Pilot Whale and Dolphin Slaughter in the Faroe Islands

by Erwin Vermeulen / Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

On August 13th, 135 long-finned pilot whales were brutally slaughtered in Húsavík.

It’s been an extremely bloody few weeks in the Ferocious Isles, even by Faroese standards. On August 8, 107 Long-finned Pilot whales were slaughtered in Sandavágur. On August 11, 21 were butchered in Leynar and on the 13^th, 135 lost their lives in Húsavík.

The grind(adrap), as the Pilot whale drive is called, has a recorded history since 1584. There are 23 whaling bays assigned to six districts in which the meat and blubber are divided among the population. A drive is initiated when fishermen or ferries offshore sight dolphins. The dolphins are driven into a bay with boats and even jet skis and pulled up onto the beach with a hook in the blowhole. Then the spinal cord is cut with a knife.

The Húsavík massacre on the 13^th was not the only one that took place that day. In Hvalba, the incredibly high number of 430 Atlantic White-sided dolphins were driven into ‘whale bay’ and brutally murdered. Some people might be surprised to hear that these islanders are targeting species other than Pilot whales, but they have always hunted smaller dolphins, especially in Hvalba. They last killed Atlantic White-sided dolphins in Hvalba in August 2010 and Risso’s dolphins earlier that year in April. Oravik took 100 Atlantic White-sided dolphins in August 2009. That same month, Hvalba killed two Northern Bottlenose whales that were reported as stranded, and a month later Klaksvik took three Risso’s. In June 1978 that town even butchered 31 Orcas.

Sea Shepherd launches Operation Relentless

Cross Posted from Sea Shepherd

 

Off the back of Sea Shepherd’s most successful campaign to date, Operation Zero Tolerance that saved 932 whales, Sea Shepherd launches Operation Relentless. Like last season’s campaign, Operation Relentless will be managed and led by Sea Shepherd Australia with campaign leaders Bob Brown and Jeff Hansen.

It will be Sea Shepherd’s 10th Antarctic whale defence campaign defending at risk whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. During the past nine seasons, Sea Shepherd’s direct-action interventions have saved the lives of more than 4,500 whales and exposed illegal Japanese whaling to the world. With the help of Australians and people around the world, Operation Relentless is shaping up to be a monumental success for the whales.

Sea Shepherd Australia Stops Japanese Whalers Yet Again!

Activists Make January a “No Kill” Month

Cross post from Environment News Service

HOBART, Tasmania, Australia, February 4, 2013 (ENS) – The month of January, usually the prime whale catching month for the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, has come and gone without the death of a single whale, says Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Australia Director Jeff Hansen.

It is the international organization’s ninth Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign, Operation Zero Tolerance. This season’s campaign is under the direction of Sea Shepherd Australia, now that founding president Paul Watson has handed authority to Hansen and former Australian Greens leader and senator Bob Brown.

Authority was transferred in December in compliance with a U.S. court restraining order and after Watson’s escape last summer from Germany, where he was detained on bail for possible extradition to Costa Rica.

The Sea Shepherd fleet of four ships, one helicopter, drones, and more than 120 volunteer crew from around the world has to date succeeded in keeping the four-vessel Japanese fleet of “research” whalers separated on the run, making it impossible for them to catch whales, Hansen says.

News Round-Up from Eco-Rebellion World Wide

Wow! Its been a wild week, and we’ve gotten a bit behind on the news as several EF! Newswire contributors were tied up in Tampa at the RNC protests. But it looks like that blue moon may have gotten some people pretty riled up! Here’s a compilation of news from the front lines around the world to catch you up a bit…

Tar Sands Blockade Halted Keystone XL Construction

As Hurricane Isaac made landfall in New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s seventh anniversary, climate justice organizers in Texas were locking themselves to the axle of a massive TransCanada semi-truck, carrying 36-inch pipes intended for Keystone XL construction, in hopes that they might turn the climate crisis around.

With help from TransCanada workers themselves, these six people were able to shut down operations at the Livingston pipe yard and cut off the transportation of pipes to construction sites across the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline after police were forced to dismantle the truck to make arrests.

The action comes in response to a recent court ruling giving TransCanada the green light to steal a piece of Texas landowner Julia Trigg Crawford’s home. Lamar County Judge Bill Harris practically insulted this local farmer by sending a 15-word summary judgment to her from his iPhone in Washington, DC, August 15.

