Sea Shepherd gets “spaceship” boat

earthrace

Radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd will be using Earthrace, a futuristic-looking biofueled boat, in its violent activism against Japanese whalers:

“It looks like a spaceship. It can do 40 knots and dive under waves completely. We’ll be using it to intercept and block harpoons.”

In 61 days last year Earthrace circled the globe fuelled by biodiesel. The New Zealand owner/skipper, Pete Bethune, said he decided to become involved because “this is happening in my backyard and it really pisses me off. I’m going to make a stand.”

He said he was adding half a tonne of Kevlar to the vessel to toughen it against the ice. It had the endurance to go half way round the world on a tank of fuel.

“They won’t get away from me,” he said.

Earthrace’s role was unveiled as the International Whaling Commission heard that Sea Shepherd’s protests endangered the lives of whalers in the Southern Ocean last summer when the Steve Irwin was involved in two collisions.

The second season of “Whale Wars,” a reality TV show that serves as a PR engine for Sea Shepherd’s activities, is currently airing on the Animal Planet channel.

[via JapanSoc]

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62 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 29, 2009 at 7:52 am

Categories: Anti-Japan Tags: whaling

Ido

Oh gosh, they just moved up the ante. Now what’s next green-torpedo launchers?
By the way adding kevlar doesn’t seem like such a good idea..it’ll only make the boat slower and less efficient, IMO carbon fibre >> Kevlar.
- Trufax
  
  Yeah I forgot but kevlar stops bullets, not blades. I think that wouldn’t make it the material of choice to intercept a harpoon. Sounds like a willful suicide in the making to me.
http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

It’s a shame that Animal Planet of all entities is supporting these crackpots and giving them a huge platform from which to showcase their stunts. I’m all about animals and saving the environment, but Sea Shepard are a bunch of loonies.
- Jerry
  
  I agree that Sea Shepherd is a bunch of loonies, but if I were the CEO of Animal Planet, I dont care what they do, unless it provides good entertainment and get me rich
  - http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan
    
    You are right. That is probably the bottom line here.
Trufax

Time until they accidentally kill a whale in a collision while trying to “intercept” a harpoon in 5….4…..3
Matt

Am I dreaming or is the boat shown on the picture got a Panasonic sponsor on it (left of the photo)?
- dobokun
  
  Probably. There are different views of whaling among Japanese.
- Pete Bethune
  
  we had Panasonic as a sponsor until about a year ago. we still have a few japanese sponsors on-board though(toshiba for example) but I don’t think they’ll be continuing with us. Pete. Skipper (earthrace)
  - daniel
    
    isnt this the same as the audy gil?
Kevin

Space Pirates?
hl

Wow, the Whale Wars show is PR for them? They seem pretty bumbling and uncaring towards actual people in it.

As shady as Japan’s “research” is, it seems that Sea Shepherd’s energies and money would be much better spent getting laws changed rather than being vigilantes that put themselves and others in danger needlessly.
- Trufax
  
  What laws should they be focusing on changing? Japan is ignoring an international treaty they agreed to so I don’t think that lobbying is their goal anymore.
  - hl
    
    I thought the law allowed for research and set no limits on that. So they’re kind of getting around the law.
    - Darin
      
      I would agree that Japan has found a loophole in the law, not breaking it.
      
      The best way to stop Japan from whaling would be to actually make it illegal. That would include making it illegal for everyone, getting rid of the ‘traditional whaling rights’ of the native peoples of North America.
      
      The Japanese rightfully claim that it is wrong their traditional rights as native peoples are not honored while the rights of Native Americans are. Actually following through with that would be a might PR mess for lots of people I think.
    - LB
      
      “I would agree that Japan has found a loophole in the law, not breaking it. ”
      
      1. The IWC is a non-governmental body, so they don’t have the power to make “laws”. They have “rules” that apply to members of the IWC (and only to members of the IWC – there is absolutely nothing the IWC can do about non-members other than complain), but that is all they are – “rules”, not “laws”.
      
