I emailed Glenn Inwood yesterday. He is a spokesman for the Japanese whalers in the Antarctic whose mother ship the Nisshin Maru had to be evacuated last week after a fire broke out.
Greenpeace has been concerned the stricken ship could end up an ecological disaster with 1.3 million litres of fuel potentially leaking into the ocean.
I asked Mr Inwood for an update on the situation and he emailed me this morning:
Dear Jennifer,
Over the week, the crew first dealt with electrical and mechanical checks, replacing wiring that was burnt out, getting the engines going. The engines are apparently in good shape, able to function and ready to go.
After that, they looked at navigational and safety aspects of the vessel, such as checking the two radars, rudder control, autopilot navigation, etcetera.
As of yesterday, I understand they were unfreezing pipes, getting the desalinator going, getting freshwater back into the system, and cleaning out living quarters that were flooded from fighting the fire.
We have benefited from excellently calm Antarctic weather. As we have assured media, if conditions deteriorate and the vessel needs to be moved from where she is, then of course that will be done. While they were repairing engine, etcetera, they also hooked up a tow just in case it was required.
The crew has worked day and night tirelessly to get the vessel ready for sailing. It's been a very trying time for them. Not only have they lost a colleague, they are receiving those reports from Greenpeace and Chris Carter and that's making it more difficult for them. I hope to have good news for you soon.
Best regards,
Glenn Inwood
According to Radio New Zealand the ship was moving under its own power this afternoon taking a short test run.
Both school boy and school teacher - impressive!
Travis,
Your nonsense requires no answers.
Gee Pragmatic, you have come a long way. David is now referring to you in his school yard language - 'Praggers'!
Some of us here see your points of view Pragmatic and appreciate the efforts you have gone to, but others are only interested in forcing their points of view down the throats of those who see different to them, which means resorting to school yard antics and coming up with the same lame arguments over and over again. Of course the fact that say, fin whales, are listed as endangered and this is widely recognised (even by other pro-whaling organisations) makes Japan's legal activities in a whale sanctuary OK, doesn't it? But then David has an answer to everything, much like the expert someone previously pinned him as!
Japan's actions in the Antarctic are legal from the perspective of the relevant international agreements.
The only people who seem to dispute this point are
1) Australia's Labor opposition party, looking to find their way into office (they will not take Japan to the ICJ if they get there)
2) Sea Shepherd, who selectively interpret a range of international agreements as they please
Greenpeace's actions thus amount to attempting to interfere with and interrupt what is widely regarded as legal activity on the high seas, and increasing risk to human life and the environment in the process.
Greenpeace would not be so widely criticised and condemned were they to hold themselves to better standards of behaviour. Again, I predict that the new IMO guidelines should prove instructive for Greenpeace's "direct action" devisors.
David, it's more important to me, that you reappraise your own view on the matter. I can only report what I see, and have done so here.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but did not "the Ramming" occur outside the Australian declared sanctuary? The Japanese vessels cannot be said to be FISHING VESSELS in the accepted sense, so any interaction between protesters and the fleet is not subject to any such proscription. In point of fact, Greenpeace has as much right to be defending the whales as Japan thinks it does in killing whales. If that means some chagrin, then so be it.
praggers,
Well done! It seems that you have finally convinced yourself that the Nisshin Maru ruthlessly rammed the Arctic Sunrise which was merely involved in "peaceful protest", as opposed to childish reckless / negligent mischief making in the pristine Antarctic environment, also potentially putting human life at risk. Thank goodness for that. Greenpeace's spotless reputation remains intact (apart for all those other damming incidents and unfortunate laspses related to ALARMIST AND ARMAGGEDONIST FACTOIDS)!
My simple question remains unanswered - was the Arctic Sunrise's behavior consistent with the purported Greenpeace principle of "peaceful protest"?
I should first of all point out a "mistake". I did say that ONE short blast of the horn indicates an intention/obligation to turn to PORT. It actually means the opposite; a turn to starboard.
There is another major gap in the GPAS2 video. It is of about 22 seconds duration, and comes when Arctic Sunrise is still ahead of the Nisshin-Maru bridge. A zodiac is seen moving to the rear.
That camera-man is on the portside bridge rail. He then crosses through the bridge to the starboard side, is seen in conversation with a person in blue, and thence begins to film the GPAS1 video.
GPAS2 meanwhile, continues with video from another camera-man stationed near the Call-Sign banner. If you allow that the Public Address warning has continued without break, then some 22 seconds have elapsed.
A further gap occurs when Arctic Sunrise rounds the stern of Nisshin-Maru.(Or as I would have it, Nisshin-Maru sideswipes and pushes Arctic Sunrise out of it's way.) The camera-man crosses to the port side and after about 13 seconds, Arctic Sunrise is seen, left far behind.
That last scrap of video is important because it reveals the wake of NM as she abruptly turned to port. A nice bit of chicanery if you please.
Has no-one listened to the first four seconds of the Greenpeace video? A hint: turn the volume DOWN.
All three can be seen here on the first 3 pages
http://www.whalephoto.com/2007/thumbnails-7.html
Hi Anne..
Here´s a photo of one of them here ( there were 3 )
https://climatelab.com.au/blog/archives/001659.html#comments
A bit off topic ,but some good news from the world's most northern paper.
"A juvenile blue whale was spotted last autumn by a whale safari boat. The skipper stated since 1979 more and more blue whales have been spotted in Svalbard/Spitzbergen as well as other whales"
An Internet poll conducted by the same paper , stated that about 93% of the population was against a hunt of polar bears.