Another collision between Sea Shepherd and Japanese whalers
Radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd was all over the news last month when a collision with a Japanese whaling ship left one of their boats heavily damaged. The media attention had died down, but they’ve managed to get themselves back into yet another collision.
Here is a video filmed from the deck of the Sea Shepherd ship:
Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said by satellite telephone that the Japanese ship rammed the Bob Barker—named after the U.S. game show host who donated millions to buy it—as it blocked the slipway of the Japanese fleet’s factory ship.
Japanese officials were not immediately available to comment on the incident, and Watson’s claim that the Bob Barker was deliberately hit could not be independently verified.
No video from the Japanese side has been posted to the internet yet, but it will probably appear on YouTube sometime in the next 24 hours, but here is a video from yesterday showing Sea Shepherd aiming a laser beam at the eyes of the Japanese crew:
Statements have been issued from the Japanese side denying that their ship intentionally rammed the Sea Shepherd vessel:
Institute spokesman Glenn Inwood says the impact was far from deliberate.
“Japan is doing a legal operation there. It has no need to ram anyone. This is all the work of the Sea Shepherd group.”
Mr Inwood says the Yushin Maru was trying to avoid acid bombs being lobbed by crew on the Bob Barker and in doing so, the vessel made a dramatic turn, clipping the Bob Barker. He also claims the protesters had been repeatedly firing a high-power green laser device at the Nisshin Maru crew.
Sea Shepherd admits to actively blocking the slipway of the Japanese whaling fleet’s factory ship when the collision occurred. It was trying to prevent slaughtered whales being loaded onto the vessel.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the Dutch parliament is considering a new law that could lead to the de-flagging of Sea Shepherd’s ships:
The amendment to the law on the nationality of ships would deprive Dutch-registered vessels of certificates of registry issued by the Dutch government “when harm is done to a ship, its crew or load or when it would be used in such a way that relations with other countries could be affected negatively,” according to the draft text of the legislation.
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You know, I’m not a big fan of whaling, and the whole “research” charade is despicable.
But.
Looking at the first video, it is clear that Sea Shepherd is the one that’s doing the ramming. You can even see the Japanese vessel steer the other way to avoid collision.
This is really pathetic.
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Here’s another poll question for ya:
“Should the Japanese government allow the FISHING FLEET to lie thru their teeth and call their activities RESEARCH instead of what it really is – FISHING?”
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You might want to read up on what a fish is.
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You might want to read up on what RESEARCH is.
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Why? Did I mention research somewhere?
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Nowhere does it say that the definition of research requires it to be non-lethal and non-commercial in nature.
Whaling (or fishing) and research aren’t mutually exclusive, though pretending it is may lend greater strength to the emotional appeal to outrage.
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Sorry, VonSkippy, but an enemy combatant can riddle your body with bullets and claim he is studying particle physics.
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I know this isn’t going to win me friends on a site like this, but I think it’s clear Japanese whalers are using research as a facade for an activity that is by essence, illegal.
I try to think objectively, and I have not the slightest emotional attachment to whales, BUT if you say whaling for commercial and whaling for research purposes are not mutually exclusive you’re implying that there is research going on that validates the amount of whales being killed, before they get shipped off to commercial warehouses. If this is the case… where are the research papers that quote using a population sample of whales anything close to the amount being killed?
Futhermore, to be honest I don’t think Japanese people would be buying whale offcuts from research facilities.
(sorry to have strayed the topic even further from the actual incident cited in the post).
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Baz,
The English site of the Institute of Cetacean Research is rather hard to navigate but I did find these, so these should be a start.
Scientific papers submitted to the JARPA REVIEW meeting called by the International Whaling Commission (2006)
http://www.icrwhale.org/JARPAReview3.htm
Scientific papers submitted to the JARPN REVIEW meeting called by the International Whaling Commission (2000)
http://www.icrwhale.org/JARPNReview2.htm
JARPA is simply Japan’s research in the Antarctic, and likewise JARPN is Japan’s research in the Western north Pacific.
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Actually the various organizations and documents that regulate the legality of such actions are not so black and white. I agree it almost certainly isn’t true “research”, but there is no specific clause that outlaws whale hunting entirely.
