Not victory yet - just a temporary ceasefire in the whale wars.
According to the Sea Shepherd organisation on February 11, 2011 - Japanese Whalers Escorted out of the Whaling Grounds
The Japanese whaling fleet is heading eastward at full speed and is now east of the boundary for their whaling grounds. The eastern boundary of the Japanese whaling operations is 145 degrees west. The whaling ships and the two Sea Shepherd ships are now at 72 degrees south and 133 degrees west on a course of 145 degrees. With the Bob Barker and the Gojira in pursuit, the Nisshin Maru continues to head eastward at 14 knots.
Both the whaling ships and the Sea Shepherd ships Bob Barker and the Gojira are now closer to South America than to New Zealand and Australia. This position is 3000 nautical miles southeast of Hobart, Australia and 1700 miles southwest of Patagonia, Argentina.
The Nisshin Maru is making erratic course changes. “It’s like they spin the bottle every watch to see what course to set,” said Captain of the Bob Barker Alex Cornelissen. “There is no rationality in these course changes. They go east, then south, then west, then north and then back east again. In short, they are burning quite a bit of fuel, going absolutely nowhere, and without being able to kill a single whale.”
The Steve Irwin is southeast bound, out of Wellington, en route to rendezvous in about a week with the other two Sea Shepherd ships and the Japanese whaling fleet.
From ABC News on February 16 2011:
Anti-whaling activists cautiously welcomed news that Japan was suspending its annual hunt near Antarctica as a result of their harassment campaign.
"If that's true then it demonstrates that our tactics, our strategies have been successful," Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson said by satellite phone from the ship Steve Irwin after being told of the suspension.
"I don't think they've gotten more than 30 whales from what I can think, certainly they haven't got many whales at all," he said.
Mr Watson was reluctant to claim a victory over the whalers, but said "every whale saved is a victory to us, so we've gotten a lot of victories down here this year".
Japan's fisheries agency said it had suspended operations on the Nisshin Maru factory ship and was considering an early end to the annual harpoon mission after harassment from the conservation group.
"Putting safety as a priority, the fleet has halted scientific whaling for now. We are currently considering what to do hereafter," Fisheries Agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku said.
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