Whales’ navy gains two ships

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

The global “navy” defending whales has added two ships–the
Leviathan, recently acquired by the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society, and the Stenela, the first dolphin-watching vessel based
in Mozambique, funded by the German Society for Dolphin
Conservation, Save Our Seas Foundation, and Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
While the Stenela will attempt to protect whales and dolphins
by promoting appreciation of marine mammals in a new part of the
world, the Leviathan will lead the Sea Shepherd intervention against
Japanese “research” whaling within the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary,
designated by the International Whaling Commission in 1994 but not
recognized by Japan.
“We will be bringing two ships, a helicopter, and about 60
volunteers,” pledged Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson. Watson said
that the Levithan appears to be as fast as the Nisshin Maru, the
Japanese whaling factory ship, which repeatedly sped away from the
former Sea Shepherd flagship Farley Mowat last winter in high seas
skirmishes also involving two Greenpeace vessels.
The Institute of Cetacean Research, the Japanese whaling
front, plans to kill up to 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales within
sanctuary waters this coming winter.