Whaling Ship Delivers Relief Supplies to Earthquake Victims
I suppose one could say that it is a bit lucky that Japan’s whaling fleet returned home a little bit early this year, since they can now use their largest ship to deliver supplies to earthquake victims:
The 8,044-ton Nisshin Maru, which returned to Japan Monday from an aborted whaling voyage to the Antarctic Ocean, is now loading tons of supplies, including kerosene, charcoal fuel and cup noodles, for a plan to arrive Sunday at a yet undecided port in the disaster area, captain Tomoyuki Ogawa said.
The vessel took aboard 5 tons of charcoal, 100,000 cup noodles, kerosene tanks and other supplies with cranes Thursday. It will also deliver heavy oil in its on-board fuel tank to quake-stricken areas, he said.
”We want to deliver the supplies to areas such as isolated remote islands,” the captain said.
An ATV video shows the whaling ship loading up supplies and sailing north:
Update: Sea Shepherd has put up a blog post introducing the story of the Nisshin Maru’s relief mission under the title, “Sea Shepherd’s Efforts Provide Assistance to Earthquake Victims in Japan.” Here’s an excerpt:
Due to the whalers’ early retreat, the Japanese Nisshin Maru factory ship arrived in Tokyo Bay a month earlier than normal on March 21, 2011. Japanese authorities immediately commandeered the ship to deliver aid supplies to northern Japan.
A nice story, but false. From all the accounts I’ve seen in the Japanese media, the ship was not “commandeered” by authorities. The whalers, many of whom come from the Tohoku area, volunteered to carry out the mission.
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