Anti-corporate protests kick-off DNC in North Carolina

The first march of the DNC convergence, Charlotte, NC

About 1000 people pissed at corporate America marched in Charlotte, NC, yesterday, two days before the Democratic National Convention begins.

According to police, two people were arrested, one for having a concealed knife and another for disorderly conduct.

The demonstrators were members of more than 90 local and national groups. Mortgage foreclosures, high-interest student loans and environmental issues were among their foremost concerns.

Occupy camp carries radical eco message from Tampa to Charlotte.

The protesters marched past the headquarters of Duke Energy, the nation’s biggest electric utility. Security was evident, with several hundred police officers also lining the sidewalks near the Bank of America headquarters.

Beth Henry, 58, a former Charlotte corporate lawyer, took aim at Duke Energy’s environmental record: “To leave our children a ruined world, all we need to do is let companies like Duke Energy keep doing what they’re doing.”   [Source]

Day 10 of villagers’ dam-sit to stop flooding in India

View of Omkareshwar Dam from Siddhnath Temple.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report from the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) that a large group of villagers who have been evicted from their land without compensation for the construction of the Omkareshwar Dam are sitting within the dam’s catchment area claiming that they are willing to drown to death than been denied their rightful claim for adequate rehabilitation for the lands they have lost. In the meanwhile, water level is increased gradually in the dam, that soon the water would submerge the protesters. The protest has entered the 10th day today.

The Narmada Valley Project, of which the Omkareshwar Dam is part of, is one of the most controversial development projects in the world, plagued with proven claims of adverse environmental impacts. [Source]

Super-Trawler threatened for its plans to pillage the ocean

The Tasmanian businessman behind the super trawler Margiris is playing down threats from environmental groups to stop his ship. Greenpeace failed to block the ship from docking in the South Australian fishing town of Port Lincoln last week. And over the weekend the Sea Shepherd society also said it would do anything it possibly could to stop the boat. [Hear an interview here]

Formal protest aim at stopping industrial solar plants from destroying public wild lands

Lush desert terrain provides habitat for many endangered species

Seeking to prevent massive and  irreversible environmental damage, numerous environmental groups have filed formal protests against the  Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States.  

“We want the public to know that several conservation groups are not planning to go down easily on the Interior Department’s plan to destroy up to 20 million acres of southwest deserts, not even including the wind projects,” Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective Council in San Diego told ECM. DPC is a co-founder of Solar Done Right, one of the environmental groups that filed a protest.

Concentrated solar destroys desert habitat

As of July 2012, eleven solar projects on over 36,000 acres had been approved on public lands. The projects range from 618 to 7,025 acres, with the average power plant exceeding 3,300 acres. As of July, pending proposals numbered 76, and would cover a total of 695,387 acres of public land. The scale, intensity, and pace of development on public lands are unprecedented.

Massive solar power plants will have irreversible, essentially permanent, impacts. The BLM admits that ecological recovery after public lands solar plants are decommissioned, if even possible, could take 3,000 years. [Source]

Climate activists drop banner on Olympics logo in London

Three people arrested after an environmental group dropped a banner on Tower Bridge have been released on bail. The bridge in south-east London was closed for over an hour on Saturday after the stunt by climate group Climate Siren.

City of London Police said a man and a woman were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and a public nuisance. A man was arrested for assisting them.

The sign read Climate change, our next challenge and was placed over the famous bridge, which is currently adorned with the Paralympics Agitos logo. [Source]

Oglala Lakota Nation Women’s March and Day of Peace Lockdown

DGR Lockdown at the action

Women of the Oglala Lakota nation along with activists from Deep Green Resistance, AIM Grassroots, Native Youth Movement, Un-Occupy Albuquerque, Occupy Lincoln, and Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center took part in a march from Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge into White Clay to protest against the predatory liquor industry present there.

“For over 100 years the women of the Oglala Lakota nation have been dealing with an attack on the mind body and spirit of their relatives,” says Olowan Martinez who is a main organizer of the event and resident of Pine Ridge. “The Oglala have been silenced through chemical warfare waged by the corporations who are out to exploit and make a profit off of the suffering and misery of our people. The time has come to end this suffering by any means necessary.”

After the march and speeches members of Deep Green Resistance locked down and blockaded the road into White Clay.

