(from "Whaling Issues and Japan's Whale Research", ICR, 1993)

Toshio Kojima
Free-lancer, Former Reuter Journalist

On November 14, 1991, the research fleet of the Institute of Cetacean Research left Japan for its fifth annual cruise in the Antarctic Ocean. The newly commissioned mother ship Nisshin Maru (7,198 tons) left Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, while three catchers - or sighting/sampling vessels as they are now officially called - left Shimonoseki, southern Japan, for a non-stop, five-month journey. The three catchers were the Kyo Maru No. 1 (812 tons), the Toshi Maru No. 25 (739 tons) and the Toshi Maru No. 18 (758 tons).

The news reached Singapore the same day and cast Miss Naoko Funahashi, a member of Greenpeace Japan, into a pessimistic mood. As coordinator of the anti-whaling campaign for Greenpeace, she was busy in the southeast Asian country organising a cruise to obstruct the research fleet. The vessel she would be using was the motor vessel (MV) Greenpeace, which was currently undergoing repairs there.

Hitherto, she and her cosmopolitan team of activists had believed they would be going up against the old Nisshin Maru No. 3 (22,814 tons), as on the previous four research cruises. But the Nisshin Maru No. 3, which had played an important role as a factory ship during the modern commercial whaling era, had been sold to China earlier that year for scrap. The 43-year-old ship had been too costly to keep in repair and to run, and had been far too large for the present research needs. Thus the new Nisshin Maru was brought in as a replacement. But the new vessel was very different from the old. She was built in 1987 by Nippon Suisan, a leading Japanese fishing company, as the Chikuzen Maru. She was one of Japan's most-modern stern-trawlers, converted to whaling and research specifications.

Funahashi told me after I returned from the Antarctic five months later that her group had planned their tactics on the assumption they would be up against the Nisshin Maru No. 3. Greenpeace had practiced obstructionist activities against the fleet during its second (1988/89) and fourth (1990/91) cruises and knew that the old mother ship could do no more than 10 knots and could not make quick or sharp manoeuvers. In previous encounters, the Greenpeacers, using their converted tugboat MV Gondwana and its helicopters and inflatables, had disturbed the research for short periods en route to their summer base camp in the Antarctic. For example, they zig-zagged in front of the Japanese catcher boats to hinder their passage and blocked the slipway of the mother ship to obstruct the transfer of whales. They then distributed to the world's mass media photos of their stunts with the Japanese ships in the background.

This time too Funahashi had requested a helicopter but she had been turned down. Her superiors, it seemed, believed they could easily frustrate the Japanese research just by following the mother ship in the MV Greenpeace and launching a selection of five inflatables. With the MV Greenpeace being capable of 14 knots (or 4 knots more than the Nisshin Maru No. 3), they had anticipated being able to achieve their objective in a fairly short time. When they heard about the new mother ship, their optimism vanished.

For some years past, Funahashi had dreamed of having a ship assigned exclusively for the purpose of disrupting the Japanese fleet. When she raised the matter with her colleagues in Greenpeace offices around the world, they soon reached a consensus and obtained support from HQ in Amsterdam. She had estimated the total cost - including fuel, wages and food - would run to about 20 million yen (US $ 160,000 at a rate of $ 1 to 125 yen).

On November 18 the MV Greenpeace left Singapore with a crew of 28 men and women from nine countries, bound for the pack ice edge at about 100° E, where she would ambush the Japanese fleet.

On the Nisshin Maru, meanwhile, a similar sense of groundless optimism prevailed - optimism that Greenpeace would not be paying them a visit this time, because the research area was different from that covered in the second and fourth cruises on which Greenpeace had taken part. The area this year was the same as for the first (1987/88) and third (1989/90) cruises. However the optimism prevailed only because the Japanese did not know that the MV Gondwana had searched this area in vain for the Japanese fleet in March 1990, and that the MV Greenpeace was cruising ahead to the research area.

As it turned out, the cruises of both the Institute of Cetacean Research and of Greenpeace suffered setbacks because their organisers had failed to pay attention to a cardinal points of crisis management; they had not collected accurate information on their opponent. As a result, the Institute of Cetacean Research would be forced to alter part of its original programme, while Greenpeace would spend most of their two months in the Antarctic drifting aimlessly (though their press releases paint a very different picture). Indeed, the Greenpeacers spent most of their time speeding pell-mell in their inflatables emitting black exhaust in the tranquil Antarctic, without being checked by anybody, and unable to take any effective action against the Japanese fleet. Funahashi also told me later that the cost had more than doubled from the original estimate, though she did not have the exact figure.

Moratorium and Start of Research Whaling

Ten years after the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm gave a boost to the anti-whaling movement, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted to impose a moratorium on the commercial taking of all large whales, effective from 1986. The resolution carried a clause that the moratorium would be reviewed by 1990, after completion of a comprehensive assessment of resources, to see whether commercial quotas could be set once again.

The IWC adopted this moratorium for political reasons, and in so doing ignored the advice of its Scientific Committee that the minke whale was too abundant to merit inclusion under the moratorium. Four countries - Japan, Norway, Peru and the USSR - lodged objections to the moratorium, but Japan later withdrew its objection and halted minke whaling after the 1986/87 Antarctic season and the 1987 season in coastal waters. (Peru also retracted its objection, while Norway and the USSR stopped whaling without retracting their objections).

Japan reluctantly retracted its objection because of strong pressure from the US, which had threatened to deny Japanese fishing quotas in its waters. After weighing the pros and cons of fishing versus minke whaling, Japan chose American fishing rights. Despite this, the US later ousted the Japanese fishermen from its 200-mile waters. The Chikuzen Maru, which had been built for the purpose of trawling in US waters, suddenly had nothing to do, and ironically would end up in the new role of research vessel employed in the effort to reopen commercial whaling.

The US President every year permits a certain group of American citizens in Alaska to catch and eat a limited number of bowhead whales (one of the most endangered species), a type of whaling categorised by the IWC as "Aboriginal/Subsistence Whaling". If this practise were banned it would bring great pressure to bear on Japan and other whaling nations to abandon their hopes to resume whaling. But the reality is not so.

Japan is a traditional whaling nation and has no desire to give it up. With the introduction of the moratorium, Japan decided to build up a body of scientific evidence as the starting point for discussing the resumption of whaling, and in 1987 began a research programme in the Antarctic. The principal objective of this programme is to collect highly reliable data which can be incorporated in a scientifically based conservation and management procedure for whale resources.

The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (Article VIII) stipulates that any IWC member can take whales for scientific research and must process and utilise them as by-products.

In practical terms, the research consists in essence of travelling to the Antarctic each summer over a period of 16 years, and there catching 300 minke whales (plus minus 10%) annually and conducting sighting surveys to monitor minke whale resources. According to the IWC, there are at least 760,000 minke whales in the Antarctic during the austral summer, excluding those animals which feed inside the pack ice. As it is known that considerable numbers of minke whales do feed inside the pack ice, the total population should be somewhat higher.