The specific documents you need to look for are:
- “The Antarctic Treaty System”
- “The Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species”
- “The International Convention on the Regulation of
Whaling”
- “United Nations Charter on Nature”
- “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”
Have a look and tell me if you find something that states Japan is unmistakably engaged in criminal activity.
Keep in mind, it’s possible that Japan could have broken territorial laws in non-international waters, but those would be handled per-incidence, and wouldn’t criminalize Japan’s actions on-the-whole.
The sad thing about Sea Shepherd is that it would be seemingly easy to fix the obscurities in the aforementioned documents, which would then indeed criminalize Japan’s actions. But reviewing papers and submitting corrections doesn’t pull your supporters emotional strings (and bring in millions of dollars in donations) quite like a good boat chase.
In all seriousness, if you really want to help the whales, you should demand those documents be revised. Supporting SSCS will get you nowhere, since Japan will continue to replace whaling ships as long as they are technically not doing anything illegal.
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I don’t like the idea of commercial whaling personally, but I hate to tell you guys who keep citing “International Law” that in actual fact, there is no such thing.
There are codes, customs and international treaties which governments choose to recognise, yes, including “laws of the sea” and the like. But the only thing that makes any of these codes, customs or treaties legitimate is the fact that particular governments choose to abide by them – because those governments recognise that doing so is in their own national interest.
Virtually every sea-going power understands that piracy is a threat to its own national interest (economically as well as militarily) so nations stand together against piracy. The rest of it is details handled by agreements.
Japan and Norway choose not to recognise agreements made that restrict or ban whaling. As long as those two countries’ vessels are not whaling within territorial waters of nations who do ban the practice, they can do whatever they want.
The self-limiting factor is when actions at sea give rise to an international incident. Nothing else.
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Fishing can be used as a verb to describe the catch of things of than just fish. Of all the things to come back with, this is about the most inane thing to say.
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Please add the ability to edit comments -_-;
I meant “Fishing can be used as a verb to describe the catch of things other than just fish.”
And no I’m not siding with Sea Shepherd. But if you want to go fishing for boots there is nothing wrong with it. It’s an expression, not everything is literal. So yes, someone can go fishing for mammals if they so please.
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Sure, it is a bold faced lie… but then again the continued international pressure on Japan to abandon all whaling (while simultaneously allowing other indigenous groups to whale on the basis of tradition) is slightly misplaced I think.
If the purpose of a ban on whaling was to help restore the whale populations to sustainable levels, and if some of those populations have indeed rebounded, then is it still unreasonable to perform some level of commercial whaling?
Yet, somehow I doubt there is any population level at which Greenpeace will suddenly decide that commercial whaling is acceptable.
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Your comment has nothing to do with this information.. Even if it was wrong, they didn’t do the ramming. it was the Sea Shepherd. As Glenn Inwood says “It has no need to ram anyone”
I may not agree with the japanese “research” claim, but that is no reason why we should put ourselves or others on the line. the men on the japanese boats are just doing their job, they need to make a living too you know. So if the Activists want to do something maybe they should try attacking the managers of these business. rather than his men who simply get payed to do it!!!
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Whaling is legal under the current rules of the IWC. Norway whales under objection to the moratorium and Japan whales under the scientific research exemption to the moratorium. Those that disagree with these policies, which existed long before a moratorium was even thought off, ought to pressure their governments to work with each other to gain the necessary votes to change the system lawfully.
Watson and SSCS are crying about getting bumped/rammed at sea in a game that they started last year. Look at the decals of rammed ships that Watson so proudly displays on the side of his ship, the Steve Irwin. Watson began this game, I urge him to end it before he kills someone.
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Whaling is legal only given the proviso the whales are used for scientific research. I don’t disagree or agree with the IWC law, but has every whale caught by Japanese whalers (or even the majority of whales caught) been scientifically analyzed for valid research purposes before it was eaten? Due to the sheer number of whales caught per annum, plus the lack of whale biology research coming out of Japan, I would argue that it’s highly unlikely.
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The purpose of research is to estimate the population of whales by lethal counting. IWC suspended commercial whaling until they build a scheme for sustainable whaling. Research of whale population is the most important research for the scheme. You should not assume the research is zoological in nature.
