Mystery of sunken whaler

Press, 21 February 1980, Page 17

Mystery of sunken whaler

From the “Observer”

Saboteurs who blew up the “pirate” whaler Sierra in Lisbon harbour on Wednesday, February 6, were wasting their time, according to the company that operated the ship. A spokesman said that the -company stopped hunting and started selling, off its whaling fleet last July.

Richard Sheppard, the general manager of Sierra Fishing, revealed details of the ship’s seven years of whaling in the Atlantic. He disclosed, too, that up to last summer the company was planning a massive expansion of its controversial work.

Some conservationists are convinced that the company is still planning to continue whaling, but Sheppard denies it. He says it even offered to sell the Sierra to the International Whaling Commission (1.W.C.), whose regulations on world whaling she long defied, for use as a research vessel. The Sierra’s stormy life ended in Lisbon harbour shortly after 6 a.m. on February 6. A bomb, thought to be a limpet mine, ripped through her hull. Within 10 minutes she was on the bottom of the river Tagus. Those on board, six crewmen, a watchman, two women and two children, scrambled for safety. “Some of us only just got

out in time,” said Luis Mendies, the vessel’s chief engineer.

He added that the bomb had been placed near where explosives used for whaling were usually kept. Had they not been handed in to the Portuguese authorities a few days previously those on board would almost certainly have been killed, he said. This was the latest in a series of bizarre incidents involving the They began on July 17 last when a converted trawler, the Sea Shepherd, deliberately rammed the whaler off Leixoes, near Oporto, holing her just above the waterline.

The Sea Shepherd’s owner, a 28-year-old conservationist called Paul Watson, and an Australian engineer, Peter Woof, were charged with criminal offences, the Sierra’s owners, brought a civil case for damages and the Sea Shepherd was impounded .in the harbour.

Then, at the beginning of. this year, Watson scuttled his ship. He said that he and Woof sank her because of the Portuguese authorities’ failure to prevent $lOO,OOO worth of equipment being stolen from her. After the Sierra sank this month, a month after completing repairs, Watson rang the “Observer” and said he knew the explosion was not an acci-

dent, but could not say who was responsible. He described it as “a positive action to save thousands of whales.” The same sort of thing could happen to people threatening other endangered species, he said, but added: “One thing we have always wanted to

ensure was that no one would be hurt.” The whaler sank with her harpoon gun still on board, though below decks, and conservationists cite that as evidence that it was going to be used for whaling again. The company says the harpoon would have been needed if the Sierra had been sold as a research vessel. The owners of the Sierra, it is thought, could get $2 million insurance for the ship. They renewed the policy when it expired at the beginning of this month, but only for port damage — proof, they say, that they did not plan to take her to sea again. . Sheppard admits that the company had become increasingly sensitive to world condemnation — the “Observer” magazine had published an expose of the Sierra last June. ,

Then Japan, the market for the Sierra's catch, de-

cided at the end of June to ban imports of whale production from countries that were not members of the IWC. All IWC countries adopted a similar resolution in July, banning imports from whaling outside the IWC system. The company. ’ decided, said Sheppard,-that it could no longer sell its produce at a good price. He added- that the company had been put into liquidation, its ships put up for sale, and its crew (except for the men needed to maintain the ships for sale) dismissed. The IWC believes that the company did indeed cease its operations. The Sierra made 55 voyages in the Atlantic for the company, ranging between the latitudes of Lisbon and the Orange River. She had a freezing compartment, could carry 30 tons of cargo, and could make her own whale oil.

Last May she was joined by the Astrid, formerly the Cape Fisher, which completed a single voyage as a tender and auxiliary ' freezing vessel for the Sierra in June and July. Two more ships, the Theresa 111 and Susan I, had been ready to join the operation, and the company was planning to take over a small Madeira whaling company, the Empresa Baleeira do Arquipelago Da Madera Lda (EBAM), so that it could

extend its operations into the area. Sheppard and Noboyu' Higuchi, a Japanese pusr nessman, had first met directors of EBAM, 1978. Two sample 'consignments of whalemeac were sent to Japan . O March 22 and May 24 last year. Both went bad .aq. the enterprise failed. The businessmen ‘ tbOT. won an option to buy controlling interest . in EBAM and asked the Portuguese Government ? an extension of the'com-, pany’s licence to mcl u “® the right to take whales within 200 miles off Portugal. Nick Carter, Director of the People’s Trust for Endanger ed Species, claims that the crew firmly believed before the sinking that the Sierra would go to Madeira. But the company says it brokq off negotiations , with EBAM when it decided to stop whaling last July,'' and EBAM, independently, says the same. Sheppard says: “It is almost certain that ill-in-formed speculation about our operations was the reason for this latest and dangerous attack on the Sierra and the crew, "who were merely caretakers. rT.‘ “It seems to me that conservationalists’ activities are very much like S dog worrying a pheasant that has already been shot."