According to Douglas Butterworth, an associate professor in applied mathematics at Cape Town University and an invited participant of the IWC's Scientific Committee, a method called the New Management Procedure (NMP), which was used to set quotas during the closing years of commercial whaling, would give a quota of between 10,000 and 15,000 per year out of the 760,000 minke whales. But under a replacement for the NMP adopted by the IWC in 1992, the Revised Management Procedure (in the development of which Butterworth played a leading role), trial runs show the resources would not affected by an annual catch of 4,000 and that the most conservative takable number is 2,500 to 3,000.

The prime objective of the Japanese research is to accumulate knowledge which will enable accurate prediction of the population dynamics of minke whale resources. This is one of the most essential elements of resource management, and it requires data on sex, age at sexual maturity, age composition, natural mortality rate and recruitment rate. This information cannot be obtained without resorting to lethal sampling. To determine the age of a baleen whale such as the minke a plug of hardened wax within the ear canal is extracted and sliced vertically to reveal dark and light stripes which represent growth layers. These can be counted to tell the whale's age in much the same way as one would tell the age of a tree by counting its growth rings.

In the research, the method of predicting the future population dynamics of human beings based on the present age composition is applied to minke whale stocks.

A highly sophisticated random method has been developed to collect, without bias from vast areas, representative samples of different types of resources. Data collected during the whaling era were biased because large, adult minke whales aggregating at the pack ice edge were efficiently hunted.

The second objective of the research is to find a clue to the role that whales play in the ecosystem of the Antarctic, with the minke whale placed at its centre. Other than the biological studies on the taken minke whales, the researchers conducted sighting surveys to assess stock sizes of blue whales, fin whales, humpback whales, sei whales, Bryde's whales, sperm whales and killer whales.

During the heyday of Antarctic whaling, the fleets of the whaling nations concentrated on the blue whale, the largest creature on Earth, until its stocks were so depleted that the IWC banned all catches in 1964. According to the Bureau of International Whaling Statistics, until that year a total of 201,013 blue whales were caught in the Southern Hemisphere by Norway, British, Japan, the USSR, the Netherlands, South Africa, Panama, Germany, the US and Denmark. The latest estimate by the IWC of their population in this hemisphere is 700.

There is a hypothesis that the age at which minke whales are reaching sexual maturity has fallen, and the population has risen to more than the pristine stock level, as a result of the removal of so many of their larger competitors for krill, the main diet of baleen whales in the Antarctic. In turn, the increase in numbers of minke whales is thought to have led to a reduction in the amount of krill available for larger baleen whales such as blue whales, thus reducing their reproductive rate. Proponents of this hypothesis believe that the populations of large baleen whales will take far longer to recover unless some culling takes place of the minke whale population. In the history of modern whaling, it was only two decades ago that minke whales became the target of whalers in the Antarctic, because they are the smallest baleen whale species after the pygmy right whale. As a result, only 100,000 or so minke whales have ever been caught in the Antarctic. A secondary objective of the Japanese research is therefore to shed light on the validity of this hypothesis.

In 1987 the Institute of Cetacean Research was founded as a non-profit organization to conduct research under the supervision of the Fisheries Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The same year Kyodo Hogei, a whaling company, was dissolved and reformed into Kyodo Senpaku, a leasing company of the mother ship and catchers as well as their crews.

The institute conducts its research each year in the austral summer, from December to March. This is the time when minke whales migrate to the Antarctic to feed on krill, which are abundant in this season, after spending the winter in tropical and sub-tropical waters.

Rather than spreading its limited resources thinly throughout the Antarctic, the Institute of Cetacean Research is currently confining its efforts to two areas from six demarcated by the IWC: Area IV (70 - 130° E) and Area V (130° E - 170° W). These areas are the closest to Japan and were also the main hunting grounds for Japanese whalers until the moratorium was imposed. Thus Japan has a lot of data on minke whales in these areas from the days of commercial whaling. Feasibility studies were conducted in Area IV and Area V the following season, and since then the full-scale research program has alternated between the two areas.

Greenpeace International had their summer base camp on the shore of the Ross Sea, in Area V. They used the Gondwana to go to the camp and obstructed the Japanese fleet in the second and fourth research cruises in this area. On its way back to Australia from the base camp, the Gondwana went to Area IV in an attempt to locate the Japanese fleet conducting the fourth survey, but failed to find it because the area was far from the base.

This time the research was to take place in Area IV. The Japanese fleet had been informed that Greenpeace would be closing down the summer camp, and that the Gondwana would be fully occupied shipping men and equipment. It was also remembered that the last time the fleet had entered this area, there had been no encounter with Greenpeace. There was thus a strong feeling that the fleet would be able to concentrate on research without being bothered by Greenpeace, as the Japanese were paying undue attention to information on the Gondwana's movements.

Greenpeace International had obtained an outline of the plan for the fifth research cruise and reports of previous cruises from the IWC, and was therefore aware of the approximate starting point and trackline pattern of the fleet. But they did not know the exact starting point as this was chosen at random by the cruise leader using a computer after the Nisshin Maru left Japan.

The whole area was divided into two sectors along the 100° E line, West (70° E - 100° E) and East (100° E - 130° E). Further divisions were made into three latitudinal strata, North, Middle and South. With the exception of the narrow North sectors, all strata were surveyed in two periods to monitor seasonal differences of population density and migratory patterns. The North strata were covered on the fleet's way to and from the main ground. Prydz Bay was surveyed in the second period when the frozen sea retreated southwards at the height of summer.

The sectors were as follows:
North: 55 - 60° S
Middle: 60° S. Northern boundary of South strata (Note: in the first period it was between 58° S and Northern boundary of South strata as the melting of pack ice was still slow and the pack ice edge was still extending well to offshore.)
South: Pack ice line to 45 miles north of line
Prydz Bay: 70 - 80° E; south of 66° S

All tracklines of the Middle and South strata were determined using a pre-fixed method after randomly selecting a starting point on the 100° E line. In this way it was determined that the fleet would first proceed westwards through Sector South-West, then turn eastwards at the western end at 70° E to cover Sector Middle-West up to 100° E, then go eastwards through Sector South-East up to the east end at 130° E, and then turn westwards again to survey Sector Middle-East, before ending the first period at 100° E. The pattern would then be repeated in the second period except for Prydz Bay, which would be surveyed immediately after Sector South-West.

Therefore there was a great chance for Greenpeace to intercept the Japanese vessels by lieing in wait on the 100° E line.

Organization of Research Fleet

I. Researchers

A total of 158 people were on board the four vessels, led by the newly appointed head of the research cruise, Dr. Yoshihiro Fujise. He directed and supervised biological research on the mother ship, and the sampling and sighting activities of the catchers. Inspector Teruo Sakai was also among them, representing the project assignor, the Fisheries Agency.

