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While Greenpeace's primary purpose for being in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary is to confront Japan's illegal whaling, Greenpeace has been using the opportunity to study the region's whales.
Martin Stanley, who has participated in three previous Greenpeace whale and dolphin surveys, is one of the dedicated scientific team currently onboard the Arctic Sunrise. Data collected by the team will (as in previous years) be submitted to the Scientific Committee of the IWC.
December 1999
Well, so far we have had about 180 separate marine mammal sightings (this is not the number of individual animals seen, that is considerably greater). Many of these we've identified to species level but some (as usual) have to be recorded as 'unidentified beaked whale', 'unidentified baleen whale', or whatever. The science programme is running well - in addition to collecting the usual environmental data such as sea temperature, depth, sea state, visibility etc. we are making regular salinity measurements and when possible taking plankton samples as well.
We have also been working on underwater acoustics, despite the limited opportunities (the hydrophones have to be operated away from the Arctic Sunrise in an inflatable with its engine turned off), and have produced recordings of humpback vocalisation/song. The hydrophones can also be used as an alternative surveying technique, for example we may be travelling through an area where we may not see any whales, however the hydrophones can tell us if there are cetaceans vocalising underwater within the area. In addition they can be used to attribute underwater vocalisation to surface behaviour in some encounters.
After surviving the pounding of the southern oceans (we did a sixty degree roll at one point, quite an experience I can assure you!) for the last month, this week has been very busy for all onboard the Arctic Sunrise. A few days ago on the 20/12/1999 we located the Japanese whaling fleet in an area close to the ice edge. The fleet consists of the factory ship Nisshin Maru and three large catchers - Toshi Maru, Kyo Maru, and Yushin Maru. I have seen footage and read about illegal Japanese whaling before, however I was shocked and horrified at the speed and "efficiency" that they were able to catch minkes, once they located a hotspot. That same day we did our first action - a great success. Frank Kamp, our Chief Mate, went out in an inflatable with two other activists and blocked the transfer of a dead minke from a catcher to the Nisshin Maru by positioning the inflatable between the catcher and the Nisshin Maru. He then leapt onto the dead minke from the inflatable to stop them hauling the whale on board delaying both the catcher and the factory ship from further whaling activity. While all this was happening "Tweety", the Greenpeace helicopter, documented the whale processing activity on the deck of the Nisshin Maru whilst attempting to avoid the danger from the whalers' water hoses that were being aimed at the helicopter.
It was clear that the Japanese did not want the Arctic Sunrise around to document their whaling activity. They used their water hoses not only on our activists but this time also to create a screen of water over the factory ships stern ramp to inhibit the view onto the processing deck. It is understandable why they wished to do this as we had already documented two very young minkes that they had killed. In the afternoon their determination to stop us documenting intensified with the deliberate and dangerous ramming of the Arctic Sunrise on the port side by the factory ship. A number of our crew and science team were on the port bridge wing when the ramming occurred and only just managed to get inside the bridge before the impact. If they had still been outside they could have been thrown into the water between the two ships by the force of the collision and either been crushed between the two vessels or have been sucked into the prop.
When the damage to the Arctic Sunrise had been documented and repaired, we decided to deliver a Christmas message to one of the catchers asking them to stop whaling. They refused to accept our message and instead claimed to have a message of their own for us calling over our inflatable, the inflatable went to pick up the message only to be doused with water from their hoses. We got the message. The inflatable stayed with the catcher Toshi Maru with the Arctic Sunrise following close behind, preventing the catcher from resuming whaling and chasing her from an area with a higher concentration of minkes near the ice edge to the open sea where no whales were seen. The catcher was unable to resume whaling meaning that we had stopped a third of the fleet from their illegal whaling for almost the whole day.
On the cetacean survey side of things we have had some great weather for sightings, and we have had some great sightings. Here's just a brief summary of some of the sightings we have made. A juvenile humpback swam alongside the ship (bow to stern) in beautiful clear water close to the surface affording us a spectacular view down onto the whale swimming underwater. Four humpback adults approached the Arctic Sunrise and swam within metres of one of the inflatables. A fin whale blows, stretching across the horizon. Two fin whales travelled with the ship. A juvenile blue whale came close to the ship, and get this - an adult blue whale took a liking to our bow and decided to do some form of bow riding (if you can call it bow riding with a whale the size of a blue). No Orcas yet alas!
All the best, Martin