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This kind of action is pathetic. You want to change things? Going out and marching with signs, or rioting at world trade conferences, or setting animals used in testing free, or trying to block whaling ships, only serves to satisfy the activists own egos.
You want to change things? Take the hard road and get inside the system and change it from within. Yes, this takes time, money, education, intelligence, etc, but this sort of violent protest is absolutely useless. If they are legally allowed to do it, and can make a profit, they will continue.
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If whales were an endangered species then OK whaling should stop basically. It’s almost like telling fisherman to stop fishing. There’s got to be something more than this
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Let’s forget the debate about whaling for a second since both sides do have valid points.
In the first video, am I the only that actually hear the Sea Sheperds crew LAUGH after being “rammed”?
I might be out of my mind but they really don’t seemed scared of being hit before it happens while it’s clear their ship is going in a straight line, aiming for the Japanese ship that tries to avoid them at the last second, and after that they f*** laugh??
To me it’s clear that the agressor is once again the Sea Sheperds crew and they are clearly happy with being hit and endangering their own lives.
They call themselves pirates, they endanger their lives and those of the Japanese whalers, they act without permission, they claim to be at war, they delibarately ramm other’s people ships while laughing out loud, and THEY DARE TO CLAIM BEING THE VICTIMS??!!
Something is wrong in this picture…
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Sorry for the grammar and spelling mistakes > <
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Isn’t this kind of harassment illegal? Where’s the cops when you need them.
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Their actions demand nothing less than a full military response. Cops don’t do justice to these modern-day pirates anymore.
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Military response from who? The Japanese have no military. Do you think the US would actually doing something about this?
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The Japanese have no military.
Wanna bet?
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Wondering why these guys are so hardcore about whaling? Are the Japanese the only people who eat whale meat?
World Wildlife Federation wonder what they think? Notice its just these guys alone who don’t like whaling? There’s gotta be a motive behind it for sure
OK here we go, why aint nobody against Shark meat for example? Many sharks being captured for food purposes lately
Western related cultures eat meat from cows, people in India do not
But anyway something is not right here, as someone said if they are allowed to do it then its OK
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Japan is not the only ones who eat whale meat. Norway continues to whale commercially (no research facade), and a decade or so ago Sea Shepherd did attack them. If I’m not mistaken, the Steve Irwan ship proudly displays a tally of ships that they have SUNK, and they have disabled (i.e., thrown things into the engines causing destruction).
I’m not entirely sure why they abandoned attacking Norway. Perhaps it’s because European nations are more politically savvy than Japan, or perhaps it’s because the Dutch don’t want to make enemies with their neighbors.
Sea Shepherd has also tried to interfere with seal killing in Canada, only to be rammed by the Coast Guard until they left the premises.
In my opinion, Sea Shepherd is hardcore about whales because Paul Watson has found a niche where he can live and support his radical enviro-terrorism. There are enough volunteers in the US and Europe, and Australia has somehow turned protecting whales into a national symbol that Sea Shepherd has safe havens and sympathizers that let them continue to do these sorts of things. Their latest TV show on Animal Planet doesn’t help the matter.
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Oops sorry correction
Why the Sea Shepard guys so hardcore against whaling? Basically tells that they have no right to tell others what to do unless they are supposed to do this by law like the Coast Guard.
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Don’t forget other people use whale for their oil too. These Sea Shepard guys have no reason for this.
These guys are free to go whaling. It’s like being against freedom of speech.
Whale population is just fine, and just like beef cattle its a good thriving profitable business.
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The video clearly shows the Bob Barker speeding up to the Yushin Maru and ramming it. In fact, you can ever hear an SS crew laughing after they rammed the fishing vessel. Victims my ass!
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The use of laser beams to attempt to blind the enemy is specifically defined as a war crime. (Although strangely, if lasers become powerful enough to just vaporize people, that would NOT be a war crime.) Though not actually a “war”, I’m sure these pirates think they are fighting a “war”.
Anyway, these pirates are probably spend the off-season marching in protest rallies demanding Bush/Cheney/Obama be jailed for “war crimes”.
