Anti-whaling ship the Steve Irwin is currently in pursuit of the Japanese ship Nisshin Maru in the Ross Sea, more than 2,000 nautical miles south-east of Tasmania.
The Sea Shepherd Society ship found the Japanese whaling fleet just before Christmas, but had to return to Hobart to refuel.
But they found a lucky break in the ice, and were able to track down the Nisshin Maru and harpoon vessels Yushin Maru Numbers 1 and 2 in the middle of the Ross Sea about 9.30am today.
Mr Watson said the vessel was engaged in full pursuit of the three ships and expected to keep them within view, despite contending with loose ice, strong winds and fog.
“When we found them this morning it looked like they were in the process of a whaling operation – the vessels were all stopped altogether.
“Then when they saw us, they began running.”
“As long as we’re chasing them they’re not going to kill whales,” he said.
Heard Island is windswept, mountainous and eerily beautiful, home to many creatures that thrive in the peace and safety of this island outpost of Australia.
Kingston-based Graeme Wheller, formerly a vulcanologist, today involved in Tasmanian tourism, took the photographs you see here when in 1986-7 he was part of a scientific expedition to Heard Island.
A major earthquake (magnitude 7.4) hit 90km south of Macquarie Island this morning at 10:30am local time.
No tsunami was generated.
Macquarie Island is a subantarctic island and a part of the state of Tasmania, Australia.
Macquarie Island is on the Macquarie Ridge at the junction of the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates. Large earthquakes (6 or greater on the Richter scale) occur approximately once a year.
This sea cucumber — held by Sadie Mills of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research — is known as a sea pig.
Mills and colleagues from around the world, including Tasmania, collected the organism, among more than 30,000 animals, during a marine census of southern Antarctica earlier this year.
Sea cucumbers are part of a group of marine animals that inhabit the seafloor, including sea squirts, sea stars (starfish), sea slugs, corals, clams, sponges, and urchins.
Climate change may threaten the survival of king penguins — one of the most iconic creatures of the Antarctic, researchers warn.
A long-term study of the penguins, known for their distinctive yellow feather ‘ear muffs’, reveals just a slight ocean warming had a significant effect on their breeding success.
King penguins — the second largest penguin after the emperor penguin — live in the sub-Antarctic islands, including Macquarie Island, south-east of Tasmania. There are about 2 million breeding pairs worldwide.
Their diet consists mainly of small fish and squid, and because of their one-year breeding cycle they are considered sensitive to any seasonal change in food supply.
Over nine years, researchers studied the birds on an island in the Crozet Archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean, marking 456 penguins with electronic tags.
They found that high sea-surface temperatures reduced the amount of marine prey available to the king penguins, forcing them to travel further in search of food.
According to their calculations, a sea-surface warming of 0.26 degrees would lead to a 9% decline in the adult penguin population.
Current models by the UN’s panel of climate scientists predict an average increase of 0.2 degrees a decade for the next two decades.
The body of a minke whale and its calf are dragged onto the whaling ship
The Australian Federal Government says photographs taken by the Customs ship the Oceanic Viking of Japanese whalers killing a whale and its calf will strengthen any legal case against the whalers.
The pictures, released by the Government today, show a slaughtered minke whale and its calf being hauled up the ramp of the Japanese ship, the Yushin Maru.
Customs has also released video of whales being harpooned from the ship.
The Government is extending the duration of its whaling surveillance program and says the Attorney-General is still considering what kind of legal action should be taken and who it should be brought against.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the pictures released today support Australia’s position.
‘I think it’s explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way,’ he said.
‘To claim that this is in anyway scientific is to continue the charade that surrounded this issue from day one.’
Launching the ABE from Southern Surveyor. Image credit – CSIRO
Scientists aboard the research vessel, Southern Surveyor, return to Hobart today with a collection of coral samples and photographs taken in the Southern Ocean at greater depths than ever before.
Using a remotely operated submersible vehicle the international research team captured images of life found on deep-sea pinnacles and valleys up to three kilometres beneath the Ocean’s surface.
It’s been an intense morning here on the Esperanza – after eleven days preventing the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales, this morning we blocked the Nisshin Maru from refuelling in Antarctic waters from the dodgy Panamanian-registered vessel Oriental Bluebird.
As part of a dramatic non-violent protest against the whaling fleet’s activities in the Southern Ocean, Jetske and Heath placed their inflatable boat between the factory ship and refueling vessel, as the massive two ships tried to come alongside to refuel.
However, despite radio calls explaining our protest and plan, the vessels continued to close in on each other — and after half an hour, the inflable was forced out, with Jetske nearly getting caught by a cable. Only then did the refuelling begin.
thisTasmania.com is Tasmania's Journal of Discovery — a celebration of Australia's wonderful island state.
Volume 2 Number 4
October — December 2009
ISSN: 1834-4364
Our Mountain
Our webcam, courtesy of Hobart's Rose Bay High School, is updated every 10 minutes — day and night. Click here to see a larger image
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Stanton Bed and Breakfast
The magnificent convict-built country manor, Stanton, is situated on 16 acres of pasture and orchards, in the heart of the historical and beautiful Derwent Valley.
Red Tag Trout Tours
Roger Butler guides flyfishers, from all over the world, who share a common goal: getting a wild brown trout to hand.
Cobbers: mates on a mission
We've been looking at the future and it isn't working. But we can fix it, one blog at a time.
AFP photograph
Launching the ABE from Southern Surveyor. Image credit – CSIRO
