ON OPEN LETTER FROM THE CAPTAIN OF THE FARLEY MOWAT:

Sea Shepherd Prepares to Attack the Japanese Whaling fleet in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary

A Message from Captain Paul Watson onboard the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat


December 23rd, 2005

I am sending this e-mail from our ship the Farley Mowat to a small list of friends and supporters.
We are down off the coast of Antarctica about 180 miles off the Mertz Glacier and the Adelie coast.
We are about five hours from interception of the Japanese whaling fleet. We are presently on an interception course.
I am anticipating a confrontation with the Japanese whalers in a few hours.
Apparently, we have been warned that the Japanese have firearms and that they intend to aggressively resist us. We anticipate that we may sustain some damage but our objective is to shut down their illegal activities and we will risk losing the ship if need be to further that objective.
The crew are ready and eager to engage the Japanese whalers.
We will have a helicopter in the air and three inflatables on the water during the confrontation to film the intervention.
I want you all to know that I am down here with 43 dedicated and courageous volunteers who have given up their holidays with friends and family to be here to defend the Piked and Fin whales from the merciless grenade tipped harpoons of the Japanese fleet.
We anticipate a battle today. I have been working towards this showdown with the Japanese fleet for 25 years. Now at last, their ships are within striking distance and we will do everything we can with the resources at our disposal to shut down their illegal slaughter of these gentle and intelligent creatures.
We may lose our ship and find ourselves in our lifeboats within the next few hours. I am quite sure we will sustain damages.
But I want you to know that there is nowhere in the world that we would rather be at this moment, and that there is nothing else that we can imagine doing other than what we are doing right now.
For this holiday season, we want to give a gift of life to the whales and if we can stop this fleet, if we can stop the killing, we will be very happy.
I want to enter the New Year knowing we have stopped these killers.
For all of you who have supported our efforts, thank-you. You helped to put us here where we want to be. We are grateful.
This is a glorious way to end this year, down here at the bottom of the world amongst magnificent icebergs in a sea of whales, seals, penguins and birds fighting the most ruthless killers in the world.
I hope that within 25 hours, if we still have a ship and if we still have communications that I will be able to report to you the consequences of our intervention.

Happy Holidays

Captain Paul Watson and the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat.

For further updates contact www.Seashepherd.org

10:00 Hours: P.S. Moments ago, dozens of Piked whales (Minke whales) passed by us clearly agitated and swimming furiously, surfacing to breathe every 30 seconds. The last time i remember seeing this behaviour was when we encountered the Soviet whaling fleet years ago and saw frightened Sperm whales fleeing the area. I take this as a sign that the whalers are very close.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS ON THIS MESSAGE

See also: http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_051224_1.html

**BUMP**
These guys must have balls the size of sperm whales testicles & made of steel
give them your support

I joined the Sea Shepherd Society three years ago

I joined them a few months back when I first heard/read of them. I've donated to them before, too, when I've been able to.

I would LOVE to volunteer. Maybe someday I'll be able to.

They are my favorite AR group...I wish I had a million dollars to give them.

I really admire them. I've just been reading about them recently and they have done some awesome work.

I just became a member a couple months ago. They are awesome. :yes:

I'm wondering if this is the same guy I read about in Glenn Vanstrum's book The Saltwater Wilderness, who's responsible for attacking and I think sinking some of the world's most notorious illegal whaling ships in recent years. Regardless, they are courageous people doing great work. Go Sea Shepherds!

When I found out about stray dogs were being used as shark fishing and Paul Watson is offering reward for anybody who catch barbarians who are drowning stray dogs as bait for shark fishing, I just had to do something.
I sent my generous donation to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Now I feel better knowing least I did my part in small way.

Watson is bad-ass... and funny, to boot.

I am becoming a member after reading all of your posts!! :rockon:

I love Sea Shepherd. I followed all their updates during the seal hunt too. If I ever have a few months to dedicate to them, I will.

What is their website? i just have been reading the updates from greenpeace about all of the japanese whalers. Questions i have are, how do they disperse the whales from the "kill zone" ? can or do they have any sound equipment to scare the whales away before the ships get too close? or do the whales act enthusiastic about being around the boats? Do they know something is wrong if whales one by one are being hauled into the ships?

http://www.seashepherd.org/

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet:

SYDNEY (AFP) - A new high-seas struggle between a Japanese whaling fleet and anti-whaling activists is expected to erupt within days in the icy waters of the Antarctic, a Greenpeace spokesman said.

The Japanese fleet was refuelling at sea after an "extraordinary" 3,000 kilometre (1,875 mile) chase across the Southern Ocean, Greenpeace expedition leader Shane Rattenbury told AFP.

"We don't know exactly what their next move will be but we assume they will return to the hunting grounds," Rattenbury said by satellite telephone from the Arctic Sunrise, one of two Greenpeace ships harassing the whalers.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 but Japan has continued hunting for what it calls scientific research -- a claim rejected by critics.

The Greenpeace boats, with 57 activists on board, found the Japanese fleet of six ships on December 21 and immediately engaged in a high-risk strategy of physically trying to prevent the killing of whales.

Crew members in small inflatable boats put themselves between the harpooners and their targets -- a tactic Rattenbury said they intend to repeat.

"Once they try and resume whaling our plan is to try and stop them in much the same way as we were when we found them just before Christmas -- getting our small boats out there and getting between the harpoon and the whale."

The intial jousting, which led to a minor collision between a Japanese whaler and a Greenpeace vessel, ended after a couple of days when the Japanese fleet took off at high speed.

Rattenbury said at the time that the Japanese were "on the run", while Japan in turn accused Greenpeace of dangerous tactics and piracy.

Greenpeace's new ship the Esperanza, specially designed to keep up with the Japanese boats, gave chase for five days until the fleet made its refuelling rendevous with a tanker at sea.

"Knowing they would soon receive more fuel could explain why the fleet put on such a spurt of speed to try and shake off our ship," said Rattenbury.

"This now means they are tanked up to get back to hunting whales for the next two months."

The Greenpeace boats were designed for long missions so "refuelling is not a problem for us at this stage," he said.

The Japanese fleet is known to have killed at least 25 whales but the race across the Southern Ocean meant none had been harpooned since December 24, according to Greenpeace.

Despite international protests, Japan has this year more than doubled its planned catch of minke whales to 935 and added 10 endangered fin whales, with plans to eventually lift the number to 50, along with 50 rare humpback whales.

Check out the link and see the photo. Amazing is all I can say.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060103/sc_afp/australiajapanwhaleswildlife;_ylt=AiY6BMCKtehFdj5a 1Z5EWo0PLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

One way to help them is to sign up at escripts.
http://www.escrip.com/
You register cards like a vonscard, certain dept store cards and credit cards with them. Select the groups you like (sea shephard is registered there) and the merchants donate a percentage of what you spend to the group.

Actually, my avatar is a pic of RDA and a baby seal at the last Sea Shepherd save the seals campaign.