The Beginning

Sometimes, people have to put a bit of effort into things to change the course of history, to change what is accepted as the norm and to alter common perceptions. With the state of affairs on the planet at the moment I don’t believe there has been a more important time to do so than at the present. During the course of the Southern Hemisphere summer of 2009 / 2010, the Earthrace (www.earthrace.com) in collaboration with the Sea Shepherd Organisation (www.seashepherd.org) will be embarking on an expedition to the Southern Ocean to attempt to put a stop to illegal whaling activities by the Japanese whaling fleet. In an arrogant and defiant gesture to the rest of the world, they use the excuse of conducting “scientific research” to justify the slaughter of large numbers of whales, some of them endangered, and the meat is taken back to Japan and sold as a cultural delicacy. Naturally, cramming 127 million people onto an archipelago with a land area of only 377 835 square kilometers (as compared to 268 680 for New Zealand) will create a protein vacuum that needs to be filled in any manner possible. It is also extremely lucrative as the whales sell for between $250 000 and $1 million each once landed. The problem with this is of course that it won’t take long to exhaust the supply of whales and although they abide by quotas set by the International Whaling Commision these aren’t policed and the whales are taken out of an internationallty recognisedwhale sanctuary. This is done as unobtrusively as possible by sneaking down south, not using any large international ports and generally keeping a very low profile while the world watches “Eastenders”. The aim of the expedition is to expose and publicise their illegal activity and to delay, frustrate and cause as much difficulty to them as we can. The ultimate result would be that we make the whole venture a commercial failure, minimising their incentive to return in the coming years. I, personally, would like my daughter’s kids to see the whale breach in the photo above and be able to enjoy the bio diversity that we can all enjoy today if we take the time to look around. This blog is a personal diary of my small part of the venture and a way of keeping up with friends and loved ones. I hope you enjoy the insight this gives you into the mission.