Word: whaler
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...pirate whaler is rammed...
...ships still slaughtering whales, none is more loathed by conservationists than the infamous Sierra. Flying the Cyprus flag and owned by a shadowy Liechtenstein-based company, possibly with Japanese interests, the pirate whaler ignores all whaling agreements, hunts indiscriminately and makes its kills in a particularly cruel way: instead of the explosive-tipped harpoons used by most whalers, it employs the unarmed type. These do less damage to whale meat but only prolong the agony of the great mammals, often attracting other whales who, in trying to help their beleaguered brethren, are themselves caught. Last week, in a dramatic reversal...
...whales. The fins, second only in size (75 ft.) to the mammoth blues, are an endangered species fully protected everywhere else in the world, but the Icelanders are permitted to take a few hundred every year, most of which are shipped off to whale-eating Japan. Suddenly, as the whaler was about to zero in on its prey, a small, outboard-powered Zodiac inflatable materialized under the ship's towering...
...group called Greenpeace, which was founded a decade ago and has been protesting whaling operations throughout the world. Whenever a fin whale rose up from the depths to blow out air in a watery spray, the inflatable would run brazen interference for the giant mammal, interposing itself between the whaler and its quarry. With growing frustration, Captain Thordur Eythorsson, 36, stood by his ominous-looking harpoon gun atop the whaler's bow, unable to make his kill...
...hours, the stalemate continued. Every time the whaler angled close enough to the fins for a shot, one of Greenpeace's four inflatables would dodge into its way. The contemporary Ahab was forced to hold his fire lest he hit the protesters. Finally, after two misses, the captain got off his shot when one fin surfaced directly in front of the catch boat. It was a painfully slow demise for the beast; to minimize the danger to the protesters, Eythorsson had removed the explosive cap from the harpoon. Cabled TIME Correspondent Erik Amfitheatrof of the grisly action: "The creature...