Less than a half hour after the lockdown began a police officer rolled down their window and indiscriminately pepper sprayed into a crowd.   Up to 12 people were pepper sprayed including the 10 year old son of a Lakota woman who helped organize the march.  Also, an elder Lakota woman, Helen Red Feather, reported having her leg hit by a police car in motion.  Medics with the protest treated pepper spray injuries. Read full press release

Anti-capitalist student protests continue burning shit in Chile

Last week in Santiago between police and tens of thousand of demonstrators demanding education reform. The rally was one of the largest in recent weeks, with between 50,000 and 130,000 protestors, according to police and protest organizers.

While some danced to the rhythm of drums, thousands of others, masked and wearing hoods, followed the procession and attacked police with sticks and stones. The police responded, as they have in the past, with tear gas and water cannons.

Fire breathing Chileans in the streets!

The students were backed by members of the Unified Workers Federation, the country’s foremost union, which called on members to join the march. Public education in Chile suffered from sharp cuts in funding during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, leaving a system that favors expensive private schools that are out of the reach of the poor.

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Vermin Supreme 2012 at the DNC.. Vote in an honest scumbag for a change. And don’t forget to brush your dam teeth!

Japanese whalers return to port

The Japanese fisheries agency has confirmed 266 minke whales were caught this season.

JAPAN’S whaling fleet has ended its annual Antarctic hunt after landing 30 per cent of its planned catch of more than 900 whales.

Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano yesterday blamed bad weather and “sabotage” by the Sea Shepherd environmental protest flotilla for the reduced catch.

Although the catch of 266 was almost 100 more whales than the whalers caught last year, the shortfall might add to the financial pressure on the so-called scientific whaling program.

The Australian government welcomed Japan’s decision to recall its fleet from the Southern Ocean, saying it condemned all commercial whaling, “including Japan’s so-called ‘scientific’ whaling program”.

“Japan’s whaling activities are contrary to international law,” said Environment Minister Tony Burke, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and acting Foreign Minister Craig Emerson in a statement.

“That is why Australia commenced and will continue legal action in the International Court of Justice. Our efforts are aimed at ending Southern Ocean whaling for good.”

Mr Kano said the outcome of this year’s hunt would be reviewed but did not directly respond to questions about the program’s future. Many observers thought the program would be discontinued this season after last year’s earthquake, but the whalers were given fresh funds to return to the Antarctic late last year and insiders say they believe the hunt will continue in the future.

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson used the cessation of this year’s hunt to claim victory over the Japanese fleet. “If the Japanese whalers return, Sea Shepherd will return. We are committed to the defence of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” he said.

By Rick Wallace, Tokyo correspondent, The Australian

See full article as cross-posted from here

For more articles on this news story visit here and here

“Playing hard on high seas”

This weekend, journalist Rosslyn Beeby with the Canberra Times in Australia drew connections between Sea Shepherd and Earth First! in a follow-up story about the three activists detained on a Japanese wailing ship last week. Below are some highlights from the article, touching on the history of Earth First! and Ed Abbey:

Yup, that's an EF! tat alright...

“Earth First!” That’s the sign-off used by West Australian activist Simon Peterffy in a farewell Facebook post before embarking on a hazardous night journey – in one of the Sea Shepherd’s ocean pursuit inflatables – to board the Japanese whaling vessel, Shonan Maru No 2. The move was planned, in strict secrecy, as a protest against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.

”I love my life and love you all! Thanks everyone for their commitment to defend the Redtails and the earth. Earth First!” the founder of the WA anti-logging group Forest Rescue wrote. The forest red-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso) has become a rallying symbol for the fight to save the state’s south-west forests. Protected under WA law as a bird that is ”rare or likely to become extinct”, the cockatoos live in marri, karri and jarrah forests which are rapidly disappearing. The federal recovery plan for the species lists habitat loss for ”agriculture, timber harvesting, woodchipping and mining” as the principal cause of their decline.

Peterffy, who boarded the Japanese ship with fellow Forest Rescue activists Glen Pendlebury and Geoffrey Tuxworth, has red-tail feathers tattooed on his arms, as well as the Earth First! symbol—a stone axe and monkey wrench. And on the Forest Rescue website, the WA forest conservation group Peterffy founded some years ago, the symbol is accompanied by the Earth First! motto—”No compromise in defence of Mother Earth.”

So who, or what, is Earth First? Anyone familiar with American author Edward Abbey’s eco-activism classic The Monkey Wrench Gang knows the answer. They may even wistfully be eyeing paint aerosols in the local hardware store, wondering whether to daub ”Hayduke lives” across a billboard.

