Sea Shepherd Wietse, during his brief stint back on land, talked to Dissident Island about the exploits of the Steve Irwin during its Antartica campaign Operation Waltzing Matilda as well as the imminent Mediterranean campaign, Operation Blue Rage...

Wietse, a Sea Shepherd activist, has served on board as part of the crew for two Antartica campaigns now - and this has only strengthened his resolve to continue working aboard the Steve Irwin, doing direct action and intervening at all costs to protect marine life in international waters.

The most recent Sea Shepherd campaign in Antarctica, Operation Waltzing Matilda, managed to save 528 whales from a lethal fate at the hands of Japanese whalers, resulting in the Japanese whaling fleet returning home from the hunting season with 507 dead whales, well short of their quota of 1035.

The Sea Shepherds are now on their way to the start of their first Mediterranean campaign - which happens to be one of the world's most regulated and over-exploited waters. Operation Blue Rage will be primarily to defend the blue fin tuna, which migrates into the region every summer to spawn and is heavily threatened by industrial fishing operations. It is reported that the blue fin tuna will have been fished to extinction by 2012.

In this full-length interview with Wietse, you will hear more details about the recent Antartica campaign, the upcoming Mediterreanea campaign as well as political questions of marine activism and more silly questions like "what did you think of that south park episode?"

So have a listen...

D*I
www.dissidentisland.org

PS: You can sign-up to Wietse's email list to hear the latest from the Steve Irwin:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/wietse

Follow Sea Shepherd with daily news updates on the official twitter:
http://twitter.com/seashepherd

At War for the Whales (Zine on personal experiences during the campaign)
http://wwerf.com/prt/whale_war.pdf

Photo's from the Antarctic campaign: http://flickr.com/wietse