Watson's cause is as tattered as his flag.
Posted on 11/16/2017 10:29:09 AM PST by Oatka
Captain Paul Watson from the controversial marine conservation group Sea Shepherd says that a lack of resources and technology compared to the Japanese whalers has made it impossible for the group to effectively combat the killing of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
As the Japanese whaling fleet embarks on its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean, for the first time in 12 years Sea Shepherd will not be sending ships to the whale sanctuary. The group initially announced the decision to end the yearly campaign in August.
“The reason that Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not now pursuing the Japanese whaling fleet is simple. Sea Shepherd cannot match the surveillance and military technology of the Japanese government and their fleet of criminal poachers,” said Captain Paul Watson in a commentary published Wednesday.
During Sea Shepherd 2016-2017 anti-whaling campaign, Sea Shepherd ships were able to locate the Japanese whaling fleet but were unable to close in on them due to military real-time satellite technology employed by the Japanese fleet.
“We have no way to compete with that. This is government military level technology completely unavailable to us,” said Watson.
During last season, the Japanese fleet was able to hit its quota of 333 minke whales despite Sea Shepherd’s efforts.
Japan has also instituted “new anti-terrorism laws specifically to stop Sea Shepherd and these laws would have allowed the use of lethal force and would allow severe punishments to our crews,” according to Watson.
“In other words, the world changed and not in favour of the whales or us,” he said.
“To continue would be foolish. We would spend a few million dollars and many months only to have another failure to engage, and if we did by some miracle encounter the fleet, we would be subject to lethal force without support from our own cowardly governments,” said Watson.
“In short, Sea Shepherd went as far as we could possibly go with the resources we had within a very hostile environment against an extremely powerful and ruthless government.”
Moving forward, Watson and Sea Shepherd intend to work with motivated governments to challenge Japan in the Southern Ocean, most notably New Zealand.
“The newly elected government of New Zealand seems inclined to act and we need to encourage them to act,” said Watson.
While Sea Shepherd has for now called off its annual anti-whaling campaign, it is still involved in several other marine conservation campaigns around the world.
(Reuters photo at website)
I always thought it was a shame both sides couldn’t lose.
I made my money now I’ll retire
LOL!
Blubbering heavily...
Watson's cause is as tattered as his flag.
Sea hippies ran out of filthy capitalist dollars, that’s all.
“...as we could possibly go with the resources we had within a very hostile environment against an extremely powerful and ruthless government.”
Somewhere, Yamamoto is smiling.
;^)
Whales are intelligent critters. I can’t see, and don’t agree with killing them for Japanese food, perfume or whatever else that nutty society has in mind for their products.
Elephants, same-same.
Culling of an over-abundant species is one thing. But I’m not into hunting either, not that I wouldn’t blow the hell out of a gun range.
I guess it’s just that much of the Old Testament in me.
But we will still GLADLY accept donations.
Minke whales are not endangered.
Whales? Hunting them to dangerous levels is stupid.Very unwise.Hunting them in a responsible way seems OK to me.If killing 5 a year allows them to remain in good numbers then let the meat cost $300 a pound.The market will set the price paid for the supply available.
I agree: the dang Japanese are flouting international law to keep killing very intelligent creatures while pretending that it's for "research".
It's hard to believe how much money (including Tsunami relief money) that they have used to keep up the killing.
Makes me believe that their mindset and culture haven't changed very much from 1937..
Too bad. I was waiting for the Sea Hippies to hit an ice Berg!
I am a “radical right winger” and no enviro-weenie but I support Sea Shepherd, have given them money and will continue to do so. They are a lonely, radical voice defending a few whales against Jap and other factory farm behemoths and it is my decision to ally myself with them.
It was a minke?
I miss the Whale Wars live threads. Their seamanship made the crew of the SS Minnow look like geniuses. Whether is was pumping the bilge water into their fuel tanks, randomly welding stuff to the deck for no reason or running a million dollar carbon fiber boat in front of a steel Japanese ship they provided hours of unintentional humor.
They did seem to be inept sailors.
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