Their hypocrisy (and stupidity) knows no bounds.
Plus it’s just counter-productive. Making a documentary like “The Cove” is actually effective.
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I agree with level3, documentaries like the cove raise awareness even among the Japanese people. It is better to set a critical yet encouraging stance to try to get long term goals settled. Whaling is divisive and Japanese people aren’t convinced when the hardcore environmentalists especially the Aussie scums think being racist and eco-terrorism are ideal complements. The Japanese people aren’t going to opt for change when the general anti-whaling theme is “stop it with your animal cruelty uncivilized nips, we should nuke you again!” Encouraging the Japanese people and having them opt for change in the government is a the ideal way forward, but Sea Shepherd and Australians/New Zealanders, nor the mainstream environmentalists can never comprehend such a concept. I doubt they ever will.
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Actually, industrial lasers can cut through steel – they just aren’t being used to kill or destroy.
Yet.
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Nevertheless these acts are just barbaric and wrong.
Those bright lasers
can definitely blind someone, no matter what that’s a serious weapon. This is a very very big problem for pilots as well.
Typical right wingers will never learn
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Right wingers? WTF are you talking about? Who are the right wingers in this situation? You have no idea what you are babbling about, methinks.
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This makes me wonder if the nationality of the ships had factored into the Japanese side exercising restraint in their dealings with Sea Shepherd, apart from the humanitarian factor in trying to avoid escalating the confrontations.
Since attacking the Sea Shephered ships would constitute aggression against the Netherlands in a broad sense, maybe the whaling ships were reluctant to take more aggressive defensive measures from a diplomatic standpoint as well.
The MSDF did once chase down, open fire with cannons, and sink a suspected (but not confirmed) North Korean spy infiltration boat with up to 20 armed cruisers outside of the Japanese EEZ and territorial waters (probably violating international maritime law).
So I have to wonder if the revocation of the Dutch registration of the SS ships will open the path to some fresh cans of whoopass and worms being opened up in the Antarctic seas …
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I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: If I’m floating out there in my boat on the high seas and some random ship comes at me trying to ram me, capsize me, foul my propulsion, or blind my crew then it’s on. IT’S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG, MFer!
This, no matter what I may be up to–Whaling, drug running, “research”, carrying cadmium and lead based toys from China to America, carrying grain to ungrateful Somalis, or whathaveyou.
It’s simple self defense.
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Why does this remind me of some video game right lol
It’s that old school video game
unbelievable all this over whales. Leave em alone that’s all lol
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Sea Shepherd boat being deliberately rammed, with no independent verification?
I wonder if this particular felon-ecoterrorist Paul Watson likes getting “interviewed” with a Class II laser device aimed squarely at his retinas. And remember, in law enforcement circles, the word “interrogation” does not exist.
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Sea Shepherd is so pathetic.
No one cares about them in Japan anymore.
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These are racist thugs, better yet terrorists. If they are so much against whailing, why don’t they do the same thing to Norway or Iceland. Is it because they are White?
Even though they said from the start they will continue to kill whales (which Japan should have said the same thing), they are not criticized. I wonder why?
Don’t try to say they objected in the beginning. It doesn’t matter, they are killing whales and that’s the bottom line.
You can steal a car or an onigiri, no matter what you call it, it’s stealing.
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Don’t see the Sea Shepard attacking Norwegian nor Icelandic ships. I wonder why? Isn’t whaling supposed to be some type of an evil?
By their actions alone, nothing else needs to said. Just because they don’t like eating whales, doesn’t mean that eating whales is morally wrong?
Maybe the Japanese should ‘demand’ that Australians, New Zealanders, American and others to stop eating animals and eat Natto gohan every day. Afterall the cows feel pain when they die and they definitely do not say, please kill me so you can satify your hunger.
Is it why those governments are anti-whaling, is because they want to export more beef to Japan? Just as they claim reaserch is a disguise to eat whales, anti- whaling based soley on emotion, instead of scientific data is an excuse to demand Japan to buy more beef.
You can decide for yourself who is right.
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It is very clear that the Bob Barker ship rams the Japanese ship. It is crazy to see the comment by the video poster that says the Japanese rammed the Bob Barker. That is the opposite of what happened.
