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| Daryl Hannah makes splash with whale campaign |
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Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 2-Dec-2008 16:33 hrs |
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| A Sea Shepherd Conservation Society handout photo shows actress Daryl Hannah (left) with Captain Paul Watson in front of ship 'Steve Irwin' in Brisbane on December 1. Hannah is set to sail to the South Ocean as part of a campaign to stop Japanese whalers from slaughtering the giant sea mammals. |
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Actress Daryl Hannah will sail for the inhospitable South Ocean on Wednesday as part of a campaign to stop Japanese whalers from slaughtering the giant animals, organisers said.. Hannah, best known for her role as a mermaid in the 1984 hit "Splash", will be part of the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's annual campaign to find, track and impede the whaling ships.. The film star on Wednesday will join the "Steve Irwin", which departs from the eastern Australian city of Brisbane, for the first week of the voyage.. "Passionate about the issues facing our planet, Hannah will join the crew," Sea Shepherd said in a statement.. The star of films such as "Blade Runner" and "Kill Bill" said more needed to be done to stop the Japanese from killing endangered species in the waters off Antarctica.. "It is surprising and shocking to me that governments are not doing this work -- that it is up to individuals and non-government organisations to uphold international law and protect endangered species," she told AAP news agency.. The "Steve Irwin", named for the late Australian "Crocodile Hunter" who died in 2006 from a stingray barb, is the only vessel to attempt to follow the Japanese whalers on their annual whale hunt this year.. Greenpeace, which has sent ships to the Southern Ocean nine times in the past two decades to track the hunt, will not send a vessel this year, instead concentrating on its campaign within Japan to stop the slaughter.. The Australian government, which last year sent a Customs ship to collect data on the killings that Japan says is for scientific purposes, will not send a boat either.. Monitoring will be left to New Zealand, which will send air force planes to oversee the whaling fleet in Antarctic waters.. Japan -- which aims to kill 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants -- only managed to make about half its quota last season because of interference from the activists. — AFP
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