Valentine’s Day in the Southern Ocean

"The paint represented the blood of the whales, exposing the bogus nature of so-called research by the Japanese whaling vessels.

The word 'research' is in English and not Japanese, because the Japanese fully understand that the whaling is a commercial operation. It is only the West that the Japanese whalers are trying to fool. The Japanese whalers have not killed a whale for ten days now because of Sea Shepherd’s intervention." said a spokesman from Sea Shepherd.

The Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research has accused Sea Shepherd of harassing the feet each day which they proudly admit to.Sea Shepherd says their ships have a single objection - to cut kill quotas inficted by the illegal poaching operations of the Japanese whaling feet.

For those who accuse Sea Shepherd of being criminals, Captain Paul Watson has responded, "If we are criminals, either arrest us or shut the hell up. I'm getting pretty fed up with whiners who can't back up their ridiculous accusations with the law. Cite a law that we have broken, cite a violation. The truth is that there have been no violations and we have not been charged with a single criminal act or maritime violation in six years of opposing these poachers.Sea Shepherd, on the other hand, can cite laws, such as: the regulations of the International Whaling Commission, the Antarctic Treaty, the Law of the Sea, and an Australian Federal Court order prohibiting Japanese whaling in the Australian Antarctic Territorial waters.

Japanese whalers are barred from entering Australian and New Zealand waters. Sea Shepherd ships are not barred. Japanese whalers are barred from Indonesian waters. Sea Shepherd ships are not. If a Japanese whaling ship enters an Australian or New Zealand port it will be arrested. Sea Shepherd ships are not arrested.

So who indeed are the criminals? The poachers illegally killing endangered and protected whales inside the boundaries of an established international Whale Sanctuary, in violation of a global moratorium on whaling, and in contempt of an Australian Federal Court order, OR the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is simply trying to stop these illegal activities, and doing so in a responsible manner without causing injuries or breaking the law?"

"This is a long protracted campaign involving three vessels coming from three different countries under different fags and with volunteers from 18 nations. We are navigating the most remote and hostile waters in the world and we are opposing an increasingly aggressive opposition. We have lost one ship and had another damaged. But, we are cutting their kill quotas and costing them their profts and thus Operation Waltzing Matilda has been a success," said Captain Watson. "We will not retreat and we will never surrender the whales of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to the poachers from Japan." Currently, the Sea Shepherd  society operates two ships, the MV Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker as well as smaller vessels such as RHIBs.

The Steve Irwin was obtained in 2007 named in honor of Australian Steve Irwin .Terri Irwin, his widow, gave her support to Sea Shepherd, saying, "Whales have always been in Steve's heart and in 2006 he was investigating the possibility of joining the Sea Shepherd on part of its journey to defend these beautiful animals." The other ship, the 1200 ton Bob Barker, was named after famous television game-show host and animal activist Bob Barker, who made the purchase in Ghana of the retired Norwegian whaling vessel possible with a donation of USD$5 million. The Bob Barker  recently collided with the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No. 3, tearing a gash in the hull of the Bob Barker.

The group also formerly operated the Farley Mowat (impounded by the Canadian government, with Sea Shepherd having stated that they have no intention of paying the legal fnes and berthage fees to recover their now obsolete vessel) and the Ady Gil, which recently sunk after a collision with a Japanese whaling vessel.