I got the following from John in Australia. I think
you'll find it interesting. I wonder if orgonite
would stop this sonic weaponry from harming
targetted individuals. These are courageous people!
~Don
G'day Don, got this from via the Crikey email
newsletter. The article below give's quite an
insight as to how much Japanese pride must be
protected... even to the extent of using sonic
weaponry on anti-whalers. cheers John Kirkham.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society president
Captain Paul Watson writes:
On 9 January our one ship, the Steve Irwin, was
aggressively attacked by the entire Japanese whaling
fleet.
Three of the vessels -- hunter killer harpoon
ships -- are faster and more manoeuverable than us
and the fourth -- the factory ship, the one we call
the Cetacean Death Star -- is eight times larger and
armed with six very new and extremely powerful water
cannons. All four ships are equipped with Long Range
Acoustical Device weapons systems called LRAD's.
It all started this morning, on the fifth day
that we have prevented the whaling fleet from
killing any whales. One of the harpoon vessels had
uncovered its grenade tipped harpoon and was bearing
down on a defenceless Fin whale.
Two small boats from the Steve Irwin were
launched to block the harpoon and our helicopter
took off to document the action.
The small boats were moving between the
harpooner and the factory ship when two crew members
on the Nisshin Maru aimed the LRAD directly at our
pilot Chris Aultman.
Chris said that immediately he heard a rattling
sound in his helmet and then he felt the vibrations
in his legs and chest. He retreated before the
device could disorient or confuse him. We were all
shocked that they would target the helicopter. The
chopper was not a threat to the whaling ships, it
was involved in documentation only. It was
completely irresponsible to aim that device at an
aircraft. The potential to have caused our
helicopter to crash was very real and very
intimidating.
Ashley Dunn from Tasmania, a camerman with
Animal Planet filming for the series Whales Wars
from the helicopter, reported experiencing the same
sensations as Chris Aultman.
Suddenly the two inflatable boats were struck by
LRAD sonic blasts from the factory ship and one of
the harpoon vessels. Steve Roest from Britain became
instantly dizzy and fell forward, cutting open his
head above the left eye.
As I watched this unfolding I suddenly found I
had some serious problems of my own. The two other
harpoon vessels were moving in fast directly towards
the Steve Irwin and they were both on a collision
course with us.
As they approached closer we saw them man the
LRAD devices and we saw one of the vessels trailing
a long prop fouling rope.
What began then was a four hour ordeal of
zigzagging and avoiding that rope, a task made very
difficult with the sonic blasts causing physical
discomfort.
I decided that the best move to avoid the
fouling ropes was to steer into the approaching
whalers to out intimidate them. It was a twisting,
churning, chase as they sought to disable us and I
fought the wheel to avoid them, a chase made even
more dangerous when the third ship began to move
towards us.
As I moved away towards the port side in the
direction of the Nisshin Maru I was attempting to
pass the factory ship on her starboard side when
suddenly the massive hull of that ship turned in
towards us. As I turned away from it, the Nisshin
Maru kept turning into the Steve Irwin and forcing
us back towards the harpoon boats.
The harpoon boats were whipping about like
bi-planes in a dog fight so I radioed the two small
inflatables, the Delta and the Gemini to act like
fighter planes and cut off the attack of the hunter
killer boats.
The two small boats made courageous and direct
fast runs on the bows of the whalers, enduring the
sonic blasts to throw small lines to foul the props
of the attacking boats. Each time they did this they
succeeded in turning the harpooner away from us.
When a harpoon boat would get by them, I was
forced to make big S moves to keep them from
crossing our bow.
The Japanese crew on the harpoon boats were
throwing chunks of metal and ice at the inflatable
boats. The water cannons came dangerously close.
Despite this the Gemini boat roared in and
delivered 15 bottles of rotten butter onto the
harpoon deck of the Yushin Maru #3, turning it into
a nauseating stinkpot.
In order to keep the Nisshin Maru from
attempting to ram the Steve Irwin, I dropped a long
mooring line behind the ship to keep all the whalers
off our tail.
But the harpoon boats with their superior speed
kept moving closer and they came from three
different sides.
If one of them succeeded in fouling our prop, we
would be dead in the water, some two thousand miles
from New Zealand or Australia. With the safety of my
ship and crew in serious jeopardy, we had to evade
these attacks.
As the Yushin Maru #1 pulled in close and was
about to speed across our bow, I fired flares over
them to scare them off. They retreated for a few
moments and then moved back in again. This time I
fired a line throwing rocket over top of them,
laying down a long nylon rope directly across their
deck. As the long line snaked overboard towards
their prop, they backed off.
But all three of the harpooners kept coming in
again and again. We could see the whalers on the
deck flipping us off and throwing objects at the
small boats. They were throwing pieces of lead and
strangely enough golf balls.
During this melee the helicopter managed to land
on the Steve Irwin to refuel and then lifted off
again.
As the Yushin Maru #3 moved in the Gemini caught
their prop and brought the harpooner to a dead stop,
knocking them out of the chase.
As the chase raged on across the Ross Sea I had
to bring in the small boats and the helicopter
before they all ran out of fuel.
But the Japanese whalers were not going to make
that easy. The Nisshin Maru turned its massive bulk
towards us and we saw it bearing down on us with its
powerful water cannons spewing frigid high pressure
water with the force of jackhammer. We were being
caught in between the LRAD blasts from two harpoon
vessels. I could not slow down and Chris Aultman was
forced to land his machine on the back deck while we
were moving at full speed.
Next came the retrieval of the small boats and
that was going to be extremely dangerous with the
two harpoon vessels moving in so close.
I decided to take a page from the Wild West and
began doing circles. This circle the wagons move
completely took the whalers off guard and they found
they could not penetrate the circle to cross our bow
without risking a major collision.
The Yushin Maru #1 kept on our stern in the
circle as the Yushin Maru #2 moved counter clockwise
around our clockwise circle. I then called in the
boats and the recovery training that Bosun Dan
Bebawi had been drilling into his deck crew paid
off. The Gemini raced up along side inside the
circle and hooked onto hook from the hydraulic crane
as the ship continued the high speed circling. With
the Gemini onboard, the Delta came in and was
retrieved. It was a difficult procedure, especially
with the sonic blasts making our bodies extremely
uncomfortable. I found my head starting to ache and
a tight feeling in my chest.
Finally with the boats and the helicopter safely
onboard I turned counter clockwise and dropped a
long mooring line behind the ship to force the
harpooner trailing us to retreat.
We then sped towards the Nisshin Maru as I
turned towards any of the harpooners that attempted
to move in on us. The Yushin Maru #3 after an hour
was able to disentangle the line from the prop and
they were underway again. Finally the harpooners
sped off in different directions leaving us to
continue our pursuit of the Nisshin Maru.
The crew were dazed by the LRAD's but thrilled
to know we had protected the safety of the ship. We
had only three minor injuries. Five stitches for
Steve and some ointment for the rope burn on my
right hand. Laurens De Groot from the Netherlands
received some wicked bruises on his fingers.
I had never in my life been attacked by four
ships at once and it was a great relief to see them
steam off away from us. We are however very prepared
if they should return.
If the Japanese whalers thought we would be
easily intimidated they learned very quickly that
Sea Shepherd excels in the art of intimidation and
quite frankly we have far more confrontational
experience than these cowardly whalers who for the
most part do little but shoot defenceless fleeing
whales in the back.
And thus the day ended with our pursuit of the
fleet resuming as we looked ahead to the sixth whale
safe day.
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