Besides recent visiting naval vessels in Dublin and Cork, a call to the Irish capital ended on Wednesday, May 28th, by a tall ship departing Dublin Bay but also by an anti-whaling campaign ship, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The anti-whaling ship, John Paul Dejoria, was aptly a former fishery patrol vessel, the SFV Vigilant, which served the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA) when tasked with duties in the North Sea. The vessel earlier this month had briefly made a call to Dublin before it made a return at the weekend, sharing the quayside with the German trainee ship, Alexandra von Humboldt II, with its distinctive green hull and yellow masts.
The former SFPA vessel was built on the Clyde in 1982 at Ferguson Brothers (Port Glasgow) Ltd., Port Glasgow, and had berthed at the North Wall Quay Extension. This following anchorage off Killiney Bay along with the aforementioned trainee barque, which too was offshore of Bray, Co. Wicklow.
John Paul Dejoria is operated by a marine-based conservation charity, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, with the ship due to head to Icelandic waters to prevent seasonal whaling and to save the lives of whales during the killing season. However, according to a post on their website, the largest Icelandic-based company involved in this trade will not be sending vessels to hunt fin whales this summer.
For more on the story, EuroNews reports on the controversial practice of ‘whaling’; hunting and killing whales to extract and sell their meat is currently only permitted in Iceland, Norway, and Japan.
The decision, the Foundation adds, marks a huge victory for whale conservation, especially after the outgoing Icelandic prime minister controversially issued a five-year whaling permit just this past winter. As to the exact reasons for calling off this year’s whaling season, they are unconfirmed, but the Foundation believes this is linked to a declining demand for fin whale meat, notably in Japan, where the economic situation makes it no longer economically viable.
However, the fight isn’t over, as Icelandic minke whales are still at risk, and the new government must take action, the foundation also cited.
This development not to hunt whales comes as a repeat of last year, as the ‘Dejoria’ was in Dublin last July during a high-profile visit that involved ship tours to raise greater awareness of whale hunting. The ship called to the Irish port as a base, should it be required to enter Icelandic waters to campaign against the practice of hunting the whales.
With the Dejoria underway today on the Irish Sea with a destination unknown, this afternoon also saw astern a Spanish Navy frigate, Cristóbal Colón (F105), which had spent the weekend in Dublin. Its next port of call is Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
Whereas the ship Alexandra von Humboldt II is bound for Brest, Brittany, and ahead also off the east coast was a French Navy hydrographic survey ship, Borda, which too had visited the capital over the weekend.
Perhaps the ship is also to return to its naval base in Brest.