      2. IWC rules explicitly state that research whaling is allowed, does not set limits, and states that any whales taken must be utilized. A country cannot kill whales for research and then just dump the carcasses, in other words.
      
      Those are the rules, and Japan is following them. They did not find a loophole. A loophole would be if IWC rules banned commercial whaling but not any other kind – in other words, there was nothing that said Japan could conduct research whaling, but also nothing that said Japan could not. There is no “loophole” in a rule that says “You are allowed to do XYZ under these conditions:” Calling that a “loophole” is like saying you found a “loophole” that lets you drive at 80 km/h on the highway because that is what the sign says.
    - hl
      
      Yeah, my initial understanding was flawed as it came from watching whale wars where they kept saying Japan was violating international law, but then I heard about the research exception, so I thought of it as more of a loophole.
      
      But after checking the Animal Planet website and reading about the controversy there I don’t even know what to call Sea Shepherd anymore. At first I thought they were vigilantes against the Japanese, but there’s not even a crime occurring.
      
      I think there tactics are awful and I don’t know why they bother having extra standards for the whaling while throwing out basic standards of how to live life.
    - hl
      
      I think their (sea shepherd’s) tactics are awful and I don’t know why they bother having extra standards for the whaling while throwing out basic standards of how to live life.
    - Concerned Filipino
      
      I feel like I’ve said this several times before, but in keeping with Lakoff’s theory of framing, facts that do not fit with what a person wants to believe about reality are ignored.
      
      How convenient. The IWC allows research whaling, as if one needs 50 whale corpses a year if they’re just going to perform research on them. Personally, I think whales, like any other animal, offer better insight into their behavior while they’re alive.
      
      And not only that, but any whales taken must be “utilized!” You can’t just throw their carcasses away! Isn’t that convenient?
      
      “The Japanese rightfully claim that it is wrong their traditional rights as native peoples are not honored while the rights of Native Americans are.”
      
      Rightfully? Traditional, right. With their towering skyscraper cities and talking toilets and all. And they also hunt whales traditionally, with explosive harpoons and factory ships. Hey, are Filipinos a “native people” as well? What about Europeans?
      
      To compare Japanese to Native Americans as a “traditional people” is an offensive and feeble-minded tactic.
W

I urge everyone to go to Disovery Channel’s viewer relations (http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations) and issue a condemnation of Whale Wars.

Here is a sample of the comments I have submitted (please modify and append it, in order to deal a deeper impact):

The Sea Shepard, the crew of which are professed protagonists of Whale Wars, engages in illegal activities against a sovereign nation, Japan, with its own beliefs and values. I condemn Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel for providing such a positive venue for what are evidently eco-terrorists and the vilification of values different from our own, a characteristic I am shocked to find at the Discovery Channel. As a long-time viewer, I am appalled and disgusted that a network known for promoting the better elements of humanity, would lend their support, however direct or indirect, to such criminals. I have canceled my subscription to your channel and have and will continue to convince friends and family to do the same.
David – Chicago, USA

I have, for some time, been following this blog with much amusement. However, I take exception to using the term “Violent Activism” when referring to anti-whaling protesters especially in consideration to often brutal violence shown against them by Japanese whalers. Whilst I have no strong opinions on the rights or wrong associated with whaling (having tried whale meat I really can’t see the reason why they need to be hunted, try carp for an equally unsavory experience), such obviously biased and strong words describing what is certainly not violent acts in the context of protests on the high seas can only lead me to believe that you opinion has been greatly shaped by the media in Japan. I would ask you to do more research into the matter and provide balanced (or at least informed) opinion when hurling such strong accusations.
- http://www.japanprobe.com James
  
  in consideration to often brutal violence shown against them by Japanese whalers.
  
  What brutal violence are you referring to?
  
