The Institute of Cetacean Research is a research organization specializing in the "biological and social sciences related to whales".
Japanese whaling, in terms of active hunting of whales, is estimated by the Japan Whaling Association to have begun around the 12th century. However, Japanese whaling on an industrial scale began around the 1890s when Japan started to participate in the modern whaling industry, at that time an industry in which many countries participated.
Drawing Restraint 9 is a 2005 film project by visual artist Matthew Barney consisting of a feature-length film, large-scale sculptures, photographs, drawings, and books. The Drawing Restraint series consists of 19 numbered components and related materials. Some episodes are videos, others sculptural installations or drawings. Barney created Drawing Restraint 1-6 while still an undergraduate at Yale University and completed Drawing Restraint 16 in 2007 at London's Serpentine Gallery. With a soundtrack composed by Björk, Drawing Restraint 9 is an unconventional love story set in Japan. The narrative structure is built upon themes such as the Shinto religion, the tea ceremony, the history of whaling, and the supplantation of blubber with refined petroleum for oil.
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales.
The Nisshin Maru (日新丸) was the primary vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet and was the world's only whaler factory ship. It was the research base ship for the Institute of Cetacean Research for 2002 to 2007. It had a tonnage of 8,145 GT and is the largest member and flagship of the five-ship whaling fleet, headed by leader Shigetoshi Nishiwaki. The ship was based in Japan in Shimonoseki harbor and was owned by Tokyo-based Kyodo Senpaku, which is a subsidiary of the Institute of Cetacean Research.
The 8,725 ton Hiyo Maru (飛鷹丸) was the largest member of the Japanese whaling fleet; providing fuel, resources, and stock storage space for that fleet and its crew. In 1992, it was renamed and re-flagged to Panama as the Oriental Bluebird. According to Greenpeace, after a dispute with the Panamanian Government in 2008, it was de-flagged and re-registered to Japan. The Hiyo Maru served as the fuel tanker for Japan's whaling fleet, and was alleged by Greenpeace to also transport whale meat. In August 2010, the ship was sold to China to be scrapped.
The MV Steve Irwin was the 59-metre (194 ft) flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and was used in their direct action campaigns against whaling and against illegal fisheries activities. The vessel was built in 1975 and formerly served as a Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency conservation enforcement patrol boat, the FPV Westra, for 28 years.
The Yūshin Maru No. 2 is a Japanese-registered whale catcher that undertakes whaling operations in the North Pacific Ocean and Southern Ocean. Along with other vessels of the Japanese whaling fleet, she has been featured on American television since 2008, in the documentary-style reality series Whale Wars.
Whale Wars was a weekly American documentary-style reality television series that premiered on November 7, 2008 on the Animal Planet cable channel. The program follows Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, as he and the crew aboard their various vessels attempted to stop the killing of whales by Japanese vessels (whalers) off the coast of Antarctica.
The MY Bob Barker was a ship owned and operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, named after American television game show host and animal rights activist Bob Barker, whose donation of $5 million to the society facilitated the purchase of the ship. She began operating for the group in late 2009 / early 2010 in its campaign against whaling by Japanese fisheries. In October 2010, Sea Shepherd stated that Bob Barker had completed a major refit in Hobart, Tasmania. Hobart became the ship's honorary home port in 2014.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society engages in various demonstrations, campaigns, and tactical operations at sea and elsewhere, including conventional protests and direct actions to protect marine wildlife. Sea Shepherd operations have included interdiction against commercial fishing, shark poaching and finning, seal hunting and whaling. Many of their activities have been called piracy or terrorism by their targets and by the ICRW. Sea Shepherd says that they have taken more than 4,000 volunteers on operations over a period of 30 years.
At the Edge of the World is a 2008 documentary which chronicles the efforts of animal rights activist Paul Watson and 45 other volunteers, who set out in two Sea Shepherd ships to hinder the Japanese whaling fleet in the waters around Antarctica. The film won Best Environmental Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Director and Producer Dan Stone would later produce the first season of Whale Wars. It depicts what actually went on during this excursion, with clips of beautiful scenery, news clips, whaling in action, and life on the ship.
The Southern Whaling and Sealing Company Ltd (SWSC) were a United Kingdom-based whaling and sealing company, originally formed in 1911 by the partnership of Richard Irvin & Sons of North Shields and the South African-based fishing company Irvin & Johnson. Latterly they were sold to Lever Bros., in 1919 and re-sold to Christian Salvesen Ltd in 1941.
Kuroshio Maru was a tanker that was built in 1938 for Japanese owners. She was chartered by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army during World War II: the ship was sunk in January 1945 at Takao, Formosa by American aircraft. Salvaged in 1946, she was allocated as a war prize to China and renamed Yung Hao, but was forced to remain at Hong Kong by the British. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty during the Korean War and allocated to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was to have been named RFA Surf Pilot but due to her poor condition she did not serve in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She served as Surf Pilot, a tender to HMS Terror until 1958 and was subsequently scuttled off Pulau Aur, Malaya in 1960.
Commercial whaling in Britain began late in the 16th century and continued after the 1801 formation of the United Kingdom and intermittently until the middle of the 20th century.
Sun Laurel is a South Korean-owned oil tanker built in 2008 and currently operating under the flag of Vanuatu.
The Sasebo Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., also simply known as the Sasebo Heavy Industries, is a company whose main business is heavy industry, based in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture. A wholly owned subsidiary of Namura Shipbuilding. Known as SSK. It is an acronym for Sasebo Ship Industry, which was the company name when it was first established.
Tonan Maru No. 3, from 1951 simply the Tonan Maru, was a Japanese whale oil factory ship. Built at Osaka in 1938 she was the largest merchant ship built in Japan to that point. She carried out whaling in the South Atlantic and in 1941 was blacklisted by the British government, believed to be because she was suspected of refuelling German vessels in the Pacific during the Second World War. Following the Japanese entry into the war Tonan Maru No. 3 was operated as an oil tanker in support of military operations. She survived 11 torpedo hits from USS Tinosa in 1943 as most failed to detonate. Tonan Maru No. 3 was sunk in Chuuk Lagoon by carrier-based aircraft in the 17 February 1944 Operation Hailstone. She was salvaged by Japan after the war, rebuilt and returned to service as the Tonan Maru in 1951. She returned to whaling and was scrapped in 1971.
Japan