Thursday, October 23, 2008

Crikey - Steve Irwin Is Leaving Brisbane In December

November marks the beginning of the Japanese whaling season. The whaling fleet will depart from Japan for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Captain Paul Watson and the Steve Irwin will leave Brisbane, Australia in early December and should arrive at the Sanctuary about the same time as the Japanese fleet.

Captain Watson and his crew are taking the correctly-named vessel. Steve was a passionate environmentalist and would have wanted to be in the forefront of this battle. Good luck Captain Watson, crew and the Steve Irwin: May you have good winds and calm waters!

"Our objective is simple," said Captain Paul Watson. "We intend to once again intervene against illegal Japanese whaling and once again we intend to save the lives of as many whales as we can with the resources available to us. We have been the cause of the Japanese whaling fleet losing profits for three years in a row. We intend to make it a fourth year of red ink for the whalers' books."

Captain Watson claims that he is unable to depend on the Australian government led by Kevin Rudd to help save the whales. “They have reneged on their promises and have done far less than the John Howard government when Senator Ian Campbell was the Environment Minister. I think Environment Minister Peter Garrett should have kept playing music and stayed out of politics. He is no friend to the whales, kangaroos, trees or the environment – just another hot-air politician.”

Approximately, one year ago, both Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett promised (pre-election) to appoint a whaling ambassador and take legal action against Japan. Now, approximately one year later (post-election), shadow environment minister, Greg Hunt, is saying that both Rudd and Garrett are hoping that the public will forget these promises.

Last year’s successful campaign will be aired on the TV channel Animal Planet in a seven-part series called Whale Wars. It airs November 7, 2008 at 9:00 pm in most major American cities. It will be air internationally at later dates.

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