In a politically motivated display that amounts to little more than a media stunt, Japanese Police Issued arrest warrants for three Sea Shepherd Conservation Society activists on Monday.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxu7XaDMTvQCldbgsUmYUS1w8lTg

When asked about the situation, Sea Shepherd's Captain Paul Watson said, "We are not worried about these arrest warrants because Interpol does not flag politically motivated warrants. The USA and the UK will not extradite their citizens to Japan for saving whales."

We discussed recent Japanese propaganda over the issue:

DV: A Japanese media report states that the arrest warrants issued Monday against three activists of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are expected to curtail action against Japanese whale research ships. Do you foresee any change in SS tactics as a direct result of these warrants?

Captain Paul Watson: We intend to take a more aggressive stance this year with Operation Musashi. We are not down there protesting whaling; we are intervening against illegal whaling activities as defined by International Conservation law.

DV: The MPD is reportedly treating the alleged attacks as a criminal matter, with one senior officer describing them as "terrorist crimes." Do you recall any action by Sea Shepherd which could be classed as criminal?

Captain Paul Watson: We have not committed any terrorist crime. On the contrary we are intervening against terrorism. The Japanese whaling fleet is killing endangered whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on whaling. They are in violation of CITES, IWC regulations, the Antarctic treaty and Australian law for taking whales in the Australian Antarctic Territorial waters.

DV: Japanese media claim that international pressure on Sea Shepherd is getting stronger year by year. Is this your experience? Is support for Sea Shepherd growing or shrinking?

Captain Paul Watson: We are getting stronger. We grew by 25% internationally last year and 200% in Australia. We have growing support in Europe and South Africa, Brazil and the United States. Our international membership is 45,000+

DV: One Japanese media report claimed that "Sea Shepherd bases its operations in Australia, a nation opposed to commercial whaling. Despite this, Australian Federal Police in March questioned activists from the group involved in the alleged violent actions." Were any charges laid or any member of Sea Shepherd detained in Australia?

Captain Paul Watson: We have not been questioned by the Australian Federal police. The AFP did do a forensic investigation of our ship after the collision with the Kaiko Maru in February 2007 and the investigation backed our position that our ship was rammed by the whaling vessel.

More information about Operation Musashi and other Sea Shepherd campaigns can be found on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society website, http://www.seashepherd.org/.

In a new low, Japanese whalers have shot Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/07/2183690.htm

So far the Japanese have:

• Killed whales for commercial profit in a whale sanctuary illegally
• Endangered the environment by refueling ships in the sanctuary illegally
• Detained Sea Shepherd crew members illegally
• Brought firearms in the Antarctic treaty zone illegally and
• Shot Sea Shepherd crew members illegally

Do they need to start detonating nuclear weapons in the antarctic before anyone other than the Sea Shepherds will act?

Proving that the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking is in the area to assist the whalers to murder whales in peace and nothing more, it helped the whaling fleet by deliberately leading the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin in the wrong direction:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080118_2.html

This sickening behaviour is a direct betrayal of the whales, the Australian public and of everyone one the planet who relies on Sea Shepherd to stop the killing.

The Japanese whalers have demonstrated their true nature, as Yakuza thugs, by assaulting and kidnapping two members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4357626a10.html

What more can be expected of these mercenary murderers? These violent killers are not researchers - there is no science in what they do. They are simply there to destroy life to make a profit and they have just proven it.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has caught the Japanese whalers and is hounding them:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080115_1.html

Meanwhile, Australian courts have ruled that the whaling is illegal:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23056203-26103,00.html

Of course, the Australian Government is intent on finding excuses to do nothing, as usual:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23057332-26103,00.html

So it's up to non Government organisations and the people to do the job, as it has been in the past. Don't politicians ever get tired of being completely useless?

Now that the Australian government has betrayed the whales and has refused to intervene against illegal Japanese whaling operations, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has decided to offer a substantial reward for information on the coordinates of the Japanese whaling fleet.

"We are prepared to pay $100,000 U.S. dollars for information that enables our vessel the Steve Irwin to find and locate the Japanese whaling fleet," said Captain Paul Watson from onboard the Sea Shepherd vessel the Steve Irwin in the Southern Oceans.

The Steve Irwin is searching the vast area of the Southern Oceans for the Japanese whaling fleet. It is a difficult task made all the more difficult by the fact that the Japanese government has the military capability of monitoring the position of anti-whaling vessels and relaying that information to the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Australian government is well award of the location of the Japanese fleet but is refusing to release the coordinates so as to not cause an international incident over the killing of whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

"We know that there are people who have access to this information," said Captain Paul Watson. "We are prepared to pay $100,000 U.S. dollars for any information that leads us to the Japanese whaling fleet so that we can intervene against their illegal whaling operations. This reward can be paid without disclosing the identity of the source of the information."

