Hi EveryOne -

12/01/07

Hill (see above) published three pictures with his post. One of these (taken in 2006) was of the bow of the whaling ship Yushin Maru, showing the ship's name, the harpoon and a bleeding minke whale being lifted by a line, with it's tail in the air. This photo must also have been sent out by one of the news agencies, as it was reprinted - over and over - in many of the world's newspapers this past week.

The Hunt

Presumably, the Japanese whaling fleet is continuing its journey towards Antarctia. I don't know where the whaling ships are and the Japanese aren't talking - they obvoiusly want to shield the fleet's location from Greenpeace and SeaShepherd.

Greenpeace's ship, Esperanza, passed the Solomon Islands two days ago, according to their crew members' blog. Different crew members are contributing to their ongoing blog of their expedition, which you may read here. They update the blog regularly. They also have a webcam on on the foredeck of the Esperanza, pointing forward, which you may access here.

SeaShepherd's ship, the Robert Hunter*(see note below) is in Melbourne, Australia, and is scheduled to sail south in a week or so. They have named their 2007 antiwhaling campaign after Migaloo, the all-white humpback which has entranced Australian whale-watchers. You may read the announcement of their campaign here.

Enjoy GoogleEarth - keep surfin' and posting!!

hale

* - The SeaShepherd Society is changing the name of the M/V Robert Hunter to M/VSteve Irwin, to honor the recently-deceased Crocodile Hunter..