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Activists Clash with Japan Whalers in Southern Ocean
SYDNEY, Australia - Anti-whalers Saturday said they had clashed with Japanese harpoonists in the Southern Ocean, chasing them through ice packs, throwing stink bombs at them and being hit with water cannon.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessels have been seeking to disrupt the Japanese whalers on their annual hunt in Antarctic waters since mid-December but had not been able to sight the Japanese fleet until Friday.
The society's president, Paul Watson, said that now they had made contact with the whalers, they would attempt to prevent any of the giant sea creatures from being slaughtered.
"It's got its water cannons turned onto us right now so we're maneuvering through ice and trying to outmaneuver them so it's a little dicey," Watson told ABC Radio.
Locky MacLean, the captain of the Sea Shepherd's 'Gojira' vessel, said the society's three boats had been "dancing dangerously through the ice packs locked in confrontation with the three harpoon ships".
"It was both deadly and beautiful," he said in a statement on the society's website. "Deadly because of the ice and the hostility of the whalers and beautiful because of the ice, and the fact that these three killer ships are not killing whales while clashing with us."
Japan's fisheries agency said that Sea Shepherd used a small boat to throw ropes and bottles at whaling vessels, according to the Kyodo news agency.
"The repeated obstructive behavior against legitimate research activities is extremely dangerous action that threatens the vessels and the lives and property of their crew members," the fisheries agency was quoted as saying.
The activists said the clashes involved several high speed chases and near collisions among jagged ice floes, and alleged that the whalers turned water cannon and hoses on their crew.
"Sea Shepherd responded with some rather unpleasant foul-smelling substances," they said in a statement, adding that there were no injuries.
A Sea Shepherd spokesman was unable to confirm what was thrown, but in previous years the activists have tossed rancid butter, or butyric acid, stink bombs at the whalers to make their decks unusable for slaughtering whales.
The conservationists said now they had found the Japanese fleet, 1,700 nautical miles southeast of New Zealand, they would continue to try to prevent them from killing whales during the southern hemisphere summer.
"Our objective is to save the maximum number of whales and to maximize the financial losses of the whalers at the same time," Watson said in the statement.
Australia has taken legal action against Japan to prevent it from hunting whales by exploiting a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium which allows whaling for research purposes.
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37 Comments so far
Show AllThis is one toughest and most dedicated bunch of honchos in the world.
They have my complete support in preventing the totally dishonest Japanese "research".
When will the Japanese be publishing the results of their 'research"?
This dishonesty over whaling on the international stage shames Japan on every front. It is a national loss of 'face'.
Go Sea Shepherds!
Sea Shepherd sets the example not just for anti-whaling activism, but for all activism -- environmental, political, etc. Facta non verba -- Deeds, not words!
Donate:
https://my.seashepherd.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=184
I don't like this senseless destruction of the oceans. Humanity has gone completely insane. We have become the most destructive force on the planet, threatening all life.
What are the Japanese researching? How whales taste?
In terms of gaining public support regarding such activism, anti-whaling and opposition to seal hunts are about the absolutely lowest risk, low-hanging fruits, even given the physical risk the activists put themselves in.
Most people who would gorge on meat and seafood that leave a trail of destruction behind would have no problems opposing seal hunts and whaling and feeling really good about it. Seals look cute and whales are majestic. So that's easy.
I am waiting to see articles that make the connection between seafood consumption in western countries and the overfishing using powerful deep sea trawlers and the depletion of fish stock and the pollution of marine and coastal environments in other, distant parts of the world. Or how about a connection with Somali piracy?
While the role of meat production and transportation in causing climate change has been documented, not much has changed in the consumption or production levels. So let's go after the evil Japanese! Charge!
P.S.: I realize I should not be feeling cynical on day one of the new year, but couldn't help pointing out, after seeing tons of flyers of supermarkets and advertisements of restaurants offering mega deals on meat and seafood in recent weeks. It's mind-boggling to think of the number of cows, chicken, pigs, fish, shrimp, lobsters, etc., that would have been killed for these supermarkets and restaurants alone!
