Chris Aultman is the helicopter pilot and Aviation Director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He served for six years in the United States Marine Corps prior to joining the Sea Shepherd team. During that period Chris spent 13 months at sea and became a veteran of the Gulf War.

Aultman’s first experience with the destruction of the world’s oceans was seeing the disastrous effects of the millions of barrels of oil dumped into the Persian Gulf during that war. This and many other experiences caused Chris to start to see the world for what it really was, and nothing was ever the same again.

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Western Avenue Elementary School participated in “National Green Week” February 2nd through 8th of this year. This annual event is organized by the Green Education Foundation. Schools sign up at the Green Education Foundation website in order to participate. Participation is also available for any organized group, individuals or families. President of the Green Education Foundation, Victoria Waters, explains

“It’s important to start creating habits now, while children are young, because it can add up over a lifetime to make huge monumental consequences to the environment.”

While participating in National Green Week students of all ages are taught to use reusable containers for their lunches and drinks, to reduce waste at home and at school and to conserve water. In addition, students also learn that animals may be in danger because the earth is in trouble.

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Sea Shepherd announced today that they have decided to give up their Operation Musashi campaign against the Japanese whaling fleet for this season, citing the whalers’ increasingly violent and dangerous tactics in the Antarctic.

“I have said always said that we would do everything we can short of hurting people to end illegal whaling in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary,” said Captain Paul Watson. “Although we are willing to take the risks required, even to our own lives, I am not prepared to do to the Japanese whalers what they do to the whales and the escalating violence by the whalers will result in some serious injuries and possibly fatalities if this confrontation continues to escalate.”

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Australian and East Timorese researchers say that while conducting research, they “found” an amazing whale “hotspot” off of East Timor’s coast.

As quoted by Reuters, the principal scientist working on the study said the following: “In just one day, more than 1,000 individuals and possibly as many as 2,000 whales in eight separate pods — each one containing up to 400 mammals — were spotted over a 50-kilometre (31-mile) stretch of coast.”

Wow! Personally I think that this is a very exciting and cool discovery. The researchers also claim that the area is rich in other forms of ocean animals, like sharks and sea turtles. It highlights the need for greater protection of biodiverse ocean areas like these from unregulated fishing– a challenge given East Timor’s desire to develop their fishing industry.

As mentioned earlier, 2008 was a gigantic year for whale news. Here’s a roundup of some of the stories that were written about whales on EcoWorldly and on other sites in the Green Options network.

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The announcement by Japan’s Fisheries Agency that Sea Shepherd crew will be arrested if they disrupt Japanese whale killing operations has done little to stop the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The direct action animal rights organization, as seen on Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars”, says they are “undettered” by the threats.

“When you are willing to die for a whale, the threat of arrest is somewhat trivial,” said Captain Paul Watson. “It can only further our cause of defending the whales if the Japanese take Sea Shepherd crewmembers hostage and haul them back to Japan for prosecution. The diplomatic, political and jurisdictional issues will be profound.”

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Just earlier this week the Japanese whaling ship called the Nisshin Maru left port to begin hunting and slaughtering an expected 1,000 whales. Luckily enough, the Sea Shepherd Society has the whales’ backs…er, fins? It’s an annual confrontation between the society and the whalers, one that I’m enormously grateful for!

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Captain Paul Watson, leader of the controversial direct-action anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, said in the first episode of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars that his organization disrupts whaling because governments refuse to enforce the International Whaling Commission’s guidelines on their own.

It looks like Sea Shepherd will be left to disrupt the Japanese without government assistance this whaling season yet again, which starts in about a month.

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The show will chronicle the exploits of an anti-whaling group who takes their quest directly to the front lines, trying to stop Japanese whaling vessels from succeeding in killing whales.

Planetsave editor and contributor Alex Felsinger recently previewed the exciting series. In short, it chronicles how the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society stopped Japanese whalers from killing at least 300 whales last winter by using harsh, combative tactics.

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