Tuesday April 7, 2009, 2:41 am
The first season of Whale Wars was a 7 hour series that became the highest rated Animal Planet show ever. It was dramatic, controversial and cutting edge, and it was an enormous success. It aired in the ..United States and Canada in November and December 2008 and is currently airing in Latin America in Spanish. It will be airing very soon on Discovery in Great Britain, Australia, and France and will be reaching audiences in numerous other countries over the next year. Hopefully it will even air on Discovery Channel in Japan.


The filming of Whale Wars Two is now completed. Three months on the most remote and hostile seas in the world provided a thousand hours of video as the raw material for the 2009 airing of the Sea Shepherd voyages to defend the whales from the illegal whaling activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.


Whale Wars Two will be far more intense, dramatic and entertaining than even Whale Wars One because the 2008/2009 campaign was more intense than last year. The Japanese whalers have become more frustrated, angry and aggressive and the conflict has escalated considerably.


Whale Wars Two will be at least 10 hours and possibly longer. Many of the same crew will be back minus last year’s defeatists, whiners and complainers and there are quite a few new faces onboard for this second season.


The Japanese whalers hate the show, understandably so and have tried to pressure Animal Planet to cancel it. They even forced the Australian Federal Police to confiscate the video tapes when the ship returned to Tasmania. Fortunately the tapes had been copied and the police returned the originals three weeks later. This move backfired on the Japanese adding the element of a Federal police raid to the show and heightening the drama for the new season.


And Whale Wars has certainly raised the profile of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. In a recent trip across the ..United States, I found myself being recognized in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington D.C.and Seattle.U.S. Customs officials stamping my passport back into the country recognized me and even in ..Europe.. numerous people approached me who had seen the show. Finally our campaigns had reached the audience of middle America and this is scaring the hell out of the Japanese whalers and the politicians that support them.


It took Deadliest Catch, the top rated show on Discovery a full three years to reach the level of popularity that Whale Wars has captured in the first season and Whale Wars Two will elevate the success of this program even more.


When I first spoke to Animal Planet about the show, I pointed out that the Deadliest Catch was Discovery’s most watched show and all it had was a bunch of men sailing into remote freezing waters in hostile conditions to catch crabs for money.


What Sea Shepherd could offer was a crew of volunteer men and women on a larger ship sailing into far more remote and much more hostile and colder waters to defend the great whales for reasons of compassion. In Deadliest Catch, the crabs don’t fight back. In Whale Wars the whalers retaliate with concussion grenades and bullets. With Deadliest Catch, you get crabs and more crabs. With Whale Wars you get whales and leopard seals, albatross, penguins and Orcas. You also get magnificent icebergs and deadly ice floes and growlers.


And you get passion, the kind of passion that can only be found in dedicated volunteers like Giles and Pottsy boarding a Japanese harpoon vessel at full speed or crewmembers standing firm in the face of concussion grenades and bullets.


I learned long ago that the most powerful weapon on the planet is the camera and it is these cameras that will win the war to save the whales.


During the last few years, three major documentaries have been produced about Sea Shepherd campaigns. The first was ..Rob Stewart's Sharkwater and in the last year Ron Colby released A Pirate for the Sea and Dan Stone released At the Edge of the World.


A Pirate for the Sea is a biography of myself that ..Ron Colby spent 8 years making. Ron participated in the 2005/2006 Antarctic campaign. At the Edge of the World directed by Tim Gorski covers the 2006/2007 Antarctic campaign.


The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has signed for a third season of Whale Wars and when we return to those treacherous Southern Ocean waters in December, Animal Planet will be onboard with my crew and I again.


To stop the criminal whaling operations in ..Antarctica.. we need more than imaginative and courageous confrontations. We can’t stop these vicious killers with just rotten butter and harassment tactics. We need the power that only a hit television series can provide and we have that hit series.


