Greenpeace 1, Japan's whaling fleet 0

With all the shitty environmental news going on in the world -- polar bears drowning, the ice caps melting, Bush thwarting the listing of endangered species -- here is some good news.

Greenpeace has disrupted Japan's whale huntin the Antarctic.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Greenpeace said Monday it has disrupted the Japanese whale hunt off Antarctica by chasing the fleet’s whale processing factory ship out of the whaling zone.

The six-vessel fleet "scattered and ran" early Saturday when it realized the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza was "heading toward them at high speed," Greenpeace expedition leader Karli Thomas told New Zealand’s National Radio.

The fleet’s three whale hunter vessels "can’t operate without the (factory ship) Nisshin Maru there to process the kill," she added.

Greenpeace has pledged to take nonviolent action to try to stop the ships from killing whales, which in the past has led to activists in speed boats trying to put themselves between whales and Japanese harpoons, and once led to a ship collision.

This comes on the heels of the new government in Australia stepping in to help stop the hunt:

Australia will begin sea- and air-based surveillance of Japan's whaling fleet this week foreign affairs minister Stephen Smith announced this week. Australia's center-left Labor government anticipated it would step up action to block Japan from its annual whale hunt, including sending a surveillance plane and a customs ship to gather evidence for a possible international legal challenge.

...

Australia has said it will consider international legal action against Japan to stop the scientific whaling program, which it dismisses as commercial whaling in disguise. The IWC has banned commercial whaling since 1986.

Japan has a lot of nerve calling Greenpeace's activity illegal since Japan lies by calling its hunt for scientific purposes when it is really for commercial purposes.

And Japan's intent this year to kill 50 humpback whales was just beyond the pale -- so beyond that worldwide outrage caused them to back down for now.

The government of Japan has agreed to suspend its plans to kill 50 humpback whales this year but only on condition that the International Whaling Commission, IWC, reinstates its original task of whale resource management.

But you can bet they'll try again.

And you can also bet that they will once again try to buy the votes of tiny countries on the International Whaling Commission in order to get a vote to resume commercial whaling.

Norway and Iceland are just as bad, BTW. There should be international sanctions against all three nations if they insist on defying the ban on commercial whaling.