© Greenpeace/Jiri Rezac

Hi there,

My name is Sakyo, I'm the Japanese campaigner onboard. This is my second Southern Ocean Expedition, after last year's intense expedition. (I'll never forget that we received 3 distress calls within seven days!)

My main role is to tell the Japanese people what's happening in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. In Japan, most people don't know the details of the Japanese Government's whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Back in September of this year, I was in the Cook Islands to join a team of scientists conducting non-lethal research on humpback whales. We put satellite tags on 8 whales to track their migration down to the Antarctic waters. It was an amazing experience, approaching whales very closely and seeing them swim through the water from just a few metres away, and also listening to the Humpback's song through a hydrophone. Most importantly, I've learned that whales research can be done by non-lethal methods. And that these scientists and researchers conduct their research extremely carefully and consciously in order to have minimum impact on the whales and their habitat. That is totally opposite to what the Japanese Government is just about to do in Antarctica.

In the Southern Ocean, in addition to the non-violent direct action we'll take to defend whales, we are also planning to carry out non-lethal research with scientists onboard. And I'd like to show the Government and the people in Japan that we can study whales without killing them.

My little excitement this time... I got a new SLR camera. Hopefully I can capture the fluke of Humpbacks and help our scientist to identify whales as well.