The deliberate destruction of sharks by the millions, one of the oldest parts of the eco-balance of the ocean, is something nobody cares about. They're neither cute nor cuddly... though vital.
The near-extinction of Tuna is another.
I remember reading that, when Columbus arrived at the Americas, the oceans were so teaming with animal life, they just needed to lower a basket and pull it back up, and it would be filled with fish.
Overpopulation is doing this planet in. By 2050 it is expected that the planet will have 9 billion people. I don't think we will get that far. A population collapse will happen as soon as oil is no longer abundantly available.
Somali "piracy" started as a response to developed nations dumping their toxic/nuclear waste into the ocean off the coast of Somalia, and killing off life in that part of the ocean, making sustenance fishing impossible. Of course the reason for the 'piracy' will not be published, because that is not a convenient fact.
Your cited meat production and transportation as causes for climate change is incorrect. Meat production and transportation is not a cause of anything, but the direct result [i.e. SYMPTOM] of overpopulation, and the increasing population will only drive those factors. Overpopulation is driving the destruction of the forests, the oceans, the air, the rivers. Problems will not be solved by consuming less, but by reducing the number of consumers over time. Whether there is still enough time to accomplish that in an orderly and non-violent fashion, is another question altogether. Capitalism needs consumption to funnel the wealth of the masses into the pockets of the billionaires. It can only "survive" if people consume the planet. A shrinking population is not in the interest of capitalism.
Meat consumption is a natural part of human evolution. We are omnivores, not herbavores. The problem is not meat consumption, but the fact there are simply too many of us. Like a giant cloud of locusts we descend on the planet and consume everything in our path.
Life, and the planet, will continue long after humanity has died off. Humanity is not such an important and indispensable component of the global landscape.
Jonathan Edwards, as I said in my "P.S." above, I know my criticism of these activists is not exactly right, but as I said, anti-whaling is kind of a low-hanging fruit, especially when the target does NOT involve western lifestyle as much. You're right - activists are also taking on overfishing of blue-fin tuna and sharks, and so, more power to them!
I do not disagree that overpopulation is a serious, serious problem, and, frankly I have NOT met or come across any sane person would disagree either.
Where you are COMPLETELY wrong is in your assertions regarding meat production, transportation and consumption. Experience tells me that people are SO damned attached to their meat-eating habit/tradition that they would simply refuse to see facts, research and just plain logic. Simple logic such as the substantially larger amounts of land, water and nutrients required to produce a meat-eater's meal vs. a vegetarian or vegan meal. It is SO elementary that I frankly feel TIRED to even get into any discussion time after time. All the so-called arguments put forth regarding grass-fed beef and grazing livestock on "marginal" lands are so contrived and bogus and will not stand the test of comparison using hard facts and numbers.
Please look up "Livestock's Long Shadow" - a UN FAO report that came out in 2006 (I think) - that cites meat production and transportation as the single biggest contributor to GHG emissions.
To save myself the bother, I'm going to suggest that you PLEASE use the site's search feature to look up past discussions on overpopulation vs. over consumption and regarding meat consumption, including about whether humans are "natural" omnivores or just "opportunistic meat eaters", but essentially herbivores otherwise - as per our anatomy and physiology.
Here are some past threads - I hope you would look through them before replying:
"UN to Hold Crisis Talks on Food Prices as Riots Hit Mozambique":
www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/09/04-1
Time stamp:
Alcyon September 5th, 2010 5:51 am, 6:10 am, September 7th, 2010 10:26 am
"UN Urges Global Move to Meat and Dairy-Free Diet":
Time stamp:
Alcyon June 4th, 2010 12:46 pm, June 6th, 2010 9:14 pm
"Resolved: Eating Animals Is Indefensible":
www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/06-4
Many great posts on this article.
