Greenpeace Obstructs Sea Shepherd's Anti Whaling Efforts in Antarctica

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Source > http://seashepherd.org/

 

Greenpeace Obstructs Sea Shepherd's Efforts in

Antarctica

 

On December 21, the two Greenpeace ships Esperanza and

Arctic Sunrise located the Japanese whaling fleet

about 240 miles from the position of the Sea Shepherd

vessel Farley Mowat.

 

They did the usual things like take pictures and hang

banners. One picture of the Japanese whaling ship

Nisshin Maru shows the Japanese hanging their own

banner that states " Greenpeace Misleads. "

 

This is actually something that Sea Shepherd and the

Japanese whalers can agree on. Greenpeace has

deliberately misled Sea Shepherd and betrayed us.

 

Shane Rattenbury, the expedition leader on the Arctic

Sunrise initially refused to post the position of the

Japanese fleet to prevent this information getting to

Sea Shepherd. He was adamant that Sea Shepherd not

find the Japanese fleet. The position was released by

Greenpeace after Sea Shepherd was informed of the

position from an independent source.

 

For seven months, Captain Paul Watson has been

negotiating with Greenpeace to cooperate in working

together to find the Japanese whaling fleet.

 

" Now we find that instead of cooperating, Greenpeace

is being obstructionist and making efforts to

deliberately keep us away from the Japanese fleet. It

is a mystery to me why they would do this since they

know we are capable of shutting down the Japanese

whaling operations. "

 

Greenpeace has a large war chest and their ability to

locate the Japanese fleet is greater because of the

resources they have available to them.

 

" The problem has been that Greenpeace has been unable

to stop the Japanese after a decade of campaigns where

they have chased the Japanese ships displaying their

protest banners, " said Captain Watson. " You would

think that after a decade of expensive campaigns that

Greenpeace would have realized that the Japanese fleet

does not give a damn about protests. Sea Shepherd is

not down here to protest, we are down here to enforce

international conservation law and to stop the illegal

whaling operations of Japan. "

The Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat is expected to

reach the area where Greenpeace has sighted the

Japanese fleet in approximately 24 hours.

 

Captain Paul Watson, (a cofounder of Greenpeace

Foundation), and Emily Hunter, (the daughter of the

late Robert Hunter, the first President of the

Greenpeace Foundation) are both onboard the Sea

Shepherd ship Farley Mowat. They are both very

disappointed that Greenpeace has decided to take a

hostile position to obstruct Sea Shepherd efforts in

the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in Antarctica.

 

Emily Hunter said, " I was born and raised with

Greenpeace as the daughter of Greenpeace cofounders

Bob and Bobbi Hunter. This is not the Greenpeace of my

parents. The people in Greenpeace who are now trying

to stop us from confronting the Japanese fleet were

not around back then when the first Greenpeace voyages

with Paul Watson and my parents first confronted the

whalers. "

 

The Sea Shepherd campaign to locate and stop the

whalers continues.

 

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