  I use the words “violent activism” when mentioning Sea Shepherd’s activities because that is exactly what they do and they are quite open about it. Greenpeace has even condemned their activities:
  
  Greenpeace has refused to co-operate with Sea Shepherd or give away the co-ordinates of the Japanese fleet, despite pleas by Watson that the two groups should join together to fight the whalers. ‘We have always pledged to take a non-violent approach to saving the whale,’ said Holden. ‘We are not going to compromise on those ideals and we are not going to help people who have said they will use violence. We are here to save the whale, not put the lives of whalers at risk.’
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jan/13/whaling.antarctica
- majiimeaussie
  
  David,
  
  As per your suggestion I suggest that you also do more investigation. Sea Shepherd are the ones who have claimed they have sunk several ships and that they fill the bows of their ships so that they can ram and sink the ships that they are protesting. Note: this is not subjective evidence as it is claimed by Sea Shepherd.
  
  It is also clear from the video evidence that they rammed the Japanese ship last year.
  
  Also going back to the basics why is it wrong to kill whales for food but not other animals, birds or fish? How do you choose which are OK to eat and which aren’t? What is the criteria?
- hl
  
  Funny, I hadn’t heard anything about the whale stuff from the Japanese. I based my own opinion on watching the show ‘whale wars’.
  
  I guess it doesn’t tell the whole story but what I saw was Sea Shepherd getting too close to a ship for no good reason and bumping it, getting their own crew hurt in various ways, throwing what appeared to be glass bottles at the sides and decks of ships, and showing a lack of sympathy for a man overboard on another ship (the captain said either it was an accident or, inexplicably, that the guy might have committed suicide!).
  
  After all that, I saw a preview for the next show that said that the Japanese were ‘increasing their violence’ with an apparently debilitating sound deterrent.
  
  If whaling of any kind or just only a small limited amount is okay, fine, but work on getting a treaty or whatever made that actually does that. Without question/exception. Because right now it appears that Japan is operating within their rights on a badly-written treaty.
http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

Just noticed that it sort of looks like the goats head that is often inside of pentagrams.
Elah W

So Pete Bethune thinks Japanese waters is his “backyard”…

Dangerous protest like this that even endangers the lives of whalers are not the way to go.
- dobokun
  
  He’s talking about the Southern Ocean, or South Pacific. A little above Australia.
- Pete Bethune
  
  The Ross Sea is directly south of New Zealand, and we are the closest country to it. It certainly isn’t the back yard of Japan. I don’t believe the Japanese have a right to hunt these whales when they have no claim to the waters.
  - YES
    
    good on ya pete
  - binsentokun
    
    I just want to make sure I got this straight. It sounds like you are saying that your complaint is that Japanese whalers are doing this in New Zealand’s waters, right? So, as long as they hunt in their own territory and you don’t have to see, then it’s okay?
    - LB
      
      Except the Ross Sea is international waters, not New Zealand waters…
Brian

How long will it be until they kill an innocent (they wouldn’t think they were innocent, obviously) Norwegian or Japanese whaler? With the amount of ships they’ve sunk and the kind of tactics they use, it’s probably not an “if” but “when” question. And when that time comes, will the rest of the world continue their mind-numbing pro-anti-whalers attitude?
jc

Their achievements will serve as cannon fodder for governments around the world to justify spying on their own people, while simultaneously providing a disservice to protest groups throughout the world.

Violence is a helluva drug.

Hey Peter Bethune, would you mind me relieving myself on your body at your future funeral?
flonk

all the japan apologists here are a gas…

go go spaceship boat!!!
- DC
  
  >all the japan apologists here are a gas…
  
  Have to agree, flonk! However, Japan Probe is fairly reserved. I regularly see worse on other boards: whaling on the basis of a lie, blackface, discrimination, calling multi-ethnic kids ‘haafu’… even the Japanese lack of child-porn possession laws all seem to be acceptable to the committed Japan apologist. And they *love* Sea Shepherd to bits, because it gives them a stick with which to beat those who oppose whaling.
  - Dangomushi
    