There have also been discussions/debates on overpopulation vs. overconsumption - as to which is the greatest threat. For example, check these out:
"Mankind Is Using Up Global Resources Faster Than Ever":
www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/16
"Six Reasons Why Earth Won't Cope for Long":
www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/17-0
The reason I say overconsumption is the biggest threat is simple:
It is possible to reduce consumption without serious reduction in living standards, especially if you address meat consumption, needless travel, wasteful "entertainment", vacationing, etc., whereas it is NOT possible to reduce human population soon enough through natural means. I replied on this exact point earlier today:
"A Bitter Pill: Birth Rates Fall, But It’s No Reproductive-Rights Victory"
www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/31-2
Time stamp: Alcyon January 1st, 2011 12:33 pm
Bottomline: Those who throw around the overpopulation argument WITHOUT addressing the overconsumption of rich people everywhere and their own ecological footprint are not serious about anything. They only want ***other people*** to cut their consumption, and preferably not breed and start dying off en masse, so they can continue on with their own wasteful lifestyle.
Alcyon, good post. Industrial production of animals for carnivorous eaters is an environmental disaster, not to mention the ethics of it. The largest source of water pollution in the US is cow manure. I agree with you, though: most meat eaters are so addicted to their meat-eating ways that they will not listen to reason and just don't give a damn. It is "natural" and so they will do it. It is about as "natural" as global monopoly capitalism, the cancer that is devouring our planet.
Don't confuse your personal set of ethics and how you would like the world to be, with reality. Humans have eaten meat for as long as there are humans. All the apes also eat meat. It is not something that 'came later'. Had humans never discovered oil, we'd be unlikely to be destroying the planet, because there still would only be about a billion of us, and periodic epidemics would keep our numbers down. Oil changed everything. It made it possible for our numbers to explode to the point where we have become a serious threat to animal life on the planet. When oil is depleted, humans will return to under a billion in a very short time.
Sorry, Jonathan Edwards - your knowledge of environmental history is woefully inadequate. But you're not alone on this and I won't blame you for it either - because this is not the kind of historical information that is readily available.
Much of the forests in western Europe were lost before industrialization and before oil use became widespread. They were simply cut down as humans spread, for shipbuilding and for empire building, and stupidly enough, for livestock grazing because wool fetched a good price in those days. So much so that there was a shortage of wood and lumber in western Europe by the time Columbus set sail. And of course the ever-increasing appetite for beef was responsible for its share - not just for the deforestation, but even for the rapid colonization of the "New World". And when the Europeans came over to the Americas, they couldn't wait to start decimating the forests over here soon enough or fast enough. A great deal of New England forests were lost before industrialization commenced and even some of the early Europeans were astounded by the wasteful methods used by their fellow-men to cut down the forests.
It's not oil. I think it was a fundamental disconnect with nature and a lack of awareness of when to stop destroying the very thing that supports life.
I am not disagreeing with you on any of this. However, it was only due to oil that human population could rise significantly above a billion. When oil is gone, the decline to below a billion will be rapid and likely happen within less than a generation.
Yes John, the population explosion driven by oil based fertilizer is a problem
And in times past War and Plagues killed many millions of people.
Now add Climate change/Global Warming to the equation and Billions will die.
"Capitalism needs consumption to funnel the wealth of the masses into the pockets of the billionaires. It can only "survive" if people consume the planet. A shrinking population is not in the interest of capitalism
But do not forget that the Rich Folks don't care about the Poor Folks and that fact adds the last ingredient to the equation.
'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' Many billions will die! Happy New Year while it lasts.
I'm sorry but this sentence is just plain provocative yet with little substance:
"Capitalism needs consumption to funnel the wealth of the masses into the pockets of the billionaires"
That's like saying the oceans need healthy seawater in order for sharks to rip the legs of cute children paddling on the beach. It's technically correct yet...
Where do the "masses" get their "wealth" from in the first place?
