Second mate Daniel keeps the inflatable on the stern of the Nisshin-maru while Pinxo tries to prevent the crew from hauling in a young minke whale.

Onboard the M/V Arctic Sunrise

Day Sixty-one - 8 January 2000

"Swamped"

The crew of the Japanese whalers, probably a little flustered at seeing Greenpeacers re-emerge on their horizon, approached the task of hosing the activists with a noticeable zeal.

The whaling fleet had given us the slip and we spent much of the early part of 2000 bogged down in rough seas trying to discern the Japanese ships from the many icebergs that dotted our radar screens. In better weather we could have launched our helicopter for an aerial search but the visibility was extremely poor and the conditions made flying, especially take-off and landing, far too risky.

Last night the weather cleared enough and we were able to get moving again. We were positive we had the whaling fleet on the radar and this morning we could see the ships on the horizon. We had another chance to enforce, non-violently, the internationally recognized Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

We could take pride in our persistence. Over the past three weeks we have conducted seven non-violent direct actions but we still wanted to do more.

We remain determined to halt permanently Japan's illegal whaling in the Southern Ocean. We've employeed a couple of different tactics to this end. Today we decided to use everything at our disposal, even "Wally," to prevent the fleet's catcher ships from delivering hunted whales to the Nisshin-maru for butchering. The catchers can have only a limited number of whales tied to their sides, so if you can prevent them from off-loading, you can prevent them from further hunting.

Wally is sort of the ugly duckling in our stable of inflatables. She's seen better days and is our only boat without a rigid hull, which can make for a particularly rough ride in these choppy seas.

By 10:53 in the morning she was in the water, Deb at the helm, Daniel as crew, along with the Hurricane and the African Queen (formerly known as the Gray Whale). The three inflatables converged on the Nisshin-maru.

We were in this for the long haul, but our determination and persistence ran into the reality of new tactics from the Japanese whalers.

The Yushin-maru is Japan's newest catcher boat. It is also the fastest and seems to have been built with enough high pressure hoses to put out a burning oil rig. The ship took up position behind the Nisshin-maru and unleashed it's deluge on our inflatables. Then a second catcher arrived with a whale tied to its side.

When we moved into intervene, we found ice cold sea water raining down on us from three sides. The crew of the Japanese whalers, probably a little flustered at seeing Greenpeacers re-emerge on their horizon, approached the task of hosing the activists with a noticeable zeal.

Back on board, Pinxo, who was crew on the Hurricane asked, "Did you see that guy with the bucket? Here they are spraying us with hundreds of gallons of water, and this one whaler kept running out to the railing to dump buckets on us!"

We used the larger boats to surround and shield Wally from the torrent, but soon the little inflatable quickly filled with water. Swamped, the boat was now hopelessly sluggish and more of a detriment to us than the whaling fleet. We used the African Queen as an escort while Wally limped back to the safety of the M/V Arctic Sunrise.

Greenpeace inflatables surrounded by the much larger Japanese whaling fleet.

Daniel, who was driving the Hurricane, saw what was happening. He throttled forward through the spray until the Hurricane was nudged against the stern ramp of the Nisshin Maru.

"I wanted to make a statement that we were disappointed with their whaling," Daniel later recounted. "Also, I thought maybe we could still stop them from hauling in the whale. But they winched the whale on board even as Pinxo tried to grab onto it."

It was a rough out there today, but the crew is in high spirits. We didn't achieve all we wanted to, but the reality is that the time the whaling fleet spends hosing down Greenpeace activists is time that they are not spending hunting down minke whales.

As for tomorrow, we have some innovations of our own that will hinder this illegal hunt. However, it is never far from our minds that whaling will only be stopped for good when the people of the world demand it. See our "Take Action" page to find out how you can help hold the Japanese government accountable for this violation of the Law of the Sea, and bring an end to their illegal whaling for ever.