The reward will be paid if the Society locates the whaling fleet within 200 miles of coordinates provided.

Whales are being killed illegally in the Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary and they are being slaughtered now. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society can stop this slaughter but we need to find the Japanese whaling fleet in order to do so. That is the most difficult part of this campaign and a reward of $100,000 will actually save Sea Shepherd more than this amount in fuel being used by the Steve Irwin for the search.

"$100,000 is a small price to pay for the lives of the whales we can save," said Captain Watson. "If we could afford more we would pay more, the lives of the whales are priceless and we know that somewhere, someone has the information that can lead us to the whale killers. We hope this reward will provide an incentive for someone to come forward with the information we need."

(Thanks to http://www.myspace.com/operationleviathan)

In a blatant back flip on pre-election promises, the Australian Government is now actively assisting the Japanese to kill whales:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080106_1.html

The Australian public should be outraged at this betrayal. It's bad enough that none of the promised action has taken place (the Government holiday ship that's supposed to be observing the kill is still in port in Australia and no legal action has commenced) but to assist the whalers is nothing short of disgusting.

It appears that a direct boycott of Japanese products is the only way the Government will get the idea, since it's clear that greed drives all Government policy (no matter which party is in power).

The media have been covering the impending illegal Japanese whaling at length recently; since they are the media they've also been making some mistakes. Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society took time to clear up some of the inaccuracies:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_071120_2.html

Key points:

• The Sea Shepherds' direct action is non-violent. No action performed by the Sea Shepherds endangers the life of anyone on board the whaling boats.
• The whalers are the ones breaking the law. Whaling is illegal; the Sea Shepherds enforce the law.
• The Japanese actions - for example killing whales and ramming ships - are violent.

In an amazing display of arrogance, Japanese whalers have actually had the nerve to ask the Australian Government for protection from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22743041-953,00.html

Let's get this straight; the Japanese want to invade Australian waters to hunt and kill endangered whales in a sanctuary while the Australian Government protects them from a group upholding international law? What are they smoking?

For more info on the current campaign, visit http://www.seashepherd.org

From Thrusday November 1 to Sunday November 4, the Perth chapter of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society hosted Captain Paul Watson, Jonny Vasic and Kristine Vasic for a number of events. One of the highlights was Friday evening, on which The City of Fremantle welcomed both Paul and Jonny as speakers, to discuss the 30 year history of the Society.

"I haven't watched a whale die since I left Greenpeace"

Captain Paul talked about the first time he ever floated in a dinghy between a whale and a whaling ship, hoping to prevent the whale from being taken with a passive protest; he explained that "he was really into Gandhi at the time". He realized as the harpoon sailed just over his head and exploded in the whale, that "Gandhi might not get us through this time".

He then explained that the Sea Shepherds are not a protest group. They do not set out just to document illegal whaling, sign petitions or wave banners; they enforce international conservation law by direct action. The whaling they prevent is illegal and they do the job the world's governments should be doing; this is demonstrated by the fact that they have never been convicted of a crime relating to any anti-whaling incident (including the sinking of numerous whaling ships by scuttling).

After a weekend full of interviews, photographs and a whale watching cruise (where, for once, the whales weren't in immediate danger, although they will be later in the year) the guests helped out at the Sea Shepherd table at the local markets in Fremantle, to help raise money for the enormous costs of the work the Society does.

Finally, the guests were treated to a vegan dinner, at which Captain Paul displayed a remarkable repertoire of less than polite pirate songs and dodgy jokes - a particularly appropriate example of which is:

"A pod of whales were below a whaling fleet. The pod leader says, 'I'm sick of being hunted; let's surface under them, vent our blowholes, capsize them and eat them!' One of the female whales replies, 'No way! Look, I'm fine with a blow job, but I'm not swallowing seamen.'"

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be stepping up the action in their Antarctic campaign beginning this year, as the Japanese will be illegally hunting endangered humpback whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary along with their other illegal kills. For more information, visit http://www.seashepherd.org/

The Sea Shepherd aren't just about making life uncomfortable for Japanese whalers. They've been working in the Galapagos to stop poaching, habitat destruction and other illegal activity. Some examples:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_070712_2.html

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_070712_1.html

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_070710_2.html

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_070710_1.html