Capitalism, which simply defined means the retaining some surplus from the mutually beneficial exchanges between individuals, and using that surplus to invest in future enhancements of productivity, service and/or value.
What's so scary about that?
Now you can certainly make an argument about the effects of capitalism, or point out how it perhaps requires assistance or regulatory over-sight or simply being held in check or whatever. Such arguments can stand or fall on their own merits but blaming "capitalism" is indeed like advocating against seawater, ie the environment in which we thrive.
For example if you're sitting on a chair right now, understand that someone somewhere felt the chair was worth more than the money paid and someone else felt the money was worth more than the chair. Mutually beneficial exchange, where BOTH parties "profit".
"Capitalism" and "profit" should not be considered dirty words or evil. Simply labelling them as such dilutes your main message and prevents a lot of people from listening to you.
Billionaires funnelling the wealth of the little guy into their greedy maws is all too real, does happen, and is happening. I'm not arguing that, I'm just arguing against the sloppy use of labels, especially ones that turn people off your message.
Even the Sea Sheppards are effectively an example of the market in action. No government is willing to do anything effective over whaling, so private individuals, with private contributions, are tackling the problem directly.
You can describe it as charitable donations yet it's the same thing - exchanging money for something worth more to the donators than the money. Effectively, they are "hiring" the Sea Sheppards, who in turn feel the ultimate results they're aiming at are worth more than the effort, time and risks they're 'paying'.
Every day I read both Common Dreams and Lewrockwell.com. Both have excellent, thought-provoking articles. They're polar opposites - yet you may be surprised at the volume of shared ground.
If a lewrockwell writer defined social well-being as "billionaires grabbing the wealth of the little guy" I'd retort "Hey, that aint social well-being!". Likewise when you define capitalism as that, I have to dispute it.
Anyway, back to the Sea Sheppards...
Again you can "blame capitalism" if you like but I loved this show so much I purchased all available episodes from iTunes. Over the course of a couple of weeks my wife and I sat and watched a couple or three episodes each night.
It's awe-inspiring stuff and I have tremendous respect for what those guys and gals are doing. To describe it as catching low-hanging fruit is even worse than the dismissive sneering at capitalism...
They travel literally thousands of miles from land, for weeks at a time, over water so cold it will kill you in minutes, tackling larger, faster ships that have ice-hardened hulls. They are all volunteers, most with little training or experience.
Admittedly when I first started watching I found it amusing, as they were so incompetent and hapless that it was outright funny. Their zeal and enthusiasm seemed funny at first too.
I couldn't wait for the once-a-month local programming and grabbed the iTunes volumes. From there I saw them develop, both in effectiveness and as people, saw that their enthusiasm was truly heart-felt and serious, saw the risks and hardship they endured, daily.
(and if anyone knows where I can get hold of season 4, please tell me!)
They, unlike Greenpeace, which Watson helped found before they kicked him out, are effective. Last year they reduced the Japanese 'research' catch by 2/3 - and they certainly made a convert out of me.
And yes, they use their platform to point out how fragile the oceans are in general, reaching far more people than any other efforts I've seen.
Sorry for the rant :o)
N.
All wealth comes from the environment.
Non meat eating supports at least five times the population as meat eating.
Overpopulation mono-maniacs always sound like closet exterminators.
About 50% of food production in USA is wasted.
Most food NGO's say it food distribution that is the problem not a shortage.
"Capitalism needs consumption to funnel the wealth of the masses into the pockets of the billionaires"
"That's like saying the oceans need healthy seawater in order for sharks to rip the legs of cute children paddling on the beach. It's technically correct yet..."
---------------------------------------
The parallel doesn't work, because oceans are a part of nature, and capitalism is a human artifact. Capitalism does foster intensive marketing leading to consumerism, and we do see a long term trend in which wealth is moving from the bottom to the top, i.e., more and more of the wealth (in the US, and globally) is going from the poor, lower, and middle classes, to the wealthy and upper classes. It is simply a description of a systemic problem, nowhere more so than in the US where the dogma of neo-liberalism (unregulated capitalism) prevails.
