It’s on!
The anti-whaling Sea Shepherd activists finally tracked down and engaged the Japanese southern whaling fleet over the weekend in waters off Antarctica. Crew from the Sea Shepherd’s second ship, the agile Robert Hunter, launched a dinghy assault aimed at fouling the “research” ship Nisshin Maru’s propeller and disabling it while their colleagues lobbed smoke grenades and even acid at their enemies.
The attempt to sabotage the whaling vessel failed, but the dinghy operators were separated from the action and not recovered until after an exhausting seven-hour search in sub-zero temperatures carried out jointly by the activists and whalers. The two men were unharmed but could have easily died in the extreme weather. Aboard the Nisshin Maru, two crewmen were reportedly injured, one with cuts and the other with acid in his eye. Ouch.
Things are pretty serious down there this year, the Sea Shepherd has doubled the size of its fleet and is even sporting a helicopter and unmanned aerial surveillance units in their efforts to track and disable the Japanese whaling operations. I just hope no one gets hurt next time these two groups clash.
I don’t see why the organization just takes all the money from putting out ships and people and putting towards a land-based campaign to convince voters, interested parties and politicians that:
1) whale hunting is not good economically, environmentally or politically because… and,
2) this is how much of the economic impact of outlawing whaling can be diminished by… .
Of course, there’s never been a dramatic photo of one policy wonk convincing another policy wonk of anything… .
M’eh… it just seems a lot of wasted money being spent on a worthy cause that seems to be becoming a downright rightgeous crusade for some - and at my cynical age, I can’t hear the message when someone is screaming it at me.
And, yes. Whales are cute and shouldn’t be killed.
February 13th, 2007 at 6:26 amNo good cause here. The “anti-whalers” rammed the Japanese ship intentionally. I went to an Australian news site for more info and saw a barrage of comments from supporters saying that we should start killing Japanese again, since that’s the only way they learn.
To call it a clash is misleading. The Japanese ship was attacked.
A good percentage (not all) of people who call themselves environmentalists are nothing of the sort. They are violent Marxists, and the environment is a useful cover for their real motive, which is more hatred than anything else.
Just my opinion:grin:
February 13th, 2007 at 7:28 amI just caught the last part of that story from the psycho from the Sea Shepherd on the news. I think he said they were saved by the Japanese crew and taken back to their ship.
Straight after they they started chasing the Japanese ships again.
February 13th, 2007 at 9:04 amGhoti is spot on. Many environmentalist organisations (Greenpeace, Sierra Club, etc) have been co-opted by marxists and even give money to environmental terrorist groups like Earth First and ELF, the fine folks who run around torching housing developments and Hummer dealerships.
And gee, these actions sound like terrorism to me. I’ll never understand why some people think they can resort to violence to make people stop doing something.
February 13th, 2007 at 2:53 pmBruce, how dare you think that. If you were here I would punch you.
February 13th, 2007 at 3:15 pmIt’s really sad if many people in Australia support such a terrorist act. Basically, anti-whaling people have sort of racism. To regard animal life as above human life is to debase all humans.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:40 pmI think we can stand to lose a few more humans. We have too many of them already. I don’t really think animal or human lives are really more important than each other. But the fact of the matter is, if you kill all the animals in order to feed humans, humans aren’t going to live very long. Then you’re left with nothing.
Basically animals will be fine. Even after humans have killed everything including themselves, something will survive and live on and evolve.
So I guess when you see people trying to save whales, they’re not doing it just for the animals. They’re doing it to save themselves and the environment that they live in.
I don’t know about you, but I’d like to actually live in the world, see beautiful things like whales and clean rivers. I don’t want to just survive here with nothing see or enjoy.
Wouldn’t it also be good if people in the future could eat whales too?
Anti-whaling people are pretty stupid though. They shouldn’t just be attacking Japan for killing whales. They should be concentrating their efforts on making sure all fishing is made sustainable in a non-violent way that non-psychos can actually support without being called a terrorist. Because at this rate, we won’t have anything left in the sea in 50 years or so.
Not that I think a stupid fish’s life is superior to my awesome human power or anything
- I just want my great grandchildren to be able to eat negitorodon.
yeah
February 14th, 2007 at 3:25 pmIt looks like there has been an explosion on board a whaling ship earlier today as well as a missing crew member. Any doubts as to the illegal, illegitimate, and highly disturbing nature of the terrorist actions being employed by these “environmentalists” should be dispelled now, I would think.
February 15th, 2007 at 7:58 amoh come on RYO. You can’t say that. It’s an engine room fire on a vessel that has had similar problems in the past (the Nisshin MAru also caught fire in 1998).
February 15th, 2007 at 8:26 amberocca: Acknowledged. Sorry about that….
February 15th, 2007 at 8:32 am