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’m with you, Karl...I miss laughing at these morons. It was like the Keystone Cops Go To Sea.
Of course it’s not actually international law. It’s a non-binding agreement between nations in a “club” that has no legal standing and Japan keeps threatening to leave.
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If only that tub of guts had waited until he and his kumbaya krew were scuttled ... Self-righteous aholes enforcing their version of the “law.”
I have to agree with you. In a battle of douchebags, the Japanese and the Sea Shepherd lot should both go down.
Japan never signed the treaty so legally they are in no way bound by it. Something like the US never signed the "ICC" treaty so we are not bound by it.
And for some reason they never went after Norway or Greenland, who both still do whale hunts.
And Norway does not even eat their whales.
But hey it make people who have no idea of the difference between a narwhal, sperm whale, humpback whale or minke whale to run around spouting nonsense about the evil Japanese.
Huh? Whales now have a sanctuary? Who woulda thought......
It’s not even a treaty, the IWC really started as a trade organization to make sure there was hunting stock. Then came the moratorium Japan never signed, then they started letting in a bunch of non-whaling nations.
I think they don’t go after Norway and Greenland because they’re not so brazen about it. Japan is all “yup, we’re hunting whales, wanna watch”. I think Japan is really making fun of the IWC but nobody seems to get the joke.
It was horrible to watch and a miracle that more of them weren't killed by their own stupidity.
The oceans do not suffer fools, and it was only a matter of time. Never saw a single one of them I'd want to get underway and go to sea with.
The Japanese should have sunk the boat and left the survivors to freeze to death.
L
Exactly, estimates are around a million Minkes worldwide, stable populations.
Remember, Minkes are among the smallest of baleen whales, "merely" 10 tons as contrasted to the big Blues nearly 200 tons.
And Blue Whales at maybe 25,000 are still only 10% of their original populations.
Minkes seem to be doing OK and a few hundred harvested by Japanese will make no difference to their population numbers.
As for Sea Shepherds... well the word "quixotic" comes to mind.
I would agree.
Japan does not like to be bossed around.
If the IWC would back off Japan probably would stop whaling.
On the other hand Iceland has recently taken it up again so there has to be some economic motive for it. Beyond a lubricant that worked even in the cold of space.
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