The Greenpeace ship Esperanza sails into Sydney Harbour.
As the Esperanza sailed into Sydney, four Greenpeace inflatables
and an Aboriginal group's yacht, the
Tribal Warrior
, went to meet the Esperanza and sailed in with her. She will
spend 48 hours re-supplying in Australia, after 42 days at sea.
A press conference held in Sydney today announced our decision
to head directly to Japan to continue campaigning for an end to
whaling in the Southern Ocean. Australian Shadow Minister for
Climate Change, Environment and Heritage, Peter Garrett, formerly
of rock band Midnight Oil, is urging Australia's Prime Minister to
also use his forthcoming visit to Japan to call for an end to the
Southern Ocean hunt.
The crew of the Esperanza spent over a week on standby to assist
the fire-disabled whaling factory ship, Nisshin Maru
in the Ross Sea in Antarctica last month, to ensure the safety
of the vessel and its crew as well as witness any possible
environmental impacts from the fire. The Esperanza then escorted
the entire whaling fleet out of Antarctic waters.
Let's go to Tokyo
Expedition leader Karli said, "Whaling on the high seas will
only stop when the Japanese government commits to ending it."
It is reported that the government of Japan intends to repair
the Nisshin Maru and continue to whale later this year, including
plans to increase to fifty the number of endangered fin whales
hunted and add fifty threatened humpback whales to the quota of 935
minke whales for the Southern Ocean in nine months time.
According to a recent survey, two-thirds of Japanese people do
not support what their government is doing in the Southern
Ocean.
Making it "big in Japan"
"While we were with the disabled fleet we generated a level of
debate on this issue in Japan that has been unprecedented,
questioning the validity of the government whaling programme.
However, it has become obvious that the Japanese government wants
to give the incident as low a profile as possible," said Junichi
Sato, Greenpeace Japan whales campaign coordinator.
This is the second time the Nisshin Maru
had a fire on board in the last nine years. The cause of the
blaze has not been disclosed, despite the fact it resulted in the
death of one crew member.
We have also invited representatives of the Fisheries Agency of
Japan and the Institute for Cetacean Research on board the
Esperanza when she arrives in Tokyo, and are awaiting their
reply.
Ocean Defenders around the world watched the Esperanza's arrival on our
live webcam
! Check out the best (and worst) shots on our
flickr
group
.Esperanza weblog
The latest from the crew!
Ocean Defenders TV
The end of the expedition... but plenty more to come!