The news that the 8,000 tonne Nisshin Maru, flagship and factory ship of the Japanese whaling fleet is on fire and drifting in the Ross sea, Antarctica is sure to send a shiver down the spine of most conservationists.
This ship contains 1.3 million litres of oil. It is said that the fire is under control, but 142 of her crew have been evacuated to other Japanese whaling vessels, leaving twenty to fight the fire.
The problem is that this ship - which is listing due to the water pumped aboard to fight the fire - is just 175 kilometres from one of the biggest Penguin rookeries in the frozen continent. This rookery contains 250,000 breeding pairs.
What happens now is in the lap of the Gods. The weather is calm at present, but Antarctica is a place where some of the fiercest storms on the planet take place, and it will now be a race against time whether the ship can be stabilised and either towed or under her own power retreat from the danger zone.
There must also be questions in many people's minds about that fire. The Japanese whaling fleet have been dogged by protest vessels from Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd organizations. World opinion is strongly against whaling and many will wonder whether an activist committed an act of sabotage and introduced a bomb aboard this vessel.
That will be settled in due course, but at the moment the world is watching the Japanese efforts to extricate their stricken ship and save the Penguin rookeries. If nothing else, the drama will highlight whaling in world opinion - and maybe cause the Japanese to have second thoughts about the wisdom of their actions !
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