A radical conservation group that has vowed to disrupt Japan's
annual whale hunt launched its Antarctic campaign yesterday by
renaming one of its ships after "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, the
late environmental campaigner.
The US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society set sail from the
southern Australian city of Melbourne vowing to use whatever means
necessary to block Japan from harvesting up to 50 humpbacks, 935
minkes and 50 fin whales as part of an oceanic research program
critics decry as commercial whaling in disguise.
Irwin's widow, Terri, threw her support behind the mission by
giving Sea Shepherd permission to rename one of its two flagship
vessels after her husband, the TV wildlife program host who died
from a freak stingray attack off Australia's Great Barrier Reef in
September 2006.
The Steve Irwin ship is moored at a dock in Melbourne,
Australia, yesterday. The US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society, a radical conservation group that has vowed to disrupt
Japan's annual whale hunt, launched its Antarctic campaign
yesterday by renaming one of its ships after "Crocodile Hunter"
Steve Irwin, the late environmental campaigner. AP
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In a statement, Terri Irwin said her husband had been considering
whether to join Sea Shepherd on one of its Antarctic expeditions
when his life was cut short last year.
"Steve Irwin stops whaling vessel - wouldn't that be a great
thing to see the headlines of?" Terri Irwin told reporters at a
Melbourne dock as the newly renamed Steve Irwin prepared to set
sail.
The hulking black vessel, which flies a pirate flag featuring a
skull over a trident and a shepherd's hook, had previously been
named for the Canadian anti-whaling campaigner, Robert Hunter.
Sea Shepherd has come under heavy criticism in recent years for
engaging in violent tussles with the Japanese whaling fleet in
Antarctic waters.
With Japan's whaling fleet once again heading south for its
annual hunt, Sea Shepherd's founder Paul Watson has vowed to do
whatever it takes to stop what it calls the "Cetacean Death
Star."
In February, Sea Shepherd clashed with a Japanese vessel,
leaving the Robert Hunter with a 1-m gash in its stern, during a
violent confrontation that both sides blamed on the other
party.
Japanese officials said the activists threw ropes and nets into
the water to entangle the Japanese ship's propeller and prevent it
from maneuvering, and threw smoke canisters and garbage onto the
deck.
Sea Shepherd has not disputed this version of events, but said
it does not discuss tactics used at sea.
During the clash, two Sea Shepherd crew members went missing for
several hours in a small inflatable boat but were later found
safe.
The confrontation drew protests from Japan, and even sparked
strong rebukes from the strongly anti-whaling governments of
Australia and New Zealand.
Bearing its new moniker, the Steve Irwin will form the backbone
of Sea Shepherd's Antarctic mission, which it calls Operation
Migaloo, after a rare albino humpback that is tracked by whale
watchers and local media as it migrates up the Australian coast
each year.
Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said the television star shared
the group's passion for saving whales, and would have been
"extremely honored to be acknowledged in this way."
"Steve wanted to come to Antarctica with us to defend the
whales, and now he will be joining us in spirit with his name
emblazoned" on the ship, Watson said in a statement.
(China Daily December 6, 2007)
