAJ and ICR in Tokyo.

I am sorry to sound heartless, but I have compassion for humane human beings, not for those that choose to be killers when they can choose not to be. As for forgiveness, I think that it should be reserved for those who repent. Of course I feel for his family (they are not the ones killing the whales ) and I never said that it served him right to be missing in frigid waters, my comment about how one is able to not have anything against those ruthless killers was directed to all the crewmembers.

Thank you to all the crew for what you're doing. greenPEACE is about helping our planet without endangering the people who are on it.

I hope the missing man is found. I don't think anyone can realise what being lost in the open sea can mean unless they've lived through the kind of experience.

Since this seems to put an end to the whaling season - or at least interrupt it - I gues the new slogan will be "Save the Penguins!"
Antarctica is the only relatively unspoiled continent on this planet - I hope it remains that way.

Adding to my last post...the bureaucrats might be enabling the hunt to go on, but the whaling crewmembers sign up to work on those ships doing that horrific job, they are not forced to kill whales, they choose to do so.

So, Adriana, what do you suggest we do? Please, have some compassion. Even if you're right about the individual crewman being "ruthless killers" (which I disagree with), don't you think that they can learn the error of their ways?

Have a heart!

As far as we see it, this ship isn't whaling anymore. The issues right now are humanitarian - making sure that that everyone is ok - and environmental - making sure there's no oil spills etc.

hi adriana,
Though I respect yor opinions, I would like to come to the defense of the crew of the NM. These people did not choose to kill whales. It's just that they are unfortunate enough that their jobs require them to kill whales. Coming from this part of the world, I can testify that most people hold on to a job simply because they have a family to feed back home.

I know, cause me myself, in my experiences against unsustainable logging here in Malaysia, have met the people who work for these companies. Believe me they are just as humane as anyone of us, and some of them are really fantastic people. I don't believe that people are inherently evil that they sign up for a job to get a kick out of killing whales.

What we need to go after is really the beurocrats and corporates who strive for indecent material greed, or in the case of the japo government, indecent political greed.

A report in a local newspaper wired from AP claims that the Japanese government have rejected help from the Esperanza as they do not accept help from anti-whaling ships. On top of that, the NM stands to be an biohazard catasthrophe. So for those of you who is hoping for it to go to hell, don't go losing your marbles yet.

and to the Esperanza... ya'll keep up the good work. I'm gonna glue myself to the blog for updates. cheers

"I would like to come to the defense of the crew of the NM. These people did not choose to kill whales. It's just that they are unfortunate enough that their jobs require them to kill whales. Coming from this part of the world, I can testify that most people hold on to a job simply because they have a family to feed back home."

++++++++++++++++++

With regard to Chi Too's comment above, this is the Nuremberg defense: the poor little Japanese whalers are just following orders. I'm sure the Nazi guys responsible for the Holocaust were perfectly nice fellows and probably quite pleasant to have a beer or two with at the beer hall. Yet they did horrible things because it was their job, and the world decided they should not have done those things. The same rule applies here. Everybody has a family to feed and this, in and of itself, is no justification for this whale hunt. I used to hear the same bleating from loggers here in Northern California re: why they should be allowed to log old growth redwoods: they needed to feed their families and logging is the only skill they have. Well, it took thousands of years for these forests to become what they are now, and it would only take a few years to destroy this irreplaceable and beautiful resource. And, then what would the loggers cut down? If it's economic need that is driving the whaling, then I say let some clever grant writer @ GP submit an application to the (Bill) Gates Foundation to provide these whalers with a temporary income (for 1-3 years) and job retraining in a less destructive occupation. If farmers can be paid not to farm, then whalers can be paid not to whale. And, lord knows that in the capitalistic excesses of America, there's some money to pay 120 or 1000 whalers not to go to sea for a few years. The amount of money required wouldn't even dent the monthly take of a single hedge fund manager. If such a deal would be proposed to the whalers and they refused, then I say let 'em swim with Davey Jones. Time is running out and standing around singing "Kumbayah" and bearing witness isn't working.

Hi!

I would like to know the names of the Japanese politicians and the Japanese corporations who are sponsoring the whaling fleet.
These are the people who should be brought under the World publicity spot light and if necessary, international boycotts.
You can chase Whalers all over the Oceans, but as long as sneaky profiteers continue to make money on Whale meat, change will not occur. We need to find and expose the culprits in charge and undermine their credibility on the World stage. Let's begin with a nice long list of names. To begin this effort, we need anti-whaling contacts in Japan, willing to point a finger.
Signed: Joseph Raglione
Executive director: The World Humanitarian Peace and Ecology Movement.