Sea Shepherd Update: Valentine’s Day in the Southern Ocean

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ^ | February 14, 2010 | Paul Watson

[at bay]

Sea Shepherd Update: Valentine’s Day in the Southern Ocean

The crews of the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker celebrated Valentine's Day by painting the Research sign on the side of the Nisshan Maru with red paint. The paint represented the blood of the whales, exposing the bogus nature of so-called research by the Japanese whaling vessels.

The word "research" is in English and not Japanese, because the Japanese fully understand that the whaling is a commercial operation. It is only the West that the Japanese whalers are trying to fool.

The Japanese whalers have not killed a whale for ten days now because of Sea Shepherd’s intervention.

The Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research has accused Sea Shepherd of harassing the fleet each day. Of course Sea Shepherd is harassing the fleet. We did not come down here to hang banners.

Sea Shepherd ships have a single objection - to cut kill quotas inflicted by the illegal poaching operations of the Japanese whaling fleet.

For those who accuse Sea Shepherd of being criminals, Captain Paul Watson has only this to say: "If we are criminals, either arrest us or shut the hell up. I'm getting pretty fed up with whiners who can't back up their ridiculous accusations with the law. Cite a law that we have broken, cite a violation. The truth is that there have been no violations and we have not been charged with a single criminal act or maritime violation in six years of opposing these poachers."

Sea Shepherd, on the other hand, can cite laws, such as: the regulations of the International Whaling Commission, the Antarctic Treaty, the Law of the Sea, and an Australian Federal Court order prohibiting Japanese whaling in the Australian Antarctic Territorial waters.

Japanese whalers are barred from entering Australian and New Zealand waters. Sea Shepherd ships are not barred. Japanese whalers are barred from Indonesian waters. Sea Shepherd ships are not. If a Japanese whaling ship enters an Australian or New Zealand port it will be arrested. Sea Shepherd ships are not arrested.

So who indeed are the criminals? The poachers illegally killing endangered and protected whales inside the boundaries of an established international Whale Sanctuary, in violation of a global moratorium on whaling, and in contempt of an Australian Federal Court order, OR the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is simply trying to stop these illegal activities, and doing so in a responsible manner without causing injuries or breaking the law?

Tomorrow marks the 70th day since the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin departed Fremantle to begin Operation Waltzing Matilda.

"This is a long protracted campaign involving three vessels coming from three different countries under different flags and with volunteers from 18 nations. We are navigating the most remote and hostile waters in the world and we are opposing an increasingly aggressive opposition. We have lost one ship and had another damaged. But, we are cutting their kill quotas and costing them their profits and thus Operation Waltzing Matilda has been a success," said Captain Watson. "We will not retreat and we will never surrender the whales of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to the poachers from Japan."

[count-your-change]

Grab your handcuffs and throw a citizen's arrest on the whalers instead of playing King of the Keyboard. Or maybe Admiral Tuna, Chicken of the Sea, can put a arrest warrant in a bottle and toss it at the whalers.

Ole Watson keeps bleating that he's willing to die for the whales, well, he's had plenty of opportunities and has chosen instead to maintain the Vulcan Death-Grip on the Mother Ship Coffee Mug and let his Keystone Cop Crew go out to foil the Harpooning Harpies.

Legal arguments? “Like the Antarctic ocean, the law is a sea of grey.”

[IrishCatholic]

“Given the lack of any evidence that Japan is bringing its whaling activities into conformance with the recommendations of the IWC, I am directing the Secretary of State under the Packwood-Magnuson Amendment to withhold 100 percent of the fishing privileges that would otherwise be available to Japan in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Japan has requested the opportunity to fish for 3,000 metric tons of sea snails and 5,000 metric tons of Pacific whiting. These requests will be denied. In addition, Japan will be barred from any future allocations of fishing privileges for any other species, including Pacific cod, until the Secretary of Commerce determines that the situation has been corrected. [50]

U.S. President Ronald Reagan, 1988”

The Japanese are commercial whaling. Reagan knew it. Greenpeace knows it. The Sea Shephard folks know it. The Japanese have never stopped whaling. You can Google Japanese whaling or the pictures of the meat on sale in the Japanese markets.

You can argue all you want about whether the greenies are pirates or terrorists or whatever. You can argue that who does what to whom is right or wrong. But for all involved here, cut the crap. The Japanese are hunting whales for commercial purposes. You are lying to yourselves and others if you argue otherwise.

This isn’t a defense of the greens. For all I know the populations are recovered enough to allow hunting. This isn’t a defense of what the greens are doing on the high seas either.

