Whaling vessel Oriental Bluebird de-flagged!
A Greenpeace inflatable boat tries to prevent Japanese whaling fleet's factory ship Nisshin Maru from refueling from the supply vessel Oriental Bluebird in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. © Greenpeace/Rezac
Some great news for the whales - and it was worth waiting for - the Oriental Bluebird - the Japanese-owned cargo and refuelling for the whaling fleet, has lost its Panamanian flag! You may recall that back on January 22nd, activists from the Esperanza blocked the whaling vessels Nisshin Maru and Oriental Bluebird from coming alongside in Southern Ocean waters. The ships planned to exchange fuel and whale meat - but activists Jetske and Heath put their tiny inflatable in between, to the frustration of the whalers.
It seems a long time ago since watched this from the bridge of the Esperanza, but now their blockade has come to fruition; following pressure from Greenpeace, and Panamanian organisations ASVEPA (Panama Green Association) and FSOCIAM (Environmental and Civil Society Forum, NGOs Coalition), the Oriental Bluebird de-flagged and fined, thanks to a legal ruling by Panamanian authorities.
Comments
Did you know that Tonga is thinking of bringing back whaling?
Posted by: fevah | December 21, 2008 9:30 PM
Well done boys!
Posted by: hugo | February 4, 2009 1:15 AM
October 29th is the date of the last posting? Come on guys there has been a whole season of whaling since then surley an update should have be posted? Keen to know what you have been doing on this issue and what all the money you recieve for whales is going into.
Posted by: Adrian | April 6, 2009 6:41 PM
Hi Adrian, you can catch up all the latest whale-related blogs here:
Making Waves: Whaling
and on the Tokyo Two:
Tokyo Two page...
Posted by: Dave | April 6, 2009 6:49 PM
Hey Hugo, good point. One thing they haven't been doing is actually going down to the South Pacific and confronting the boats... left it to another group this season, hence there being stuff all news. Pity about all the dead whales!
Posted by: Consumist | April 17, 2009 1:16 AM
Hi Consumist - actually, we have been - we've been to the Southern Ocean nine times now to defend the whales; this year we decided to take a different tack, and go after the trail of corruption and dodgy politics that's keeping the whaling fleet afloat. They didn't expect that - the whale meat scandal has stung them pretty badly.
Follow the story here »
Posted by: Dave Walsh | April 17, 2009 12:46 PM
You're doing a great job for your action and this blog. It seems important to me and to my boyfriend Henry Michel to say it !
Thanks for all
Posted by: Flaure | November 13, 2009 11:50 PM