    It’s not “whaling on the basis of a lie” though… they ARE conducting scientific research. However, it’s research concerning the science behind sustainable whaling as a fishing stock! They are in the research to understand how they can whale the stocks sustainably! While it may not be the scientific research some eco-hippie fucks might want… it IS science and it is perfectly legal (no shadiness or lying about it at all)!
Roger

This boat looks very nice. Sea Shepherd must be making good money from their campaign. Why stop a business which is good? Namely exposing Japanese whaling to the world. These guys are more interested in stopping Japanese hunting whales than saving the whales as the whales that Japan hunts are not endangered where as whales right off North Americas east coast are seriously endangered. The North Atlantic right whale. They get killed due to cargo ships ramming into them or they get caught in ship entanglement but you never hear Sea Shepherd raise an eye brow over this? Why is that?

Also, what good is with only one boat when Japan has more than 1 boat to hunt whales. They might stop one Japanese whaling boat from whaling but the others are free to hunt whales with no harrasment from Sea Shepherd whatsoever. I just think this whole issue is just a show to make money. They are trying to make us believe that they are infact stopping Japanese from hunting whales when the truth of the matter is that Japan is hunting whales dispite getting harrassed by Sea Shepherd.
Level3

The reasons they don’t do much in the Atlantic and US-Europe shipping routes are numerous.

#1 is probably that it’s too close to home for the typical rich, empty-headed white kids who volunteer for this eco-jihad. The North Atlantic is too close to Mummy and Duddy’s Martha’s Vineyard summer home. The Pacific is far away and more exotic, yet they can still use Duddy’s Platinum card when they stop for booze in Australia.

#2 The Pacific is much more convenient for cheap sex holidays in Thailand.

#3 The U.S. Navy

#4 American ship captains are much more likely than Japanese to have semi-automatic rifles or better, and the willingness to use them.
Debiru

Anyone noticed that it looks like Baphomet?
TJ

The sad thing is they do not have any forums or anything open on their website to tell them what you think. I am all for saving the whales but really….. Umm if they are still whaling then there are still plenty of whales in the ocean. Time to move on to something more important in the world. Like saving the Great Whites. How about that Sea Shepard? Yeah just jump in and save them…..please.

I always thought Green Peace was a bunch of wackos but these guys take the cake.
3

whale meat tastes good
Dr.Yu

What a waste of time and resources.
That’s not the way to fight the whaling problem.
Morons.
madne0

If anything, Whale Wars is harming the Sea Shepherd people. They come off as complete lunatics.
- http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan
  
  Or maybe that is precisely what they are?
Jose

Oh, great.
So, they’re trying to destroy a good private enterprise in the midst of a global economic recession.
So, let me try to understand this:
Throwing people out of a job (if they succeed)? It’s OKAY!
During a recession where it is difficult to find another job? JUSTIFIED!
Decreasing the food supply => making food more expensive for the common people? PERFECT!

They’re like the environmental jihadists in America who are pushing the their government’s Environmental Protection Agency to throw a how-many-hundred-dollar tax on all American farms per cow they own. It doesn’t matter if all domestic beef and dairy products more expensive to the average citizen AND hurts American beef and dairy exports.

It doesn’t matter if the poor, who exist in ALL nations, are deprived of food. So long as the whales are safe.
- Concerned Filipino
  
  As if you really care about the poor. Whale meat most certainly does not make up a significant portion of the poor’s diets in any country in the world.
Shelly

Damn, they’ve gone and allied themselves with the Romulans…
whale oil fuels my lamp

These nuts are pirates. The only thing to do is to fight pirates with other pirates or ninjas. I would happily join a crew to screw with these nut jobs. They care more about the whales than the lives of the whalers. If you have ever been afloat you would know the constant danger of working on the seas, let alone have to avoid nut jobs like these. Let’s start an organization called the Sea Wolves and name the first vessel Gunnolf (Norse for ‘fighting wolf’) and go scuttle their asses.
- http://martin@tm.net.my martin
  
  These whalers are murderers. Go fuck yourself with a
  harpoon and tell me how does it feels!!!
  - The Overthinker
    
    Always love to see hypocrisy in action. Let’s prevent the violent deaths of other animals with the violent deaths of humans!
OG

Why doesn’t Japan just torpedo them. That’d solve their whaling problem really quick.
Big Mike

Why doesn’t Japan just torpedo them. That’d solve their whaling problem really quick.

