Posted on 08/27/2007 12:55:37 PM PDT by Reagan is King
SAPPORO -- Eco-tourists on a whale-watching vessel, looking forward to observing the mighty creatures in their natural habitat, were instead greeted by the sight of a harpooned whale being dragged in by a Japanese whaling vessel on Friday.
At about 10:44 a.m. on Friday, a whale was spotted spraying water from its blowhole near a whaling boat, about 3.5 kilometers away from the whale-watching vessel off the coast of Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula. But when the vessel approached, the passengers on board found that the whalers had harpooned the Baird's beaked whale, and it was hauled in by the whaling boat about 20 minutes later.
About 20 passengers on the whale-watching vessel looked on, voicing their pity as the whale was captured. A French woman who was on the vessel with her husband reportedly said the experience made her feel ill.
There were two other whale-watching boats nearby, but one of them left after a child started crying.
The 46-year-old captain of the passenger vessel was disappointed by the incident, which took place about 14 kilometers east of Rausu Port in Hokkaido.
"It's my job to show people whales and it's the whalers' job to catch them, but I wonder how this can be avoided," he said.
One of the two whaling companies operating the whaling ship, meanwhile, filed a protest against the whale watching vessel with the Rausu town government.
"The passenger boat approached us, which was extremely dangerous. We think this could be considered dangerous sailing, and we want you to issue a warning," the protest said. (Mainichi)
That's the best scene in the movie.
How the H_ll did she think people got whale oil, and whale to eat?
Life sucks. Then you die.
Sounds like pretty poor planning on the part of whoever organized the outing, not to check with local whalers to avoid this sort of thing. I mean, if I took my kids to the petting-zoo and got there just as the vets where shooting a pony with a broken leg, I’d be pretty upset too. Not to mention my kids.
Too bad the fhoe bird did not fly over her.
I had no idea that chickens, pigs, and cows were endangered species.
They could at least have sliced off a couple of pounds and offered them some samples.
“Save the plankton, kill the whales!”
Simple.
The whaling skipper circles in an area while the whale watching boat skippers fan out from that area to look for whales. Upon spotting a whale, the whale watching skipper lets the tourists take their photos, goes away and then radios in the whale's position back to the whaler. The whaling skipper then speeds in and kills the whale just as soon as the whale watching boat goes over the horizon with the tourists looking at their digital photos and rhapsodizing about the wonders of Nature.
What?!?!?
He asked!
“Farm tourists in a Buick LeSabre, looking foward to seeing chickens in their natural habitat, instead got to see a farmer wringing one by its neck.”
When I first read that, I read ‘children’ for ‘chicken’. Shame on me for cracking up...
Honestly, those Greenpeace types have NO sense of humor.
We went out on a Boston whale watch. The tour guide told us, "If anyone spots a (shudder) WHALE(squirm), call out!"
Being a cold, grey drizzly November day in my soul, we SE MASS Yankees know _exactly_ what to shout, and, blessed with very good distance vision, it was my lot to see the whale sound way off aport.
"LOWER AWAY, AND AFTER HIM!!!!!!!!!!"
There were a few chuckles, and a few gasps...
I love the movie, that is the most shocking scene loved every second of it, but that movie is all great scenes. Napoleon’s dance is my favorite.
Kind of reminds me of the story I heard about the animal-rights people who were protesting at a stock yard when the stock broke through the fence and trampled the protesters.
Haha....too funny.
“of course they’ll skip over the fact that we’ll also be able to go back in time to grab a pair if we need to, so its ok to hunt to extinction.”
Here is the fatal flaw in a liberal’s argument regarding nature:
They believe in and support the theory of evolution. Fine, so do many conservatives. In order for evolution to function, extinction must take place. “Survival of the fittest” means there are some who won’t survive. One cannot logically support evolution and oppose extinction. It’s like believing in creation but not God. Logic is kryptonite to a liberal.
Bet the greens wanted to kill the crew of the whaling vessel.
“Do you mean the way people are blubbering over Vick’s dogs?”
If you can’t tell the difference between man’s relationship with whales and dog, you are an effing idiot. That is just about the nicest thing I can think of saying to you after reading your liberally-inspired “moral equivalence” post.
Schadenfreude.
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