Fujise, born in 1957, was an active member of a mountaineering club while at a high school in Osaka, western Japan, and cherished the hope of studying something associated with nature during his years in higher education. He advanced to the Marine Science Section of the Department of Science and Engineering at Ryukyu University in Okinawa, took his master's degree while in the Department of Agriculture at Ehime University in Shikoku, and took a doctorate in science and fisheries at Hokkaido University. He became an expert in chemical analysis of heavy metals, in the field of environmental pollution, which are found accumulated in dolphins. He then joined the Institute of Cetacean Research, and accompanied the first and second Antarctic cruises as a researcher and the third cruise as deputy cruise leader.

In the biological department Hajime Ishikawa, veterinarian, and Shigeo Saino from the Institute, and three assistants from Kyodo Senpaku participated.

Ishikawa, born in 1960, was also a keen mountaineer during his high school days in Kanagawa Prefecture, and had hoped to find a job which would enable him to work under the sun when grown up. He went to the Nippon Veterinary and Zootechnical College and specialized in distinguishing the sexes of fetuses of minke whales in the Department of Zootomy. He then worked at Toba Aquarium for five years, taking care of marine mammals such as finless porpoises. Wishing to learn more about whales and dolphins, he joined the institute in 1989 and has been on every Antarctic research cruise since the third expedition.

Saino, born in 1965, devoted himself to collecting and keeping fish in rivers in and around Tokyo and tropical fish during his school days. He gave up his desire to go to a university of marine science outside Tokyo because of family reasons, and studied instead at the Japan Animal and Plant Academy before becoming a curator of killer whales and dolphins at Kamogawa Sea World, a marine park near Tokyo. He joined the institute in 1989. This was the first time for him to go to the Antarctic.

The three research assistants, all in their 40s or 50s, entered the whaling industry soon after leaving school, and have worked all their lives aboard factory ships, engaging in various jobs both on and below decks. Their skills and cooperation in cutting out necessary samples promptly, measuring and weighing them, and packing them ready for storage were indispensable.

Particularly invaluable was the expertise of Shigeo Tabata. Born in 1941 in the old whaling community of Arikawa in southern Japan, he did a job similar to his present work as a researcher for Kyodo Senpaku over the last 12 years of commercial whaling.

Three other young researchers were allocated to the catchers to select minke whales to catch using a random sampling table, to keep records and to record the natural markings of larger baleen whales, under the direction of Dr. Fujise. They were Masatsugu Nagano of the institute and two university students, So Kawaguchi and Kenta Ishii.

II. Sampling

The four vessels, navigating independently after leaving Japan, passed through the Lombok Strait off the Indonesian island of Bali, and on November 26 came together for the first time in the Indian Ocean. While the Nisshin Maru was supplying the catchers with fuel, water and food, the three researchers transferred to them and Dr. Fujise convened a briefing session with the key officers of the catchers (the captains, chief engineers and radio operators) to make the final confirmation of the research procedure.

To find and catch minke whale samples, the cooperation of veteran crewmembers with 20 or 30 years' experience in the Antarctic and Pacific is vital.

But to these veterans there were a number of things about their new assignments that differed from the days of commercial whaling, such as the predetermined tracklines, the random sampling system after spotting minke whales, the procedure to return to the trackline after taking or losing a whale, and the detailed documentation of their daily activities. They must have been confused during the first few research cruises. And furthermore, as the research procedures have been improved and modified each year, if they should fail to keep fully abreast of these changes, they would risk disrupting the coordinated action of the fleet as a whole, thereby damaging the credibility of the research.

Under the organisational structure, the captains of the sighting and sampling vessels, or in the old way the captains of the whale catchers, were assistants to the researchers who were as young as their sons. These proud whaler men can bear the unbearable because they firmly believe that the research will pave the way for the resumption of whaling.

The sampling rule can be simply explained as follows: the three catcher vessels were deployed on three tracklines, with the centre trackline as the main course and the two sub courses set in parallel nine miles distant on either side of the main course. Each of the three covered a six-mile-wide band with its trackline as the centre line. Two three-mile-wide, buffer zones were sandwiched between the three research bands. In the South sectors and Prydz Bay, the vessel on the main course engaged solely in sighting while the others were also catching samples, but in the Middle sectors all three were assigned to sampling.

In principle, the crews of the three vessels were forbidden to communicate with one another, because it was feared that the strong sense of rivalry commonly observed among catcher crews during the days of commercial whaling might return and have an adverse effect on the research.

Three crewmembers - typically the boatswain and two deckhands - searched for whales with binoculars from the crow's nest, while the researcher, the captain, the gunner and a crewmember searched from the upper bridge. When a whale or a school of whales was spotted, the ship approached it. For example, if is was a school of two or more whales, the boatswain counted the number of whales, estimated the size of each, noted the positions of individuals in the formation of the school, and reported through a microphone down to the captain. Then the captain drew a rough sketch of the formation on paper and showed it to the researcher, who then selected a target using a random sampling table and reported it to Fujise on the Nisshin Maru to ask if they could take it. At times he would say "No", such as when the fleet was in densely populated waters and he had decided that the fleet as a whole would take a sample from every other school sighted, or because enough samples had been already taken for that day. On such occasions, the crew's disappointment was great. It was as if a hunting dog was told to stop at the very moment he was about to pounce on his quarry. It was only natural that on such occasions the crews of the catcher vessels cursed their cruise leader. And on these long cruises in confined spaces such as are found on catcher boats they would air their grievances again and again over tumblers of whisky.

On the fifth cruise, the largest number of whales caught in a day was 12. Even if more samples could have been taken, it would have meant too much work for the men aboard the mother vessel to handle within a day, and would have caused their physical strength and health to deteriorate.

For the gunners there was a new ordeal that they had not faced during their commercial whaling days. Now they were aiming for samples. In particular, they could not destroy the ear plugs and these were needed intact to tell the whale's age. Meanwhile, if the harpoon hit the back near the flukes, it would damage the premium meat by-product. The perfect shot would hit the heart and kill the whale instantly. But they also had to hunt for tiny whales if so directed by the random sampling table, and had to catch them within one hour or give up the chase and return to the trackline as quickly as possible.

During the days of commercial whaling the gunners had a number of occasions to fire at either large, fast baleen whales or small and quick minke whales in one season, and could therefore practise a lot on a variety of targets.

Now there are only three gunners and as many trainee gunners in Japan. If 300 minkes are equally divided into six, one harpooner has only 50 chances to fire. And they have to hunt for both big and small targets - as selected using the random table - without damaging the samples. They are operating under severe circumstances.

III. Biological Research

The workplaces of Ishikawa's band of biologists were the deck, a two-storey research hut built on the stern deck, and an office in the officer's living quarters.

Their work of collecting samples and data was divided into four fields.