“But facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
John Adams

Thank you, you can continue.

[spetznaz]

My pesonal thoughts on the matter:

The Japanese whalers are sots ...they use a loophole for 'research' to commercially hunt (if it was research the quota would be far less than a hundred- in some years the quota for 'research' is 300 plus) and sell the meet. The factory ship is a floating meat processing plant, not a 'scientific' vessel. It is a farce.

HOWEVER the SeaSheperd kooks are terrorists! Rather than mounting a legal offense they instead engage in tactics that can lead to damaged property, injury and/or even death in a region that is exceedingly inhospitable ifsomething goes wrong. These nutjobs play chicken in an environment that is unforgiving, and engage in tactics such as ramming ships, chemical assaults and lately the use of lasers that can damage retinas. Sooner or later someone will die ...a given.

Thus, even though I do not support the Japanese 'research' (ha ...that would be like the Chinese commencing on 'Tiger Research,' where they kill 150 tigers each year to 'check stomach contents' ...then lo and behold sell the pelts and the bones for multi millions ....), but allthe same the SeaShepherd kooks are terrorists.

The problem is that from a legal perspective neither of the two seem to be touchable! The Japanese hide behnd their research spiel, while the terrorists seem impervious to a whole hock of legalities that have been thrown their way without any sticking. The best solution might be if they all sink each other.

[eclecticEel]

International waters: not exactly anarchy, but not exactly contained within civilization either. Whether they’re breaking the law or not; they’re definitely engaged in endangering human life for the sake of a stupid whale. They deserve no respect for that. How someone can enjoy a good steak or a chicken breast and then complain about someone eating a tasty cetacean is beyond me.

Every whale killed saved 50 million plankton and 34,00 chickens.

[Oztrich Boy]

“Given the lack of any evidence that Japan is bringing its whaling activities into conformance with the recommendations of the IWC, I am directing the Secretary of State under the Packwood-Magnuson Amendment to withhold 100 percent of the fishing privileges that would otherwise be available to Japan in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. [50]

U.S. President Ronald Reagan, 1988”

Yeah The US and Japanese governments has already agreed that the US would not use Packwood-Magnuson and Japan would cease whaling in 1988.

But due to pressure from US fishing interestsm the japanese quota was cut from 900,000 tons in 1985 450,000 in 1986, to 100,000 in 1987, then zero in 1988.

Guess what, The Japs now consider themselves no longer bound by the 1984 agreement.

[ari-freedom]

so what if they are using a loophole? There’s nothing wrong with killing an animal for food or research.

[Hootch]

I don’t miss an episode of Whale Wars. I ALWAYS cheer for the Japanese whalers. The end of last season saw the Steve Irwin ram one of the Japanese ships. The Sea Shepherds own video of the incident showed Paul Watson directing the SI into the Japanese ship. When they get that close, I believe the Japanese have every right to use whatever force is necessary to keep the SI away from them. If that means blowing a hole below the water line or whatever it takes so be it.

The Sea Shepherd Society is an organization that has taken the law into its own hands. They are vigilantes. What if someone did that on the streets of New York or L.A.?? They would not be held up as heros.

[Lurker]

Throwing toxic chemicals at sailors on another ship engaged in lawful commerce on the High Seas is piracy, period.

I'll throw a party the day these pirates drown after the Japanese sink them.

L

[Hootch]

Does that mean the Alaskan tribes that are allowed to hunt whale should be torpedoed??

I can’t stand the new world order that has a mindset that says the world can establish a law prohibiting something that a country has done for generations.

[jazusamo]

The Japanese may be using a loophole to harvest whales for human consumption but consuming whales is something they’ve done for many decades and the whales they are taking are not endangered.

The Japanese are not endangering human lives with their actions. The Watson nut cases are endangering human lives and are nothing but common pirates and should be treated as such, it is surprising to me that anyone here at FR would support their criminal actions.

[Christian_Capitalist]

So... you're saying that you believe that under the international Laws of the Sea, the Japanese would be justified in machine-gunning the hippies.

Not saying I disagree (thought such an act might not be good PR... in some circles, anyway); just curious.

[Lurker]

you're saying that you believe that under the international Laws of the Sea, the Japanese would be justified in machine-gunning the hippies.

Yep. A couple of mounted .50 calibers would put an end to this nonsense once and for all. Machine gun the wheel house, then the waterline, pick up any survivors and bring 'em back to Japan for trial.

Personally though, I'm opposed to leaving any survivors at all.

[Christian_Capitalist]

"If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him." (Exodus 22:2)

{KA-BOOM... glub... glub... glub}