First thing this morning around 7.30am we were in our inflatable boat the African Queen racing towards the whale hunting vessel, the Kyo Maru that had its harpooned manned. Just as we got to its bow the harpooned fired and the whale was struck just... Read more >

When I saw my first whale in the wild I cried joy-filled happy tears. I also cried today when I saw a family of three minke whales, one of them a baby, all swimming along together. But this time I can't stop crying, I can hardly breath and it feels... Read more >

Although my last post was about the Kyo Maru, it's worth mentioning that it is not alone in behaving like that. We've put our boats off the stern of the factory ship many times on past expeditions to slow the whaling process down, and in my experience... Read more >

There we were Mathijs and I in a small Nouvarina inflatable pursuing the Nisshin Maru closely up ahead, with the Esperanza nearby on our right side. The chop and swell coming from the other boats in the water and the Nisshin Maru changing course at sp... Read more >

And suddenly there it was. After a month and a day at sea, there on the horizon sat the factory ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, the infamous 'Nisshin Maru' and she was getting closer by the second.

Yesterday our two ships split up to increa... Read more >

The 12 to 4 watch, normally just Naomi and Hana. But tonight several others were on the bridge to admire penguins standing on a nearby chunk of ice. We were near the ice edge, in a field of large icebergs with lots of smaller bits littering the wate... Read more >

What an amazing year it's been for me… January 2005 Sumatra, June 2005 Greenland, and now in the Southern Ocean. Which freak gets to go to the Arctic for summer and then onto Antarctica for summer in the same year? Two cold summers in one year??? At G... Read more >

First of all, thanks to those of you who've written back with nice things to say about these postings - it's good to know folks are actually reading them, 'cuz I know they're sometimes quite long. For me, it's nice to write because I don't keep a jou... Read more >

One of the many good days I've had out here so far was when we put the Billy Greene in the water for the first time since both the boat and I took a beating. It was a splendid day: the water and wind were mostly calm, and we were in a field of iceber...

Not many folks elect to put small boats in the water off a ship in the Southern Ocean; Greenpeace is among the few who do. Our ships always carry rigid-hulled inflatable boats with them wherever they go, and we train continually for using them in a v... Read more >