A) The most important task of the expeditions is to collect age-related information on stocks as well as information on maturity and reproduction capability. To this end, they measured the body length and proportions of whales and weighed them and then collected the ear plugs, part of the sixth thoracic vertebra and the fifth lumber (indicators of growth status), testis and epididymis, sperm, mammary gland, ovary, sperm in the uterus and foetuses.

B) To identify stocks and to know their migration pattern, they observed and measured forms and collected parasites and brownish diatoms on the skin, foetuses and various tissues. (Note: differences in diatoms and parasites indicate differences in migration patterns and thus stocks.)

C) To know the role of the minke whale in the food cycle or ecosystem in the Antarctic, they measured the thickness of blubber at various points, collected various tissues for analysis of heavy metals accumulated in the minke whale body in the food cycle, weighed contents in the stomachs and collected stomach samples. (Like cows, minke whales have four stomachs.)

D) Samples were also included for the study of the parasites and diatoms themselves, embryology and environmental chemistry.

The routine work items on the deck and the research hut numbered 45 per whale and it took about one hour to perform them all. But the actual volume of work was quite big as even one item, for example checking the stomach contents, required going through all four stomachs, and checking the blubber thickness required measurements at 18 points. Ishikawa and Saino put the data into computers within the day. The data and samples thus collected were brought home to be sent for analysis to research institutes, including the Institute of Cetacean Research and researchers at universities. Of course, Fujise and Ishikawa were involved.

There was no work when bad weather prevented sampling and there were no findings and in those days when the fleet moved to the starting points of the new research sectors and supply days. But on such days as catches concentrated in the afternoon and their deliveries came in a bunch Ishikawa and Saino could not go to bed until two o'clock in the morning. The daily programme started at 6:00 a.m. The delivery of whales to the Nisshin Maru, if any, started at 8:00 a.m. Even if a whale was pulled up to the deck, deckhands and flensers could not start their jobs before the research work. On such occasions, Ishikawa and Saino were kicked out of their beds.

During the whaling days, a limited scale of research work was carried out along the process of flensing of minke whales. The dismembering of blubber, meat, organs and others, using winches and long and short spades, was finished within a matter of 15 minutes. While Kyodo Hogei was still whaling until the moratorium there were two employees assigned to collect data and samples to send to research institutes and universities at home for study. Each of the two covered an eight-hour watch in turn a day.

Tabata was one of the two. When a minke whale was pulled up to the deck he immediately took measurements as once the flukes were separated at its joint part all flensing work was finished soon. The flensing always started when the flukes were cut off. The whale was pulled up with wire tied around the fluke joint. After taking the measurements, he checked the sex, noted the time at which flensing started, checked blubber thickness, and collected tissue samples from the liver, heart and kidney. In the case of males he weighed the testicles and sampled part of them and then checked kinds of the stomach contents and weighed it. If the stomach contained undigested krill, he would measure the length of some samples. The most important job was to collect the ear plugs and put them in formalin. He did all these alone keeping pace with the flenser's work. All samples were sealed and stored in a freezer. Often 10 to 20 whales were pulled up during one watch. On such days he scarcely had time to catch his breath, and if he did have a free moment, he would help with other work on deck.

Comparing quality of the current research with that of what he did before, Tabata could see a fundamental difference. Now biologists and research experts come to do field work and research comes first and flensing next. They take enough time for research work. It takes altogether 80 minutes before processing all, including flensing, or more than five times his days. The deckhands and flensers help out the researchers and their assistants with the taking of measurements, weighing and sampling as they have to deal with heavy and large bodies. Their cooperation is vital.

He knew that during the first few cruises there had been a number of awkward moments between members of the minority group of young scientists and the main community of the fleet formed by aged whalers with lower education background - except for a handful of officers and officials with higher education - but with a strong sense of self-respect that they were experts on whales. In view of the decline of the whale industry, there were no new recruitments of young people and the existing staff and workers were aging. Being a man of the two sides, he was pleased to see that nowadays the two groups had gradually established cooperative relationship. The young scientists have learned the customs and ways of thinking and life of the whalers and on the other hand the latter have come to recognise the significance of the current research for their future from a long-term point of view.

Preparation

The deckhands and flensers and factory workers of the mother ship completed the remaining part of the work to convert the trawler into the research whaling base on their way before reaching the Antarctic. The main part of the reconstruction work had been done at a dockyard. However because of the limited time and cost, the minor parts had been left to them. On the deck a work hut and shelters for winch operators were built with iron plates and belt conveyers and a blubber cutting machine that had been transferred from the scrapped factory ship were set up. Most part of the iron deck was covered with wooden floor. The floor became slippery with whale oil. It was a must for anyone who went out to the deck during the research period to wear a pair of long boots with spikes on the soles and a helmet. Fountains of sea water, warmed after being used as engine coolant, constantly washed the deck to remove oil, to keep it clean for dissecting, and to prevent it from freezing. The deck fences were covered with canvas sheet to keep out the biting wind blowing off the sea. Unless the weather was too bad, research and flensing were carried out in winds, snow and at night under lighting.

All preparation work was completed before the Nisshin Maru reached the storm zone. After going south past the tropical scorching equator zone there exists the storm zone between 40° S and 50° S - the Roaring Forties - where the seas are rough throughout the year.

Under the deck a factory was completed. Here meat, blubber and other by-products, which were roughly cut up on the deck, were put in rectangular iron pans with a capacity of 15 kg, which were sent by belt conveyor to a flash freezer. The deep-frozen by-products were then removed from the pans, packed in cardboard boxes and sent to the freezer hold. The by-products were classified into 47.

The main jobs of the workers are flensing, cutting, packing and freezing. However the workers have other skills such as welding, carpentry and sewing.

A stowaway was found aboard the Nisshin Maru on the day following its departure. It was a gray starling, or mukudori in Japanese, somewhere in size between a dove and a sparrow. In the initial days it was seen flying here and there over the ship and dipping itself in a pool of squall water. Nobody knew what it was living on and it became thinner. Some people put rice grains on the deck and spiked mandarin oranges, persimmons and apples with a long nail on a wooden cover of a capstan beside the research hut. It loved ripe persimmons. The bird gradually became less cautious about human-beings working around the deck.

Before reaching the storm zone, Tabata made a cage and lured the bird into it. Since then through the cruise it lived in the second storey of the research hut as a mascot of the researchers, freely flying around the room. It relieved itself anywhere it liked - on the deck, chairs, papers and the heads of men. It must have been the world's first mukudori to travel all the way from the Northern Hemisphere to the Antarctic.

Encounter with Greenpeace

Dec. 4: MV Greenpeace arrived at the ice pack edge on 100° E.

Dec. 5 - 6: The fleet covered the first period North sector from 55° S to 60° S along the 94° 58' E line, which was randomly chosen for the sector. Then it veered southeast to the 100° E line to start research of the South-West sector. There were two minke whales spotted, but lost.