Whale Wars Victory – Activists to be Released

Three Australian Activists Released from Detention on a Japanese Whaler in Australian Waters

10 Jan, 2012 07:45 AM

An unscheduled meeting between Japan’s whalers and environmental activists on the high seas seems an unlikely backdrop to an outbreak of détente.

But Australia was quietly celebrating a minor victory for diplomacy on Tuesday after Japan agreed to release three anti-whaling activists who illegally boarded one of its whaling ships over the weekend. 

The trio, all Australian citizens, have been detained on the Shonan Maru 2, which is providing security to the fleet, after clambering aboard early Sunday morning to protest Japan’s annual hunts in the Antarctic. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows Japan to hunt a limited number of whales for “scientific research.” The fleet left port last month with plans to kill some 900 whales this season.

The incident threatened to cause tension between Australia and Japan, close trade and security partners. Soon after the men were detained it seemed likely that they would be kept aboard the Shonan Maru 2 and taken to Japan, where they faced a trial and possible imprisonment for trespassing.

Cove Guardian Report: Operation Infinite Patience

Week 6 of more senseless dolphin killing in the famous Cove of Taiji, Japan

An armada of fishing boats drives a pod of Risso’s dolphins into the Cove. Photo: Cristina Cely

Report by Cove Guardians Leader Rosie Kunneke

Sunday, October 23, was another horrible day in Taiji. The dolphin killers drove in a pod of 10-12 Risso’s dolphins into the Cove and brutally murdered the entire pod including a baby. These killers have no respect for the lives of sentient beings and they hide behind their so-called culture. They walk around the butcher house in amusement while their arms, hands, and pants are covered in blood, and a police force, some in riot gear, protect their disgusting deeds.

After witnessing the death of the Risso’s dolphins, one of the false killer whales was loaded into a wooden crate and onto a waiting truck. We found out that this false killer whale was bought by Izu Mito Sea Paradise in the Shizuoka Prefecture. The staff from this resort had to wait around on the pier while the

Cove Guardian Cristina Cely at work.

dolphin killers were killing and butchering the dolphins, before the dolphin killers could assist with the capturing of the resort’s newest false killer whale.

Read more…

Ocean Defense Updates

Waters Run Red: Dozens of Pilot Whales killed in the Faeroe Islands

Pilot whales slaughtered in the Faeroes in 2010, photo: Sofia Jonsson

50 to 100 pilot whales were driven into a fjord at Vestmanna in the Faeroe Islands around noon today where every adult male, female, and calf was killed in a massacred that stained the waters a deep scarlet.

This followed in the recent wake of Sea Shepherd’s departure from the Faeroes after successfully preventing the killing during Operation Ferocious Isles Pilot Whale Defense Campaign. Sea Shepherd’s limited budget dictated that they could only spend two months in the Faeroes, during which time no whales were killed.

The pilot whale grind is similar to the annual dolphin slaughter in Japan, documented in the Academy Award-winning film, The Cove. The main difference, and thus challenge for Sea Shepherd, is that there are at least 23 different coves in the Faeroes where a grind could potentially take place, as opposed to one main cove in Taiji. Sea Shepherd has been actively opposing and confronting the Faeroese grind since 1985. Sea Shepherd’s website lists a number to report a “grind” by calling: +45 36 96 08

Divine Wind Buys Time for Dolphins in Taiji

Excerpt from recent commentary by Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: “The annual horrific program of massacring defenseless dolphins officially began in Taiji, Japan on September 1, but thanks to the timely arrival of Typhoon Talas, the killing has been delayed for at least a week. The sea is not being very kind to Japan this year but then again, Japan has not been very kind to the sea for some time.

The fishermen of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture pride themselves in dragging the reputation of Japan through the mud by continuing what has now become the most barbarically cruel, and bloody vicious dolphin slaughter in the world.”

Divers group works to retrieve abandoned fishing gear

Volunteer divers work to remove 800 pounds of discarded fishing net from the ocean bottom Tuesday near the Coronado Islands. Photo courtesy of Ocean Defenders Alliance

Southern California divers with the Orange County-based nonprofit Ocean Defenders Alliance went out this week to retrieve the net. Ocean Defenders’ mission is to locate and remove abandoned fishing gear—often called “ghost gear”—that can ensnare all kinds of marine life. Heavy waves can also drag nets and traps along the ocean floor, damaging reefs, kelp and other habitat.

See recent video interview from NBC San Diego.