While I think that we can debate the ethics of whaling as a practice, this story is about a ship ramming another ship. I think we can all agree that when a ship attacks another ship with ramming, lasers, and acid, it is really unacceptable. These Sea Shepard people are really nasty and out of line.
I am really impressed with how peaceful and restrained the Japanese are being. I’m sure they are pissed and want to whup some butt but they are holding back and really taking a lot of abuse from these rude westerners.
Would any other country be so peaceable? I don’t think so.
Even with that said, I think that enough is enough. The Japanese navy needs to put an end to this before some Japanese fisherman gets killed. This is not a game and this needs to stop.
If a couple of Japanese cruisers went out there and put a couple rounds across the bow of that Sea Shepard boat it might make them wake up to the dangerous nature of what they are doing.
And when you think about it, why should we expect the Sea Shepard group to act differently? They didn’t pay for the boat. They don’t care what happens to it. They just got some elderly celebrity to fund their organization and then they start smashing up all their hyper-expensive boats. I guess they will just go get another 20 million dollars from some other celebrities when these boats are smashed.
What @ssholes.
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If Sea Shepherd’s aim is to stop Japan from hunting whales, it needs to move onto more violent activities than simply fouling rudders and ramming factory ships with fragile, high-speed longboats.
Likewise, the proper way for Japan to deal with Sea Shepherd is to bring in destroyer escort/support and – when necessary – defend their factory ships by SINKING the SS fleet. Ramming vessels is hardly a deterrent in war.
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Close to piracy.
Where is the Japanese Navy or Coast Guard?
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I assume they hang around Japanese waters (or at least close to). This is happening in Antarctic waters, remember.
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Sea Shepherd has “Jumped the Shark.”
In the process they have become an open laughing stock of not only the conservation world but of the general public as well. What started with last summers expose on South Park has become a full blown online rebellion against staged reality television under the increasingly thin guise of protecting and saving wildlife.
By any metric including Sea Shepherds own Paul Watson they are losing the media battle for the hearts and minds of a non-radicalized public.
Watson recently posted a long winded and far fetched explanation for why the worlds online comment media is not buying into his spoon fed and faked Whale Wars spectaculars, such as the ill fated “Watson Was Shot” (Whale Wars Season One) and this years alleged ramming of the Ady Gil.
Paul Watson
“One of the most insidious and underhanded attacks has been the ability of the Japanese whaling industry to use cyber warfare. We have reason to believe that they have infiltrated internet social forums and websites with a well funded campaign of disinformation and strategies designed to undermine our morale and erode our support with a barrage of lies, ad hominem attacks, character assassination, and cyber bullying.”
The most obvious explanation for Watson’s pseudo Clive Barker analysis? The public is no longer buying into patently faked Sea Shepherd media. Sea Shepherd has grossly underestimated its audience and their intelligence.
Therein lies the problem. Across the Internet and beyond Western audiences are tuning out of the conservation message of whaling. Anti-whaling efforts have become an entertainment vehicle, not conservation, and Sea Shepherd is to blame for this bizarre shift in consciousness.
If Western watchers of these seasonal media antics are not buying into them, where are Eastern sympathies for Japans ongoing whaling efforts?
Smart Conservation People
There are some undoubtedly smart, dedicated people who work with Sea Shepherd, and to ignore them would be wrong. Like pirate vessels of old, the captains role as master and commander of his vessel was a “performance based job.” Pirate crews had the right to depose their captain if he failed to deliver.
We would like to suggest that happens now.
Over the past decades Paul Watson alone has managed to stubbornly apply a leisure suit wearing 1970’s strategy to every “save the” campaign he has put forth. Today, twenty plus years later, whales are still being killed, seals harvested, and sharks taken all over the world.
Meanwhile in just the past two years Watson has lost close to 4 million dollars in donor money, vessels and equipment. Canadian authorities recently sold his impounded vessel the Farley Mowat at auction and now the Ady Gil lies at the bottom of the sea. Not to mention the untold gallons of diesel and oil spilled into the pristine Antarctic, trying to save whales – yet again.
