Posted on 01/15/2006 6:47:42 AM PST by paltz
A GREENPEACE activist was thrown overboard when a Japanese whale harpoon was launched across an inflatable boat in the Antarctic seas yesterday. The incident has forced Greenpeace to rethink their human shield style protest against Japanese scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean.
The Japanese says Greenpeace is taking the risks for the sake of public relations.
A harpoon from Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No.2 was fired directly over the Zodiac inflatable boat, which was shadowing a minke whale in Antarctic seas.
Greenpeace chief executive Steve Shallhorn said the harpoon had flown within a metre of the inflatable.
"Greenpeace had been doing what it has been doing for three weeks – putting out inflatables between whales and harpoons," he said.
"The harpoon impacted on the whale but the towing rope got caught on our boat.
"And as the whale began to sink it put our boat in jeopardy.
"The rope got taut and threw one of our people into the ocean."
Canadian activist Texas Joe Constantine, the second mate on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, struggled in the water for a short time before getting back into the boat.
"He may have swallowed some seawater and whale blubber but he is all right," Mr Shallhorn said.
He said the whalers were becoming frustrated with the success of the protest and were starting to take more chances.
But he said the new tactics would not deter Greenpeace.
"They have killed far fewer whales then they would have without us being around," he said.
Greenpeace spokesman Shane Rattenbury said the protesters had prevented the ship from harpooning the minke whale for over an hour, but the harpoon operator decided to fire when he believed he had a clear shot.
The Greenpeace spokesman said he feared the whalers were taking the confrontation to a new level.
"Yesterday took it to a new level – we are very concerned about that," Mr Rattenbury said on Sky News.
"There is definitely an increasing level of tensions down here and the harpooners are certainly starting to take shots that perhaps a week or two weeks ago they would not have taken.
"So it is certainly forcing us to think about our tactics and we might have to look at a different way of doing things."
But Mr Rattenbury said Greenpeace was achieving results.
He said it underlined the fact that more pressure was needed from governments to end the whale cull, which the Japanese say is for scientific purposes.
"There is a limit to what Greenpeace can do down here, and as the risks increase we really need to see the anti-whaling governments around the world take stronger action to bring this hunt to an end so we don't have to be putting ourselves in the firing line any more," Mr Rattenbury said.
"It's quite clear that this is not about scientific research – you don't need to kill a whale to study it.
"This is just commercial whaling in disguise."
The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) in Tokyo said Greenpeace was taking more and more risks to keep their PR campaign in the news.
"The fact that the rope fell onto their inflatable and one of the activists fell into the water is entirely their fault," ICR director general Dr Hiroshi Hatanaka said.
"We are also concerned that they tried to cut the line because it makes it more dangerous for them.
"Greenpeace are taking more and more dangerous risks to maintain media interest in their PR campaign.
"We continue to do our utmost to ensure the safety of the activists, but we cannot foresee their increasingly dangerous stunts."
Dr Hatanaka said the minke whale had been killed instantly.
I thought human shields were supposed to be willing to die for what they shielded.
Greenpeace activists sit in their inflatable boat after a harpoon fired from a Japanese whaling ship narrowly missed them in the Southern Ocean January 14, 2006. Greenpeace said the harpoon had been fired directly over their boat into a Minke whale, but their boat got caught up in the rope coming from the harpoon back to the whaling vessel. One of the activists fell overboard and grabbed the rope to climb back aboard. REUTERS/Greenpeace
In this photo released by Greenpeace, a Greenpeace activist holds onto a harpoon line that was fired from the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru No2, right, in Antarctic seas in the Southern Ocean, Saturday, Jan. 14 2006. Japanese whalers fired a harpoon over a Greenpeace boat, throwing one of the environmental group's activists into Antarctic waters, the group said Sunday. The incident was the latest escalation in increasingly acrimonious clashes between whalers and environmentalists intent on halting Japan's annual hunt of the marine mammals. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Kate Davison, HO)
Never bring a rubber boat to a harpoon fight.
No. I disagree. People like Greenpeace and their ilk like PETA, ELF, ALF,...etc don't even put nature before people. The dirty little "open secret", so to speak is that they are using their organizations as vessels to forward a socialist/communist agenda. They use their organization's "front" causes to lure in unknowing bleeding hearts with $ and time on their hands.
LOL
Too bad they can't catch these Greenflease activists in fishing nets instead of dolphins.
True, but note they have airbrushed the Shelducks out of the picture.
They should replace the fire hose with several huge tubs of chum. That should make them think twice.
As I understand it when Greenpeace interferes with or tries to board ships engaged in activities with which they disagree, they are engaging in piracy. The Japanese therefore have the right to use force against them. Or even hang them as pirates.
Couldn't this whole problem be solved with a pellet gun (noting the inflatable boats) ?
L
That was my thought too. Maybe someone sitting on the whaler with a 22 cal long rifle plinking the bow of the zodiac. I wouldn't think it would take too many shots before Greenpeace would be forced to retreat for repairs.
This may be something for concern.
The Minke whale is not a very large whale...they only grow to be about 25-30 feet long...and is not normally hunted as other species are by those nations who still hunt whales.
Could it be that the Japanese are turning to other species due to the inability to now find the species they normally prey on?
Or has the Japanese predilection for odd meat products expanded to include the Minke whale? The are definitely too small to be of any interest for their oil.
In this case, its their tactics and arrogance I despise, but I will stop short of cheering for the whalers.
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