The Toshi Maru No. 25 (to be called No. 25), omitting this sector, was despatched south in advance to survey an pack ice line around 90° E. It was an important role for the catchers to survey pack ice lines. To determine the tracklines for the South sectors, irregular pack ice lines were used as their southern-most boundaries, in other words the northern-most boundaries of the pack ice which extend well into offshore from the continent - at some places pack ice fields extend several tens of miles and at other places several 100s miles from the continent coast. In winter it develops and in summer it retreats. In summer pack ice edges thaw and sea currents and strong winds and waves under low and high pressures often change pack ice lines.

Dec. 7: The Toshi Maru No. 18 (to be called No. 18) was surveying pack ice line on 100° E, to get information to select the starting point of research.

To decide on the starting point, first, one longitude line between 100° E and 94° E was randomly chosen by Fujise, which this time fell on 99° 22' E. This was the standard longitude line to determine all tracklines of this research programme except for the North sectors. Next a straight line was drawn at a computed angle roughly in the direction of northeast from the pack ice edge on this longitude. And a point at which the line crossed the 100° E line was chosen as the starting point.

The tracklines of the South sectors were a wavelike pattern of the teeth of a saw. The width of one wave was four longitude degrees. This four longitude degree wide span was named one leg. If the Greenpeacers did not appear, all four vessels were to have gathered on the starting point; to go down southwest to the pack ice edge on 99° 22' E; to veer north and sail for 45 miles (up to a 45 mile point) along the longitude line; and to go southwest down to the ice pack edge on 95° 22' E to cover the next leg. And then the fleet was to repeat the same pattern up to the west end of the sector on 70° E.

When No. 18 finished surveying the pack ice line at 100° E, it saw an unfamiliar ship to the east. The MV Greenpeace, which had awaited for three days, saw a catcher coming out from behind an iceberg in misty weather. This was the opening of a 54-day long game of hide-and-seek and tactics, involving the MV Greenpeace and the Nisshin Maru's fleet in a vast ocean in the Antarctic.

Upon receiving the report from the catcher, Nisshin Maru contacted Tokyo for advice and agreed to delay to be found as late as possible. Unlike the previous cases involving the Gondwana, the MV Greenpeace seemed to stay long. It was apprehended that they would dare to violate the international navigation rule and take dangerous act as in the case of the previous encounters. So it was agreed to give top priority to secure safety of people during research activity if they started obstruction stunts.

Giving one example of their dangerous act, in 1989 during the second research expedition, the Gondwana cut into the area, where the Kyo Maru No. 1 (to be called No. 1) was delivering a minke whale to the Nisshin Maru No. 3, and came into a collision with the portside stern of the catcher and damaged its fender equipment.

An ordinary ship radar can be effective within a radius of 60 miles when the weather is good. It is technically possible to pick up radio conversations between ships in the vicinity. The fleet decided to limit telephone conversations among its vessels and switched telephone reports on the positions of the vessels to coded telegraphs. But it was not until sometime later that staff on the Nisshin Maru began to suspect that conversations via an INMARSAT international marine satellite communication system might be heard by the MV Greenpeace. Then all communications with Tokyo were switched to facsimile.

After having returned to Tokyo, Funahashi told me, she and her group intercepted from the Gondwana telephone conversations among the Japanese vessels during their second and fourth cruises and knew what they were thinking. This time, too she was listening to their conversations when possible, but she noticed a sudden drop in a volume of conversation from a certain point and became impossible to predict movements of the fleet.

No. 18 saw what looked like a hunger and a pad for a helicopter on the MV Greenpeace but could not confirm if there was any helicopter. The catcher was assigned to keep watching the ship and the remainders of the fleet took their course to north, made a big detour and started research from the pack ice edge on 91° 22' E, skipping two and a half legs. One of the two catchers was used as the sighting ship and the other as the sampling ship.

Dec. 11: There was the first catch. On the deck of the Nisshin Maru the celebration followed the first part of routine procedure such as photo-taking, checks of diatom and parasites, measurement and weigh-in of the body and measurements of its proportion, thanking for a heavenly blessing and wishing for a success of the expedition. In a traditional way the lid of a barrel of sake wine was cut open with wooden hammers and leaders poured sake over the whale body with ladles.

Dec. 12: The MV Greenpeace started cruising westwards after wandering around 100° E for five days. No. 18 shadowed it.

Dec. 13: No. 18 was instructed to stop following and to join the fleet. Each side lost information on the other after that.

Dec. 15: One day to go to finish the South-West sector. No. 1 came across with the MV Greenpeace when it, the sighting ship of the day, cruised well ahead of the fleet surveying the edge line of a mass of pack ice which greatly extended to the north. An inflatable launched from the MV Greenpeace approached No. 1 which ran into pack ice. The inflatable returned to the MV Greenpeace. Due to many findings of minke whales this day, No. 25 and the Nisshin Maru were 90 miles behind No. 1. There were seven catches, bringing the total to 21.

No. 1 was assigned to survey by itself the remaining part of the sector and to shadow the MV Greenpeace. The Nisshin Maru and No. 25 headed for the starting point of the Middle-West sector on 70° E. In this sector all catchers would turn sampling vessels.

In this period, a northern boundary of the sector was 58° S and southern boundary was the straight lines drawn between the 45 mile points of the south stratum. The trackline for this sector was drawn zigzag at 15° longitude intervals from the starting point randomly chosen on 70° E to 100° E, which served as the Main Line.

Dec. 16: Four inflatables, two of which were flying banners reading "STOP" and "NO WHALING", approached No. 1. Greenpeacers took photos and sped their boats zigzag in front of and circling around No.1. For the night the MV Greenpeace drifted keeping a close distance to No. 1.

Dec. 17 - 18: The MV Greenpeace, unable to locate the Nisshin Maru, began to head for eastwards.

Dec. 18: The Nisshin Maru, No. 18 and No. 25 began research in the Middle-West sector. It was confirmed that the MV Greenpeace did not have a helicopter.

Dec. 19: One month passed since the MV Greenpeace left Singapore. Greenpeace International at its headquarters in Amsterdam sent out a press release on the MV Greenpeace's demonstration activity on Dec. 16.

Dec. 20: The project leader of the research programme, Dr. Fukuzo Nagasaki, director-general of the Institute of Cetacean Research, sent a letter to Greenpeace International, in which he protested against the obstruction activity dangerous to safety of navigation in such a severe sea of the Antarctic and demanded the withdrawal of the MV Greenpeace. He was feared that there was the possibility that the Greenpeacers would repeat what they did to No. 1 in 1989 with the Gondwana.

