After a fire disabled the engine of the only meat processing ship in Japan's controversial whaling fleet, sending it home, four remaining whaling ships could only continue to the Southern Oceans of the Pacific to carry out whale population census recordings. It was a safer Christmas for the minke whales. The Japanese whalers had planned to slaughter 440 minke whales in the name of "science."
A spokesperson for the fleet said the blaze started in the meat processing area of the Nisshin Maru as it steamed down the east coast of Australia on the way to the Southern Oceans. The fleet was on its way there for the 12th year in a row, despite calls by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for Japan to stop whaling.
Last April the fleet returned with 438 minke whales, bringing the total killed for "science" to 3,767 since the Southern Ocean was declared a sanctuary by the IWC in 1994. The meat from the whales killed is part of a US$50 million-a-year whale meat market in Japan.
"Under the circumstances, any claim, no matter how loosely made, that the ship was sabotaged by anti-whaling advocates, is dangerous and highly irresponsible," a spokesperson for Breach Marine Protection said.