The Gojira and the Sea Shepherd helicopter the Nancy Burnet continue to search for the Nisshin Maru.

In the vastness of the Southern Ocean the Sea Shepherd ships have found the Japanese fleet before they have begun to kill whales.

The Art of Finding Whalers

Knowing when the Nisshin Maru left Japan and estimating the speed of the ship as it headed southward Captain Paul Watson was able to get a rough idea of the daily progress of the whaling fleet.

He decided to take the Steve Irwin to Wellington, New Zealand and then down to Bluff on the South end of the South Island. The Gojira stayed in Hobart and the Bob Barker moved to the middle and to the South of the Tasman Sea to show the Japanese that we were covering their path should they choose to go through the Tasman Sea.

Captain Watson figured this would force the whaling fleet to the East to avoid being caught in the middle of the Sea Shepherd fleet in the Tasman Sea.

The whalers made an announcement that they would expand their hunting area to make it more difficult for Sea Shepherd to find them but the Japanese whalers have proven themselves to be nothing if not predictable over the last seven campaigns that Sea Shepherd has been harassing them, and Captain Watson decided they were bluffing.

The Taz Patrol reported the whalers well to the Northeast of  New Zealand heading Southeast.

Captain Watson deduced that they would head for the extreme Eastern boundary of the area Japan has designated for their so called research, an area that extends to 145 degrees West. This would place them at the maximum distance from where the Sea Shepherd ships departed from Tasmania and New Zealand.

Captain Watson instructed Captain Locky MacLean to take the Gojira along the 60 degree line of latitude Eastward. Captain Alex Cornelissen on the Bob Barker was instructed to head Eastward along the 64th  line of Latitude and Captain Watson took the Steve Irwin Eastward along the 62nd  line of Latitude.

The two harpoon ships were spotted at 148 degree West line of Longitude on December 31st.  The interception of the Japanese whaling fleet took place 1700 nautical miles Southeast of New Zealand and 2300 nautical miles Southwest of Chile.

"This is fantastic," said Sea Shepherd Chief Laura Dakin of Canberra, Australia. "For the first time we have found the whalers before they have killed a single whale."



Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President - Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977 - 2009)
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
C0-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
National Director - The Sierra Club (2003-2006)
Director - Farley Mowat Institute
Director - Instituto Sea Shepherd Brasil
Director - Sea Shepherd Europe, U.K. France, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Australia, Ecuador, U.S.A., Canada.