Posted on 02/02/2009 7:47:04 AM PST by SmithL
SYDNEY, (AP) --
Japanese whalers blasted water from a cannon at conservationists who hurled bottles of rancid butter and paint during a clash Monday in frigid Antarctic waters, officials said.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society also accused the whalers of throwing hunks of metal and golf balls at its members, lightly injuring two activists in the fracas. Japanese officials said only a water cannon was used.
The group — which routinely harasses the Japanese whaling fleet during its annual hunt in the Antarctic Ocean — sent a helicopter and two inflatable boats toward a Japanese harpoon ship early Monday in heavy seas about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) southeast of the Australian state of Tasmania, said Paul Watson, the group's leader.
Japan, which has described the Sea Shepherd protesters as terrorists, plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season. Under International Whaling Commission rules, the mammals may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes. Opponents say the Japanese research expeditions are simply a cover for commercial whaling, which was banned in 1986.
The whalers opened up on conservationists on one raft with a water cannon, knocking one man off his feet and leaving him with cuts and bruises, Watson told The Associated Press by satellite phone.
Another protester was hit in the face with a large chunk of metal lobbed from a harpoon boat. He was wearing a shield on his helmet, but still suffered bruises, Watson said.
The Japanese also aimed a "military grade" noise weapon that can cause deafness and vomiting at the Sea Shepherd crew, Watson said. Some felt its vibrations but were too far away to be otherwise affected, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
International waters, the Sea Shepards committing piracy- I say sink them.
Don't the Japanese cook with rancid butter?
Anyway, at least it wasn't fox urine!
Conservationists?
How about anarchists. Or communists. Or both.
hit right in the fracas with a golf ball, sounds painfull
If they can afford helicopters they can do what other groups do and buy representation in government.
It’s all fun and games until a whale chokes on a bottle of rancid butter.
Yeah, I guess whales throwing up would be pretty gross - even worse than when the dog ate a box of crayons ...
"We were just sailing along, and the Sea Shepherd sank. We don't know why they did. Hope everyone's OK."
Of course they are. What possible research still needs to be done on whales? Orientals eat a huge variety of marine life including dolphins.
I watch “Whale Wars”, just to cheer for the Japanese whalers.
I think the show is meant to build support for the Sea Shepherd but it really makes them out to be a bunch of snot nosed rabble rousers...
If someone from another ship comes over with the intent of disabling your ship in the open ocean, I say you blast them out of the water...
They eat anything that turns its back to heaven..
“We’re not a protest organization, we’re a policing organization,” Paul Watson has said of his Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS). A pirate organization is more like it. Sporting the skull and crossbones, his black or battleship-gray ships sail menacingly through the waves. They are painted with the names of the boats Watson has rammed and sunk.
The ships are fitted with water cannons, a concrete-filled bow made for ramming, and an attachment dubbed the “can opener” that can tear open a boat’s hull. In his book Earth Warrior, David Morris writes that Watson wears a long bowie knife at his side and carries AK-47s on board. He blasts Richard Wagner’s rousing “Ride of the Valkyries” to herald his arrival and terrify his victims.
SSCS’s mission is to stop fishing of which it disapproves. Its preferred methods? Ramming and sinking fishing ships, throwing butyric acid on their decks, and firing machine guns. Watson argues that United Nations resolutions authorize him to commit violent acts. But he regularly interferes with fisherman and hunters who are committing no crime. He serves as judge, jury, and executioner — while enjoying the same tax-exempt status as universities and churches.
Some of the animal-rights movement’s most notorious terrorists got their start with SSCS. One of them, convicted arsonist Rodney Coronado, had Watson’s approval to plan and execute an attack on Iceland’s whaling industry. He and a colleague sank two of the fleet’s four ships and destroyed a processing facility.
http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/oid/347
Should've just played Bruce Springsteen really loud. Would've had the same effect.
Same view here.
I once told a green peace canvasser that interupted our dinner (back when the french were testing a nuke somewhere in the Pacific) ‘Its my view the French should have let you idiots into the blast zone, then FIRED OFF THE NUKE’.
She broke down into tears, I shut the front door, and they NEVER came back again.
Not bad for starters. But if the Japanese had any real grit, they’d put sand in the water they were shooting at the protesters. That would make the do-gooders drop their rancid butter!
Where does Watson get the funds for his exploits?
Not a smart move
Japanese eat seafood. Whales are seafood. What is the problem?
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