Paul Watson’s continual resetting of eco goals is one indication that even he, in his most private moments, realizes his organization is failing to effect any real and lasting changes. Over the years he has been quoted as saying his goal is to “stop whaling.” That soon changed to “limit the numbers of whales killed,” and today Watson’s new and fully open ended commitment to whales suggests that his goals are to “bankrupt the whalers.” With that one statement Watson has slyly committed Sea Shepherd and its radicalized followers to another 20-30 years of ineffective media staging.
This years sinking of the Ady Gil was tantamount to a group of camera laden PETA protesters ramming a car into the side of a meat processing plant…and then blaming the plant for attempted murder.
The conservation world is becoming tarnished by a small group of increasing irrelevant media event stagers who have redefined the meaning of metric based conservation to reality entertainment.
Clearly, the public has had enough. What is needed now is leadership change from within.
Which begs the question, are there any real leaders within the Sea Shepherd ranks?
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sure looks like piracy and seems like they do it for a living too
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On the Japundit site they have a link to an article that raises yet another familiar angle on this whaling controversy. South Korea seems to also be engaging in some dubious whale research/hunting expeditions, yet NO one is raising one iota of fuss about them. Not greenpeace, not the world media, no one. The South Korean whalers are killing hundreds of whales, and no one cares compared to what Japan does.
Now, why is this?
One thing is for sure, no way in this universe the South Korean whalers would stand for any of this petty nonsense and harrassment from green freaks or any other organization. They’d ram the greenies FIRST and ask questions later. Proof yet that these greenie “warriors” are all bark and no substance, kind of like the bully that picks on the smallest and weakest kid that will never fight back.
Lames.
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The research was conducted between 1999 to 2003. That was quite some time ago, maybe if Scott Baker were to research this again Watson might respond.
Another thing that’s been bothering me is how baker managed to even come up with that number, 827? That’s a lot of meat he has to buy for that DNA signatures or whatnot. Don’t quite believe it yet.
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The problem is the media and thoughhtless people. Australian media blame only japan coz they are doing illegal way and ppl belived it with out thinking. wearher truth or not.the truth is japanese whaling is legal but here australian ppl never doubt about their media even we have some other medias to find the truth.
australian ppl always said japanese killed our friends(whales) in our water. but it is NOT. they complain that it is not resarch but commercial.why they complain to IWC. japan comfoms to the rules of IWC and nothing to do any illegal things. i just wanna say anti-whaling ppl.use your brain!! if this is an emotional matter which means they are just racist you have to admit it. this wrong information made hatred in vain for both sides.
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I’m not anti-whaling or anything like that, but it’s very hard to believe the Japanese whalers are telling the truth (that they are whaling for “research”) because at the same time they are making profits out of whaling, and Japanese people are eating their meat.
This is the definition of commercialism, no?
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So are you saying it would be better if the the Japanese whalers, after completing their research and gathering of data, just threw away the whale meat overboard? (Which is against the IWC guidelines anyways which state whales caught in research must be utilized to the fullest extent)
The following data values are taken from the whales caught, which are used in the establishing of accurate population estimates per pod: 1. Maturity, 2. Age, 3. Pregnancy state, 4. Pregnancy rate, 5. Accurate length and weight, 6. Eating habits, 7. Accumulation of toxins
I find it hard to imagine how concrete data of these sorts can be taken from just watching them.
If there are non-lethal and economically feasible catch-and-release methods for whales that can generate the above data, I’m pretty confident Japan will at least give it a thought.
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I just think it’s awesome that, ever since the Whale Whores episode on South Park, sh*t has been REALLY goin’ down…lasers, rammings, media fights…f*ckin’ awesome!! Go WHALES!!!!
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International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (COLREGS) clearly state that the Sea Shepherd was in the wrong.
Section II (for vessels in sight of one another)
13. Overtaking
Notwithstanding anything contained in part B, sections I and II, an overtaking vessel must keep well clear of the vessel being overtaken.
A good Admiralty lawyer would take a pile of money from Sea Shepherd and it’s company.
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New Battlefield:Mediterranean
Sea Shepherd heading to the Mediterranean to protect tuna
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100124/local/sea-shepherd-heading-to-the-mediterranean-to-protect-tuna
They really hate Japan…and Sushi?
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