(With these press release and the letter, the institute and the Fisheries Agency on one side and Greenpeace on the other side traded words of criticism of each other and defended their own contentions in letters and gave press conferences respectively until the MV Greenpeace arrived back at Fremantle on February 7. If all of these were put together the volume would be as thick as one book. I would like to refrain from reproducing them here as they were already made public. But in short Greenpeace said 1) "Stop killing" and 2) "Research whaling is nothing more than disguised commercial whaling." The institute and the agency said 1) the research programme were conducted based on the IWC rules, which stipulates meat and other by-products must be fully utilised, 2) the lethal method was indispensable to increase reliability of a management system for sustainable usage of the minke whale stocks, 3) Greenpeace should stop their dangerous obstruction act with the MV Greenpeace and the inflatables which violated the navigation rule.)

Dec. 21: In the early morning the fleet was going southeast along the trackline of the Middle sector and came close to the uncovered part of the South sector. Interrupting research of the Middle Sector, veered southwest and finished that part. A facsimile addressed to Fujise from Funahashi and the other Greenpeace crewmembers was received. It said that if the Nisshin Maru left the area Greenpeace would leave too, and proposed a rendezvous at 62° S, 100° E at a time convenient to both parties. The message arrived at a time when the Nisshin Maru was almost at the west end of the sector and the MV Greenpeace was nearing the east end.

Dec. 22: The fleet was rebased on the trackline of the Middle sector. The MV Greenpeace was still moving to 100° E, widening the distance from the Nisshin Maru. No. 1 was instructed to leave the MV Greenpeace and to join the fleet. After this sector, research was to enter the South-East sector along pack ice lines from 100° E. It was obvious the MV Greenpeace was waiting on the 100° E line. The fleet decided to go to the Middle-East sector first, changing the original plan.

Dec. 23: No. 1 joined the fleet. No. 25 went for survey of pack ice lines east of 100° E.

Dec. 31: Research of the Middle-West sector was completed, with 26 whales being sampled, bringing the total up to 47.

Jan. 1, 1992: After welcoming in the New Year, research began in the Middle-East sector. No. 25 returned from its surveillance of the pack ice and now all four vessels were together.

Jan. 5: Due to dense fog the fleet drifted idly. Research was suspended in dense fog, foggy snow and rough high seas with white headed waves which made difficult to find spouts, vapour emitted from the whales' nostrils when they surface to breath. Baleen whales have two nostrils and toothed whales and dolphins have one. Most of the large whale species have distinctive spout forms which make them easily recognisable. 11:41 a.m.: The radar screen of the Nisshin Maru caught a dot making a beeline for the ship. 12:30 p.m.: The dot was confirmed to be the MV Greenpeace, which stopped 0.9 miles ahead and to port of the Nisshin Maru. The encounter position was 61° 10' S / 114° 43' E. As the weather improved the fleet resumed research. Two inflatables were launched from the MV Greenpeace, accompanied the Nisshin Maru for a while and returned. To be honest, the advent of the MV Greenpeace contributed much to break a monotonous life of mine on the ship. It was also true that for this I felt a sense of guilt to the rest of the people in the fleet who hated Greenpeace. They had teased me that I would be the only person who would be pleased to see the MV Greenpeace. Watching from the Nisshin Maru, Greenpeacers were nothing other than showy marine hot rodders. They just sped their inflatables, emitting thick dark exhaust smoke. No policemen to check them, no people to complain in this pristine environment. By today video footages of the MV Greenpeace and their inflatables, taken from No. 1, had been shown and studied aboard the Nisshin Maru.

Jan. 6: On a calm, foggy morning, the Nisshin Maru drifted idly. Two inflatables came with banners reading "STOP" and "STOP WHALING". They put a long banner along the Nisshin Maru's stern on the starboard side, which could not be read from the Nisshin Maru. They took photos of themselves against the background with the banners. A Japanese boy, who lay flat on the bottom of a rubber boat like a leech, shouted through a microphone their slogans in Japanese. (He was a new recruit and according to Funahashi, he complained that his Greenpeace salary was not enough to live on.) After 50 minutes of the demonstration they removed the long banner and returned to their ship. The mood on the Nisshin Maru dropped. At noon the fog lifted and the fleet got down to work. At 3:31 p.m., No. 18, which was running far ahead of the Nisshin Maru, sighted a minke whale, pursued it and caught it 14 minutes later. With the MV Greenpeace trailing two miles behind, the Nisshin Maru increased its speed to 14 knots and headed for No. 18. The MV Greenpeace was desperately following at top speed, which turned out to be about 12.5 knots, and the distance between the two vessels steadily widened. The MV Greenpeace stopped to unload with a seacrane a large inflatable, which Greenpeace International had named "Rocky". Skimming over the waves, Rocky soon caught up with the Nisshin Maru, which then reduced speed to six knots in preparation for receiving the minke whale. The catcher, with the whale suspended from its port side, positioned itself behind the Nisshin Maru and slightly to starboard. Rocky was soon behind the Nisshin Maru's slipway. All three kept six knots. The whale was hung with the rope fastened around the fluke joint, which is called an Oba (fluke) wire.

In jargon of Japanese whalers, the delivery of a whale to a mother ship from a catcher is called togei. Under normal circumstances - i.e. when Greenpeace is not around - togei is carried out as follows: A heave rope with a small float at the end is thrown into the sea from the deck above the slipway, and is then picked out of the water by someone on the gun deck of the catcher armed with a sumaru, a line with a quadruple hook at the end. The heave line is pulled in to get a steel cable extended from the main winch of the mother ship deck through the slipway gate. When the cable end is linked to the Oba wire the rope is pulled back to the mother ship with the whale. Now if the heave line was thrown onto the sea in front of the boat Rocky it was obvious that they would pick it up and prevent togei. The Nisshin Maru was smaller than the scrapped mother ship Nisshin Maru No. 3. The slipway deck of the new ship was far lower than that of the old one and was as high as catcher's gun deck. It was ready for togei. A bamboo pole was extended from the gun deck of No. 18 and the heave line was thrown to it over the head of Rocky. The steel cable was linked to the Oba wire and the whale was pulled through the water alongside the Greenpeace boat and up the slipway of the Nisshin Maru. The slipway gate was closed, and a crewmember on the slipway deck extended a victory sign. Rocky went back to the MV Greenpeace, which had managed to narrow the gap to two miles from the Nisshin Maru. All members of the Nisshin Maru, who had looked grim in their lowest mood earlier that day, suddenly felt the tension lift and transform itself into merriment, and the ship was filled with broad smiles and laughter. They gained confidence, too, in handling the MV Greenpeace. Greenpeace would subsequently make three attempts to block togei using inflatables, on January 7, 8 and 21, but all failed, despite their claims to the contrary to the world's mass media.

Jan. 7: There were seven whales caught. No. 25 gave up chasing one whale, obstructed by a Greenpeace inflatable.

