Nisshin Maru
The Nisshin Maru
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| History | |
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 Japan
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| Name: | Nisshin Maru (Previously Chikuzen Maru) |
| Owner: | Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Ltd. |
| Operator: | Institute of Cetacean Research |
| Port of registry: | Japan |
| Builder: | Hitachi Zosen Corporation Innoshima Works |
| Launched: | August 30, 1987 |
| In service: | Active |
| Homeport: | Shimonoseki Harbor, Tokyo, Japan |
| Identification: | IMO number: 8705292, Call sign: JJCJ, MMSI: 431683000 |
| Status: | Whaling in the Southern Ocean as of December 2015 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Whaling factory ship |
| Tonnage: | 8,145 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: | 129.58 m (425 ft 2 in) o/a |
| Beam: | 19.4 m (63 ft 8 in) (moulded) |
| Draft: | 11.7 m (38 ft 5 in) |
| Propulsion: | 5,383 kw (7315 bhp) |
| Speed: |
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The 8,145-ton vessel MV Nisshin Maru (日新丸?) is the primary vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet and is the world's only whaler factory ship. It is also the largest member, and flagship of the five member whaling fleet, headed by research leader Shigetoshi Nishiwaki, and is based in Japan in Shimonoseki harbor. The ship is owned by Tokyo-based company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd which is a subsidiary of the Institute of Cetacean Research.
There have been several Japanese factory whaling ships named Nisshin Maru. After the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941, all Japanese factory ships soon began to serve in the war effort till sunk or till the end of World War II in 1945.
General Douglas MacArthur, as military governor of Japan in 1945, encouraged the now defeated Japan to continue whaling in order to provide a cheap source of meat to its starving people, and to supply millions of dollars in oil for the United States and Europe. The Japanese whaling industry quickly recovered as MacArthur authorized the commission of two converted T2 tankers as whaling factory ships (Hashidate Maru and Nisshin Maru No. 1), to once again take whales in the Antarctic and elsewhere.
A major fire in the ship's processing factory broke out on February 15, 2007 while in Antarctic waters. The resulting damage caused the ship to be temporarily disabled, all while continuing to carry approximately 1,000 tons of oil. This incident took place within the New Zealand Search and Rescue Region. One crew member was killed in the fire.
Citing environmental concerns, specifically the disabled ship's proximity to Cape Adare, Antarctica and the world's largest Adelie penguin rookery, New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter joined international citizens' groups in urgently requesting that the ship be towed away. Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which administers the ship with the Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, declined offers of a tow from the Greenpeace ship MV Esperanza, which had been nearby and monitoring the situation since February 17. On February 28, the ICR released a statement on its decision to cut short its Antarctic whale hunt for 2006/07 due to unrecoverable equipment, and the Nisshin Maru departed for Japan.
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Wikipedia