Because we would nuke them again? Better yet, split Japan between Russia and China.
Throwing Japs out of a Job Whaling. Hell! Obama is outsourcing tons of stuff to them. Did you get cash for your clunker?

Sea Shepards…A ship with out Marines is like a coat with out Buttons.
Steve D

I think Japan is acting like cowards, hiding behind “research” as a motive. They should just come out and say, “yes, we are hunting whales. We eat them, just like that tasty tiger penis soup that increases our male sexual potency”. Paul Watson and crew seem a bit off, but at least their motives are clear and they aren’t lying about it. Human life is not all that sacred anyway. We (the US) can wage war for oil and kill over 700,000 people directly and cause the deaths of over 300,000 more indirectly. After that, I think acting sanctomonious about human life is hypocritical. Face it, you are just a number on a census sheet. You are just a tax payer. Your life is not valuable in the big picture. So who really cares if the Sea Shepards ram ships and try to kill people that are cowardly lying about what they are doing.
thedaz

My guess is that whaling is just a clever tactic to divert the media away from the overfishing of tuna.
SWater

Vigilante groups in the United States are almost always racist.
Keeper

Couple of points:

1. Whaling costs Japan more money than it brings in. Without government subsidies, the industry would collapse. Japan would be much better served by stopping whaling, retraining the whalers in different marine trades, and re-investing whalingahling subsidies in creating new, sustainable, environmentally-friendly aquaculture. The have the brainpower, they have the manpower and they have the means. It’s time to leave the past.

2. If one wanted to and had the necessary funds, it would not be particularly difficult to acquire an antiship weapon for deployment either at sea or in port. Be thankful that Sea Shepherd is run by Capt. Paul Watson and not someone less caring about human life.
MikeTheWhale

They do work all over the globe!

Sink those dirty whalers! If it was up to me, they would all be put to death for murder, no jail time, no wasted taxes on them, just take the whalers and toss them into the ocean and call it a day.
MikeTheWhale

“How long will it be until they kill an innocent (they wouldn’t think they were innocent, obviously) Norwegian or Japanese whaler? With the amount of ships they’ve sunk and the kind of tactics they use, it’s probably not an “if” but “when” question. And when that time comes, will the rest of the world continue their mind-numbing pro-anti-whalers attitude?”

There is no innocent whaler from any country. They need to be sunk and not helped. They know what they are doing when they leave port, they are leaving to murder.

When they finally kill a few of those whalers, Ill be here cheering. If I can ever get the money together, I want to join one of their missions, im sure it wouldnt be whalers, maybe seals or sharks! as they protect many animals all over the world.
Halal Islam

Wouldn’t care. Whale meat isn’t halal (Islamic dietary standards).
Kevin

I want to know the maker of that boat I want one, I was going to buy a speed boat, but that one will do the people here do not know the name of the boat. I think they dont want to loose the sale. what is it? how big is it on the inside? and is it more then 10mil to buy. The boat I’m looking at is about 7.8
http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

Who has said any of these things? So if you disagree with Sea Shepard’s tactics you are automatically a Japan apologist who feels they know Japan better than other gaijin?

Arguing against strawmen isn’t exactly the right way to go about having your opinions respected. As far as I can see, people have an issue with Sea Shepard’s tactics not their politics.
Concerned Filipino

No, because he’s going to take a one-man submarine filled with explosives and try to ram it into Earthrace first. Then maybe his soul can find its way there.

Sea Shepherd gets “spaceship” boat

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