Jan. 8: In the afternoon No. 25 caught a whale. Three Greenpeace inflatables arrived at the rear of the Nisshin Maru just as togei was about to be completed. One of the boats chased the whale as it was being pulled up onto the slipway and managed to get a fraction of its bow onto the slipway. The photo of this scene shot from another Greenpeace boat was much publicised in newspapers,sent via such international news agencies as Reuter, Associated Press and Agence France Presse. After taking some photos and shooting some video, the inflatables returned to the MV Greenpeace.

Jan. 9: Research in the Middle-East sector was completed with 14 whales being sampled, bringing the total to 61. The fleet broke free of the MV Greenpeace. There was no doubt that the MV Greenpeace would await the fleet near the pack ice edge at 130° E, the starting point of the South-East sector. And there was no choice for the fleet but to start from there. However the fleet had something to do before going there.

Jan. 10 - 12: The catchers and mother ship were refueled and supplied with food including fresh vegetables and fruits from a tanker. Crewmembers also received letters and gifts from families and friends for the first time since they left Japan nearly two months previously.

Jan. 14: Research in the South-East sector began, with the MV Greenpeace nowhere to be seen.

Jan. 17: No. 18, running ahead as the sighting ship, came across with the MV Greenpeace. Exactly two months had passed since the MV Greenpeace had left Singapore, and its draft line was noticeably high, indicating that its loads of fuel, water and food were running short. It followed the Nisshin Maru, but when No. 25 delivered a whale to the Nisshin Maru, the MV Greenpeace took no action.

Jan. 18: The MV Greenpeace disappeared.

Jan. 19: The whereabouts of the MV Greenpeace remained unknown. The researchers and crew aboard the sighting/sampling vessels conducted mock-exercises to estimate distances and degrees of angles from their positions to the spotted "whales" using buoys. In the open sea, it depends upon the individual's experienced sense to determine in which direction from the trackline and in how many miles away the spotted whale is. The exercises were for the participants to correct their senses if there were any error. They were also important to maintain accuracy of information on the distances and degrees of angle of findings in the sighting research.

Jan. 20: The MV Greenpeace reappeared. Two whales were delivered to the Nisshin Maru without trouble from the MV Greenpeace. Two inflatables came and accompanied the Nisshin Maru. One of the boats returned to the MV Greenpeace. The remaining one, Rocky, once slightly landed its bow on the slipway edge. Its crew looked like as if they were closely examining the Nisshin Maru's slipway and other structural details of the stern. Another boat then joined Rocky, but when the Nisshin Maru entered some nearby pack ice the two boats abandoned the pursuit. Once closed in pack ice such rubber boats powered with outboard engines could not get out of it by themselves. A quadruple hook tied to a coiled line was seen placed in Rocky, which raised wariness among the Nisshin Maru crew that Greenpeace might do something unexpected. They decided to mount the slipway deck with a hose nozzle.

Jan. 21: No. 18 delivered two whales without trouble. When Rocky and another inflatable came and began to follow behind the Nisshin Maru, the hose was turned on and showered water behind the slipway. No. 25 approached for togei. Three crewmembers on Rocky managed to tie one end of a line to the iron ring for the lowest end of the life line on the portside wall of the slipway and then to the ring in the wall of the other side, hooking the boat's bowline to the centre of the stretched line, thus blocking the slipway. When they came in the inflatables the Greenpeacers always wore expensive immersion suits in orange, yellow or black. In an immersion suit a person can survive for nine hours afloat even in icy polar waters. From the slipway deck the Nisshin Maru crewmembers hooked up the stretched line and cut it on the stern side. The other boat with two men came in, tied its bowline to the stern side ring and took over from Rocky the line still tied to the portside ring to shut the slipway but could not hold it for long. The speed of the Nisshin Maru had already been reduced to dead slow. The bowline of the two-man boat tied to the slipway was hooked up and cut. The two inflatables retreated and No. 25 positioned itself for togei. The smaller boat appeared to have engine trouble. The Nisshin Maru was increasing its speed for the normal togei speed. No. 25 picked up the heave line and linked the steel cable to the oba wire. Its captain shouted through a microphone "All okay now." The chief officer on the slipway deck promptly responded "Hi, Rekko." Rekko is Japanese jargon adopted from the English words "Let it go." The sagging togei wire was tightened. It cut open the sea and surfaced above the sea, pulling the whale towards the Nisshin Maru. Rocky advanced and threw at the togei wire a quadruple hook line with a float carrying a letter to the Nisshin Maru Captain. It repeated their message. No. 25 immediately went back to its trackline and came back with another whale two hours later, but there were no longer any Greenpeace boats in the area.

After this incident the MV Greenpeace would never approach the Nisshin Maru, which was following the three catchers moving along the pre-determined trackline, during the coming nine days until it left for good on January 29. For most of the time it stayed out of radar contact, but on four occasions she revealed herself and sent inflatables to obstruct catchers chasing whales. It seemed that while crewmembers on inflatables and catchers were running together alongside for hours there would arise a certain kind of affinity between them. On day a crewmember of No. 18 stretched out a hand and offered sweets to a Caucasian woman in an inflatable. The woman stood up to take the sweets but lost her balance and fell in the sea. Of course, she was immediately picked up by her colleagues.

By now people on board the Nisshin Maru were beginning to have doubts about how serious the Greenpeacers were about their job.

Based on what I saw for myself from the Nisshin Maru, and heard from people aboard the catchers, I formed the impression that for most of the 82-day trip to the Antarctic the Greenpeacers' routine alternated between doing nothing and playing around in their boats, interspersed with picnics, cups of coffee and occasionally flying a kite. It was hard to resist concluding that their true reason for coming to the Antarctic was not the official one, i.e. to save whales, but to enjoy the water sports. Unchecked by anybody, they belched black smoke and noise pollution into this pristine environment, hot rodders tearing around among the icebergs. All they needed to do was to send three or four photos of their action to the world's mass media through Reuter, AP and AFP to satisfy contributors of funds to Greenpeace and to justify spending a small fortune so a group of youngsters could take a three-month cruise to the Antarctic. Incidentally, it would cost a person from Japan about 1 million yen (US $ 8,000) to take a two-week cruise to the Antarctic from Australia or New Zealand. I thought to myself what a great deal these Greenpeace guys are getting if they can take a three-month cruise, eating and drinking and speeding around in inflatables, and all for nothing - not only for nothing, but actually getting paid for it!

International environmental organisations nowadays are increasingly adopting a form of enterprise to run their organisations. In the early stages of their growth, activity and management of such groups are supported by volunteers. But to expand and continue activity, they next have to keep permanent staff and earn funds for their salaries and activity of the organisations. What is different from business companies is that their sources of revenue largely depend upon money raised through contributions, which are tax-exempt in the US and European countries. There is no guarantee that some leaders will not become vitiated as their organisations grow and become profitable. Looking back over the history of the Soviet Communist Party and the mediaeval Roman Catholic church whose revenue sources were party fees and offerings, not a few party leaders and priests were vitiated.