With Whale Wars we have the key to silencing the harpoons in the Southern Oceans once and for all because we now have the ability to bring the world into this horrific slaughterhouse at the bottom of the world to see for themselves the agonizing death of the whales and the viciousness that the Japanese whale killers exercise in defence of their bloody illegal business.


This kind of raw sordid horror cannot survive such extensive exposure and we will beat the whalers down with episode after episode and our cameras will not stop rolling until the whalers retreat from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary forever.

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 4:02 am
Thank you Claudia..
Noted..

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 4:06 am
I was amazed at the unveiling of our friends on board, I never imagined how green any of them may be going into this, I always imagined they were people with years of training somewhere, maybe military, but no, so many common people like all of us, just very ready to die to protect the defenseless. they are all heroes in my eyes.
the whalers hate the show? imagine that. :} the guilty do hate exposure, don't they?
ty Claudia

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 4:12 am
Thanks Claudia

To the Japanese whalers in your face baby

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 4:22 am
Justice for the Whales...they shouldn't be slaughtered anymore...It has to stoppppp

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 4:24 am
I am thrilled!!!! can't wait to see it again, thank you Claudia..

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 5:18 am
Sadly episode 1 hasn't even aired here in the Netherlands (SHOCK),and that while SSCS has a dutch flag :(
I oply seen it on internet,but...And i ordered the dvd's fro the US,but they couldn't play on dutch dvd recorders:(:(:(

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 6:36 am
we just have to patient Claudia!

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 7:36 am
I will crosspost everywhere

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 7:36 am
Sweet, I have been waiting for them since last year.....The best damn show on USA TV!! Since last year no show has come close! Ya, in your face whalers............I always cheer for the Sea Shepard, and the Whales. If I could go through the TV I would be helping for sure.....on the edge of your seat action. This time not fiction sadly the truth!

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 9:53 am
Tx Claudia,
Can't wait!!!

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 10:34 am
Oh Claudia this is the best news ever! I hate the fact that the Japanese have been allowed to continue with their vicious slaughter in protected territory. I just love that show and will continue my support of the Sea Sheperd until they are stopped! YAY! GO GET 'EM

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 10:38 am
TY, Claudia!!!

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 4:04 pm
Thanks Claudia! But I'm sad, I do not know if the episose will pass in Portugal!!I'll be wait patiently and with expectation!!

Tuesday April 7, 2009, 8:11 pm
NOTED.

Wednesday April 8, 2009, 6:26 am
Thanks Claudia

Wednesday April 8, 2009, 2:36 pm
Whohoo!! I'm totally excited. lol. I thought it was an amazing and inspiring show.

Wednesday April 8, 2009, 5:40 pm
hi claudia , maybe you could also order an american dvd recorder and that way you could watch your whale wars dvd!!! (many times)
Ohh I`m so happy!!!
Although season 1 is currently airing here in LAm I couldn`t wait and also ordered it from amazon. I do like it better in english as the whale wars version in spanish (Defensores de Ballenas , which translates in english as "whale defenders") is , I don`t know.....weird. The dubbing is terrible, they all soud as if they were all bored and unexcited.I mean watson`s dubbing sounds as if he was speaking in a G8 meeting or something.I wish they had done a better dubbing in spanish.
My only complaint about the dvd is that chapters are shorter than the tv`s.
The chapters I`ve seen on tv are like 5 or 10 minutes longer so they have scenes that don`t come on the dvd....... also weird.
Anyway I love whale wars and I wish (and not) we could also see a "seal wars" because those MO***Fu**s NEED TO BE EXPOSED too!!

Wednesday April 8, 2009, 8:48 pm
Hi Claudia,
I have never seen a whale, but I love them so much. Along with wolves, I feel these mammals are so much like the human race. Whale Wars 1 showed me that the Japanese will rape the oceans of what ever they want for a profit at any & all cost. I would like this to stop.
Not the whales, please not the whales. For some reason, I don't know why, I believe whales are the most inteligent beings on this planet that we humans call home.

Good luck & stay safe - Kelly