Japan has been whaling illegally for several years, despite the International Whaling Commission’s global ban on whaling since 1986. While South Korea has more or less adhered to the whaling ban, they now would like to do it again.

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Two British supermarket chains will ensure that none of the seafood products they carry will be supplied by companies that support or engage in whaling or the hunting of other sea mammals.

Waitrose, one of the two stores, has already written to the Icelandic government asking them to reverse their decision to allow an extended whaling quota this year. The other store, Marks & Spencer, said they are drafting a letter to send soon.

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Things turned bad for Sea Shepherd when they arrived back to port in Tasmania today. They were greeted by Australian federal police who boarded the Steve Irwin ship with a warrant.

They confiscated “all edited and raw video footage, all edited and raw audio recordings, all still photographs, producer’s notes, interview transcripts, production meeting minutes, post production meeting minutes as well as the ship’s log books, global positioning system records, automatic radar plotting aid, purchase records, receipts, financial transaction records, voyage information and navigational plotted charts.”

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The longstanding and notoriously outspoken punk outfit Propagandhi has released their new two-track single as a high-quality download for fans who donate $1 to $10 to Sea Shepherd, PETA2, or Partners in Health.

The two songs, “Supporting Caste” on the A-side and “Human(e) Meat” on the B-side, come from their upcoming new record. The downloads are available through G7 Welcoming Committee, a record label collective that became download-only for environmental reasons in 2007.

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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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The Sea Shepherd crew reports that the Japanese whaling fleet managed to kill one whale today, even in the midst of a hot pursuit from the anti-whaling ship, the Steve Irwin.

Captain Paul Watson deployed his two small boats to the Nisshin Maru, the whaling fleet’s factory ship, where crew members threw “rotten butter bombs” onto the deck in an attempt to spoil the fresh whale meat. The whalers responded by throwing whale blubber back at the activists.

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Sea Shepherd, the controversial direct-action anti-whaling group featured on Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, is currently facing retaliation from the Japanese whaling ships in the form of what Sea Shepherd calls a “military grade weapon system that sends out mid to high frequency sound waves designed to disorient and possibly incapacitate personnel.”

If their description is accurate, the Japanese are acting out of accordance with international law by deploying military weapons in the Antarctic Treaty Zone. But breaking international law wouldn’t be anything new for the whalers, who by some interpretations should not even be in the Antarctic at all.

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The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is calling for a complete economic boycott of Icelandic products after the country’s announcement extending their illegal commercial whaling campaign into the next five years.

Last year, Iceland killed nine endangered Fin whales. A few months back they began exporting the meat from the endangered whales to Japan, which is a clear violation of international law. This year, they want to kill 150.

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Under a secret deal brokered between the six nations of the International Whaling Commission, Japan could be able to increase its whaling quota in the Northern Pacific Ocean in exchange for an agreement to slowly cut all its operations in the antarctic.

However, Greenpeace and other environmental groups are furious over the deal because it could result in more deaths under the supposedly scientific program. Greenpeace also plans to pressure the IWC to make its procedings more transparent to the public in the future before any deals are reached.

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Japan had requested a port closure from Australia that would ban Sea Shepherd from their ports, claiming that the anti-whaling group should be treated like pirates due to their aggressive tactics.

“The Steve Irwin will be permitted to dock at an Australian port,” said Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard. “There is insufficient reason to prevent the Steve Irwin from doing that.”

Japan has recently accused Sea Shepherd of ramming one of their ships, and later interfering with the search for a lost crew member. They had previously refused Sea Shepherd’s help in that search.

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After a man fell from a Japanese whaling ship into the freezing antarctic waters, the whalers have called off all operations while in search for the man’s body.

Sea Shepherd, usually the arch nemesis of the whalers, offered to help find the body with their two small boats and helicopter, but the Japanese refused saying they would not require any help from an “eco-terrorist organization.”

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Conservationists have brought in two Maremmas sheepdogs to watch over a small colony of fairy penguins on Australia’s Middle Island. The effort has been so successful that Middle Island is recommending sheepdogs be used to protect other endangered species across the globe.

“We are now starting to see some great results,” said Middle Island Maremma Project manager Ian Fitzgibbons. “We have had our best penguin count since we began in 2006 with over 80 birds counted in one night and I think we have about 26 chicks on the island too.”

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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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On Saturday Canada issued new regulations for its annual seal slaughter, banning the skinning of live seals and forbidding the use of the spiked weapon called a hakapik on seals over one-year-old. Unfortunately, most seals killed in the hunt are under a year old so the law will not alter the cruel deaths many seals face each year.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has confronted and interfered with the seal hunters the past several years, issued a statement condemning the Canadian efforts as merely a reaction to the European Union’s threat to ban all inhumanely slaughtered seal products.

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The December 19th season finale of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars drew a 0.8 Nielsen Media Research household rating with 1.01 million viewers.

The show performed better among adults ages 25 to 54 than any show in the network’s history. An average of 529,000 adults in the age group tuned into the season premiere, probably due to their extensive advertising campaign during the election.

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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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Environment groups settled a lawsuit in federal court today with the US Coast Guard, which agreed to abide by the Endangered Species Act which requires that shipping lanes do not put critically endangered Northern Atlantic right whales in harm’s way.

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The Canadian government opted last week to allow the killing 500 narwhals trapped beneath ice rather than calling in icebreakers to free the animals, claiming the process would have been too stressful for the whales.

Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and star of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, wrote a lengthy condemnation of the Canadian government’s decision. He noted that the government provides millions to fund ice-breaking for the annual baby seal hunt, but rejected the idea when proposed in order to save the whales.

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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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