Whenever I watched or thought of the Greenpeacers in the Antarctic, I started to wonder what the organisation of Greenpeace International must be like, and the image which formed in my mind slowly dissolved into those of the Soviet Communist Party and the mediaeval Roman Catholic church.

Jan. 26: The first period of the research programme ended with a total of 82 whale samples having been taken.

Jan. 27 - Mar. 11: The second period started with the South-West sector from 100° E, followed by Prydz Bay, where a number of large schools of minke whales were found, and the Middle-West. Research in the South-East sector finished on March 11 with the total catch standing at 287.

Jan. 29: It was a beautiful morning. The MV Greenpeace was following the Nisshin Maru, heading southbound, in a calm sea dotted with huge icebergs. At around noon the Nisshin Maru veered eastwards, but the MV Greenpeace, which could be seen from the Nisshin Maru with the naked eye, continued heading south and held its course until its image disappeared from the radar. And that was the last we ever saw of her. Later, in Tokyo, I asked Funahashi why the MV Greenpeace had headed south instead of going north to Australia. She said it was to reward the crew for their efforts with a bit of sightseeing.

Feb. 7: The MV Greenpeace arrived in Fremantle, Australia, ending an 82-day cruise to the Antarctic conducted in the name of "saving the whale".

Mar. 12: Research began in the Middle-East sector. Catch limits of samples had been balanced among the sectors and the periods. It was expected that there would be about 30 catches or so in this sector because in the previous cruise two years ago in the same period the population of minke whales here had been dense. But not a single minke whale was found during the 13 days spent here, and research ended here on March 23 with no whales being taken.

Mar. 24 - 25: The 288th and last minke whale of the expedition was caught in the North sector research conducted on the fleet's way back to Japan. The total number of days spent conducting research had been 112, the total distance covered was 18,204.5 miles, and the total sightings of minke whale were 1,094 in 729 schools.

Kieran Mulvaney, a spokesman for Greenpeace International, subsequently wrote in an article entitled "Thar She Kills" (BBC Wildlife, July 1992), "The Nisshin Maru arrived in Tokyo on 14 April. The fleet had killed 288 whales. Japanese press reports stated that the activities of the Greenpeace and her crew had prevented the whalers from reaching their target."

I have never come across any such Japanese press reports. Or did I miss any? Anyway, the true story is that as a result of bad weather there was no findings of whales at all during the 13 days in the Middle-East sector of the second period.

In his cruise report to the IWC Scientific Committee, Dr. Fujise wrote "Difference was observed in the distribution of the density indices (DI) between the present and previous researches. The DI in the previous research was higher in the East Sectors than in the West, regardless of research period. On the other hand, the DI value in the present survey was higher in the West than in the East and the highest value was recorded in Prydz Bay.

Mar. 29: The Nisshin Maru was heading north for Japan on a beautiful, warm spring day. The bird, mukudori, left free in the second storey of the research hut, slipped away through men, flew down to the first floor and got out onto the deck. It had loved eating minke whale meat. It was stout and its feathers, which had once looked bedraggled, were now shining. Mukudori flew up, circled over the deck and flew away for ever. The Nisshin Maru was cruising far off Australia's west coast.

Apr. 14: The Nisshin Maru arrived in Tokyo.

Apr. 15: No. 1, 18 and 25 arrived in Yokosuka.

1992/93 Sixth Research Cruise in Area V

Nov. 7, '92: The Nisshin Maru fleet left Japan for Area V for the sixth research cruise in the Antarctic. The Nisshin Maru departed from Yokosuka while the catchers Kyo Maru No. 1, Toshi Maru No. 18 and Toshi Maru No. 25 left from Shimonoseki. The fleet, led by Dr. Fujise and carrying a total of 162 persons, was to return to Japan in mid-April, 1993.

Nov. 21: MV Greenpeace left Fremantle, Australia, equipped with a helicopter and three inflatables.

Nov. 29: MV Greenpeace arrived in Hobart, Tasmania.

Non. 30: Spokesman Kieran Mulvaney aboard MV Greenpeace told Reuters Greenpeace would launch a three-month expedition within a week to disrupt the Japanese fleet.

Dec. 8: MV Greenpeace left Hobart for Area V with a crew of 30 from Japan, Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Argentina, Switzerland and Germany.

Feb. 18, '93: For the first time in 72 days at sea MV Greenpeace spotted the Nisshin Maru cruising southwards along the packice line on the western side of the Ross Sea. The Nisshin Maru veered northwards. MV Greenpeace gave up chasing after dropping its speed from 6.5 knots to 3.5 knots and then to 2.0 knots. A question arose why it did not launch the helicopter or any of the inflatables. Greenpeace told AFP's Hong Kong bureau it tried to trail the Nisshin Maru but failed. Contact was lost.

Feb. 24: Mulvaney told AFP Hong Kong via satellite telephone that MV Greenpeace was headed toward a possible confrontation with the fleet. In Tokyo, the government's Japanese Fisheries Agency said in a statement that "Greenpeace apparently hopes to be seen as a protector of whales. But its conduct is nothing but a publicity stunt."

Feb. 25: At 00:30 No. 25 was moving southeastwards for the starting point of the day along the packice edge of the eastern side of the Ross Sea and came across the MV Greenpeace. The latter vessel was adrift with the lights off, in violation of a rule of international navigation. An inflatable with two Greenpeace activists aboard approached the catcher, confirmed its name and went back to MV Greenpeace, which then turned around to the north and disappeared out of the range of No. 25's radar at 04:10. No. 25 reached the starting point. The sea was rough.

Mar. 3: Citing Mulvaney as its source, AFP reported that Greenpeace had "chased the Japanese whaling fleet out of its prime hunting grounds," the Ross Sea, and that "the whalers (were) believed to have left the area to hunt elsewhere."

But the fleet was in the Ross Sea and caught five minke whales this day, bringing the total catch up to 264. At noon, the Nisshin Maru was at 75° 59' S / 170° 51' E, or near the southernmost accessible point of the sea.

AFP also reported that Greenpeace claimed its actions had sparked a strong reaction from Japan's whaling industry, with the Japanese Whaling Association accusing the organisation of "disrupting Japanese whaling operations," a charge the group said it was happy to accept. "If, as the JWA says, we have disrupted whaling operations in the Antarctic, then we have done what we set out to do," said Mulvaney aboard MV Greenpeace.

But in Tokyo, JWA denied ever saying what Mulvaney alleged it had said. Mulvaney's statement was interpreted as a unilateral "declaration of victory", a disguised excuse to pave the way for Greenpeace to retreat without achieving the objective it had proudly pronounced in Hobart three months previously.

Mar. 6: The fleet completed a 21-day-long survey in the Ross Sea.

Mar. 10: One day before this article was sent to the printers and with about two weeks of research remaining, the fleet was in a southern sector and took two more minke whales, bringing the total up to 289. And no sign of Greenpeace.

_