Nisshin Maru

The  is the primary vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet and is the world's only whaler factory ship. It was the research base ship for the Institute of Cetacean Research for 2002 to 2007. It has a tonnage of  and is the largest member and flagship of the five-ship whaling fleet, headed by leader Shigetoshi Nishiwaki. The ship is based in Japan in Shimonoseki harbor and was owned by Tokyo-based Kyodo Senpaku, which is a subsidiary of the Institute of Cetacean Research. It stopped being used in 2020. 
s, including a 1-year-old juvenile, being loaded aboard *Nisshin Maru*.  This photograph was taken in the Southern Ocean by agents from the  Australian Customs and Border Protection Service vessel, during a 2008 surveillance mission.]]
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## History 
There have been several Japanese factory whaling ships named *Nisshin Maru*.  After the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor on 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.

****Nisshin Maru*** (16,764 grt), commissioned in 1936, was a whaling factory ship built by Taiyo Gyogyo from a purchased blueprint of the Norwegian factory ship *Sir James Clark Ross*. This *Nisshin Maru* was sunk by the submarine  in Balabac Strait, Borneo on May 16, 1944.
****Nisshin Maru No. 2*** (17,579 grt) built by Taiyo Gyogyo, was commissioned in 1937 and was damaged on February 7, 1943 by two torpedoes fired from .

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 hunt whales in the Antarctic and elsewhere.  It was sold in 1961 to Taiyo Gyogyo, fitted it and changed her name to *Nisshin Maru No. 3* (23,106 tons).
****Nisshin Maru*** The latest *Nisshin Maru* (8,030-tons) was built by Hitachi Zosen Corporation Innoshima Works and launched in 1987 as *Chikuzen Maru*. It remains a whaler factory ship, but following the September 2018 Florianopolis Declaration by the IWC,  Japan withdrew its IWC membership on December 26, 2018. The vessel is no longer contracted by the Institute of Cetacean Research, and it resumed commercial hunting in Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone on July 1, 2019. The ship still belongs to Kyodo Senpaku Co. and it dropped the "Research" signs and banners. A subsidy of 5.1 billion yen (US$47.31 million) was budgeted for commercial whaling in 2019, and was expected to hunt 227 minke whales by the end of 2019.

## 2007 Antarctic voyage 
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 340,000 gallons 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 used to administer the ship with the Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, declined offers of a tow from the Greenpeace ship , which had been nearby and monitoring the situation since February 17. On February 28, the Institute of Cetacean Research released a statement on its decision to cut short its Antarctic whale hunt for 2006/07 due to unrecoverable equipment, and *Nisshin Maru* departed for Japan for repairs, cutting short its whaling season for the first time in 20 years.

## Other incidents 
*Nisshin Maru* and Greenpeace's  collided in December 1999 and in January 2006. In 2006 both ships claimed to have been rammed by the other, and the ICR posted video footage to support its version of the incident. Greenpeace responded that the waves emanating from *Arctic Sunrise* in the video support Greenpeace's contention that its vessel had its engines in reverse; Greenpeace also claimed the location of cloud formations in the background of the ICR video indicate *Nisshin Maru* was turning into the Greenpeace ship at the time of collision.

In March 2011, *Nisshin Maru* returned early from operations in the Southern Ocean and immediately began assisting in disaster relief efforts following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, transporting food, fuel, and other supplies to areas devastated by the catastrophe.

In February 2013, *Nisshin Maru* was involved in a multiple-ship collision, colliding with the Sea Shepherd vessels *Steve Irwin*, , and , as well as the whaler's refueling ship, *Sun Laurel*. *Bob Barker* was damaged and issued a mayday. *Sun Laurel*s lifeboats were also damaged due to the collision.

## IMO regulations 
Additional regulations from the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) took effect on August 1, 2011 prohibiting ships using heavy oil fuel below 60 degrees south to prevent pollution. The IMO *Guidelines For Ships Operating In Ice-Covered Waters* also establishes requirements for a double-hull strengthened against ice-related damage.  *Nisshin Maru* did not meet the IMO standards.

## In popular culture 
*Nisshin Maru* is featured in the video game Ship Simulator Extremes, along with *Kyo Maru* # 1 and the Greenpeace vessel *Esperanza* with its outboard inflatable boats and RIBs.

Matthew Barney filmed *Drawing Restraint 9* on *Nisshin Maru* in 2005, as it made its annual journey to Antarctica.

*Nisshin Maru* is the name of a whaler factory vessel that is chased by Greenpeace and a German/Chilean press officer in Luis Sepulveda's book *Mundo del fin del mundo*.

## References 
## Other websites 
* Institute of Cetacean Research
* Greenpeace Japan
* Sea Shepherd Conservation Society