Sea Shepherd Update: March 23rd, 2014 I am in Key West, Florida (The Conch Republic) today awaiting the arrival of the Brigitte Bardot. The Brigitte Bardot has spent the last month in Guatemala intercepting poachers in cooperation with the Guatemalan government. The Jairo Mora Sandoval is presently patrolling the coast of Senegal in search of poachers. The Steve Irwin is now in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia after returning from three months in the Southern Ocean in pursuit of the Japanese whaling fleet. The Bob Barker is in Wellington, New Zealand after returning from three months in the Southern Ocean in pursuit of the Japanese whaling fleet. The Sam Simon is in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia after returning from three months in the Southern Ocean in pursuit of the Japanese whaling fleet. The Japanese whaling fleet is on the way back to Japan with considerably fewer whales than they intended to get. They should be releasing their kill figures soon. After having them on the run since the beginning of January, and with two of their three harpoon boats continuously dedicated to tailing Sea Shepherd ships, we anticipate the kill numbers to be very low. Operation Relentless was the longest campaign in a decade of campaigning. Sea Shepherd has physically saved some 5,000 whales from Japanese harpoons since 2006. Our AIS system in the Galapagos is being maintained thus providing 100% surveillance of the entire Galapagos National Park Marine Reserve. We are now retiring and finding homes for some of the shark fin sniffing dogs and training new dogs for the Ecuadorian Environmental Police. Sea Shepherd field agents are presently in the Faeroe Islands scouting out the kill beaches in preparation for sending a crew to the Faeroes from June 1st to September 30th to defend the pilot whales. In the United States we continue to be harassed by businessman Ady Gil. This last week he agreed to drop his frivolous lawsuit against Sea Shepherd and myself. A very respected leader in the Animal Rights movement met with Ady Gil this week to mediate and Gil told him he would drop the lawsuit and for Sea Shepherd’s lawyer to call his lawyer in the morning to settle it. Our lawyer did so only to hear that Ady Gil wanted one million dollars immediately and if not he will continue his demand for $50 million dollars. Apparently he thought it was funny to mislead us. So it looks like another court battle. This time, not against the whalers or the poachers but against a man who holds Sea Shepherd responsible because his boat, with his name on it, was destroyed by a Japanese whaling ship. He should be suing the Japanese whalers or the Japanese government but apparently Ady Gil has problems with enemy identification. So aside from the minor Ady Gil irritation, it has been a good month for disrupting Japanese whaling and intervening against poaching in Guatemala, the Galapagos and Senegal. Sea Shepherd Hong Kong has been doing incredible work exposing the shark finning industry in China. The last of the Cove Guardians have returned from Taiji, Japan and preparations will begin soon for the Cove Guardians to return to Taiji in September. A Sea Shepherd crew will also be working with Ocean Alliance this summer to continue research into toxicity in Sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico. We will also be moving ahead from Hawaii with the Vortex Project to find ways of removing plastic from the ocean. The Whale Wars film crew have returned with hundreds of hours of video for preparation for Season Seven of Whale Wars which should be ready for airing in the Autumn. It is shaping up to be very another busy year on the front lines for the hundreds of Sea Shepherd volunteers worldwide. https://facebook/photo.php?fbid=10152261214125932&set=a.443115070931.234296.155430570931&type=1&theater
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 22:36:25 +0000
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