Activist group Sea Shepherd is abandoning its annual face-off with
Japanese whaling ships in Antarctic waters, saying it has little chance
of success against Japan's economic and military might.
The end of
the 12-year campaign means Japan will continue its so-called
"scientific" whaling programme without the group trying to physically
prevent the annual slaughter, which takes place despite loud
international protest.
Japan reportedly intends to take about 4000
whales over the next 12 years in the name of "research", and ultimately
plans to resume commercial whaling.
A minke whale is loaded on to the Japanese whaling factory ship the Nisshin Maru.
In a statement, Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said Japan
had doubled its hunting grounds in the Southern Ocean and reduced its
annual whale-kill quota to 333, giving its fleet "more time and more
area to kill".
He
said Japan was also using "military" tactics in the form of real-time
satellite surveillance to track Sea Shepherd ship movements, "and if
they know where our ships are at any given moment, they can easily avoid
us … we cannot compete with their military grade technology".
"The
decision we have had to face is: do we spend our limited resources on
another campaign to the Southern Ocean that will have little chance of a
successful intervention or do we regroup with different strategies and
tactics?
"If something is not working the only recourse is to look for a better plan," he wrote.
Watson
said Japanese whalers were backed by resources and subsidies from their
government, while Sea Shepherd was "limited in resources and we have
hostile governments against us in Australia, New Zealand and the United
States."
Watson pointed to Australia's refusal to allow the group charitable tax-deduction status, hampering its ability to raise funds.
He
said the group was "not abandoning the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary
... we need to cultivate the resources, the tactics and the ability to
significantly shut down the illegal whaling operations of the Japanese
whaling fleet".
Watson said Sea Shepherd was "in the Southern
Ocean doing what the Australian government has the responsibility to do
but has refused to do". He called on the Turnbull government to uphold
international and Australian law in relation to whaling.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/96252847/sea-shepherd-permanently-abandons-antarctic-whaling-faceoff-over-japanese-military-fears
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