Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin left Brisbane today
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's fifth Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign to the Southern Oceans to defend whales from the Japanese whaling fleet started today!
"This year's campaign has been named Operation Musashi in reference to the legendary Japanese strategist, Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) known as a great samurai warrior, strategist and tactician and a personal role model and hero to Captain Paul Watson, Founder and President of Sea Shepherd.
Captain Paul Watson. "Our strategy is to prevent whales from being killed, to force the Japanese whalers to spend money on fuel without killing whales.
The name Operation Musashi was chosen to reflect Sea Shepherd's approach of aggressive, yet nonviolent, confrontation and the increasing global awareness of Japan's ongoing illegal whaling activities. However, as with all Sea Shepherd campaigns, all strategies and tactics are designed to avoid any physical injury to the whalers. Musashi's Book of Five Rings included the approach of the Twofold Way of Pen and Sword. The society adopted a campaign logo of the crossed feather pen and katana (sword) under the skull with the imbedded sperm whale and dolphin yin-yang symbol with a Banzai flag background which gives reference to the ecological imperialism that the Japanese whalers are committing against the whales of the Southern Ocean."
"We have a few surprises for the whalers this year," said Sea Shepherd 2nd officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden. "We intend to be more aggressive and even more relentless in our interventions. We do not intend to witness the killing of any whales; we intend to make sure no whales are killed on our watch."
Safe sailing Sea Shepherd - save our whales!!!
