An Act of ‘Obcene Barbarity’

As the Japanese whaling fleet left its home port of Shimonoseki, heading for the Southern Ocean, earthdive founder Chris Long described the planned killing of over 1,000 whales as “an act of obscene barbarity at a time when our planet, its people, its resources and its wildlife are already reeling from human induced onslaught!”

In a whaling season that will run until mid-April next year, the fleet intends to catch endangered fin whales and threatened humpback whales, in addition to close to 1,000 minke whales.

Long was adding his weight to protests already made by activist conservation organisations such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who have a long history of active intervention in whaling, and who have each committed a vessel to the Southern Ocean.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel, Robert Hunter is planning to leave from Melbourne, Australia in early December on its fourth expedition to the remote southern waters off the coast of Antarctica. The campaign has been christened