I don’t give a damn about our “whale watching industry” either, to be frank. I call it the “whale harassment industry”. As I’ve said in other contexts, I think Australia has a lot more to offer than being a place for the great unwashed to come and gawk at stuff while we stiff them for over-priced beers.

And as for Sea Shepherd, don’t get me started! While the rhetoric of calling the Japanese whalers “pirates” is great for stirring the emotions of potential donors, the Japanese are working within the framework of the international rules — like it or not! — whereas Sea Shepherd are the ones ignoring the rules of safe navigation and putting the lives of mariners in peril.

I know who I’d attach the label “pirate” to: the bunch of self-righteous adrenalin-junkies with the vigilante complex.

For a similar reason, I no longer support Greenpeace. Greenpeace say they were rammed by the whalers, but I don’t see why they were within a nautical mile of another ship in such dangerous waters. It may satisfy the participants’ need for feeling as if they’re “taking action”, but I suspect that it’s less productive in terms of actually changing things.

Glad you’ve commented, though — hope to hear more from you.

@Menkit: The Bay class patrol boats do look rather useful, yes. Thanks for joining us.

@Richard: I sometimes think the media commentators think an Antarctic surveillance mission is something akin to a trip on the Manly Ferry on a rough winter’s day. And this only a short time after the MS Explorer sank after hitting an iceberg.

The other thing that seems to be forgotten is that if you actually want to prosecute the Japanese you need evidence. Stuff that’ll stand up in an international court under cross-examination. It may not be as exciting as TV-shock images of whale flesh being flensed and blood in the water, but it’s what eventually achieves the result.

However, I feel your fourth & sixth paragraphs are spot-on. Methinks many aspects of this job will never be publicised.

By the way, leasing (or even chartering) ships & aircraft is common practice for Fisheries/Customs, and indeed the RAAF has leased many aircraft in recent years. Leased assets do have their advantages, and I’d rather we leased stuff than bought garbage like the Seasprite outright.