Modern capitalism (industrialization plus greed) is unsustainable because humans are empathy challenged by nature.
http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-would-hunter-gatherers-run-world.html
I had some fun with the libertarians at Lew's joint one time. I asked them how you decentralized air traffic control so it would reflect the constitution and the gubmint wasn't 'overstepping it's mandate'.
I also pointed out what a 'great' world Mises would have us living in here in the USA if the FDA didn't exist. Pfizer would certainly improve its' drugs when people started dying from vioxx. After all, the 'free market in action' would force Pfizer to improve its' products when the customers started keeling over, right?
Lew Rockwell is a snake oil salesmen. Libertarianism is the worship of greed with lots of good PR. They talk a great game about eliminating wars and borders. It's a hook to get you interested. It's bullshit.
Do you want to know what their real philosophy is?
Never give a sucker an even break.
You can see episodes of the documentary show which follows the Sea Sheperds, called "Whale Wars" here:
http://www.sidereel.com/Whale_Wars
Pretty amazing stuff... highly recommended.
Australia is an amazing place. Although they produced the scumbag Rupert Murdock who monopolized and killed free media reporting in the popular press, they also produced the fearless Captain Watson and the now legendary Julian Assange of Wikileaks.
Three Cheers for the Sea Sheperds!
Whale meat is only consumed in Japan to my knowledge, and most of it is sent to retirement homes where old Japs can not quit drooling over it; hence the demand and this illegal fake research slaughter.
Besides Ralph Nader, Micheal Moore, Chris Hedges, and the many contributors of CD, I don't know many heroes sticking their necks out for preservation of a sane planet on our side of the pond.
Shame really, that we let all this dishonesty go on.
TJ
Break up the Banks Now! (the source of all our problems)
Paul Watson is Canadian.
This is one of the few organizations I actually give money to. I view their work as a potential blueprint for future activist actions. As the Arctic melts away, one can envision similar campaigns against the fossil fuel industry. How about stink bomb campaigns against sites which build and operate drones? The TV show regarding their efforts is not all that great but the basic methods they utilize are well worth noting. As I have said before, I'm surprised this show hasn't been yanked by the corporate powers.
I think Japanese whale hunters and whalers from other nations have every right to kill all those brainless anti-whaling bastards. It is complete shame that commondreams.org that has been trying to embrace the cultural diversity is corroborating this racist and imperial conspiracy of the United States that wants to destroy every culture and tradition that is unfamiliar and alien to it.
There is a scientific data that shows that if we whale no more than the number that scientific data permits, whales will not become an endangered specie. Right now, there are another data shows that because the populations of whales are overpopulated, it cause endangerment of other species as well. Whaling itself will not cause as much environmental degradations as those claims agitated fanatic anti-whaling gangsters who has done terrific job stereotyping Japanese.
Some bastards claim that eating whales are cruel and inhumane.
I must say that people whose fathers and forefathers have built the country by conducting the worst ethnic cleansing in the history of this planet of millions of Native Americans in order to robbing land and resources to build a county have no right to denounce Japanese people for hunting a couple hundred whales to feed themselves.
People like you, your friends, and your neighbors, and family members who financially and willfully support wars, bombings, impoverishment, and massacres of Iraqi, Palestinians, Afghans, and many and many other parts of the world because you want cheaper gas, buy and buy more and more stuffs say that hunting whales to feed the nation is barbaric. What kind of logic is that?
Thousands of Japanese fisheries and fishing industry has been out of business because of anti-whaling bastards. Thousands of people lost jobs and ways to live because racist, greedy and illicit anti-whaling organizations have been doing their businesses to maximize their own profit by creating fabrications to provide more reason to bash Japan (and Scandinavian nations and Iceland as well). Do you know that Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepperd is a multi-billionair who has an total access to every single politicians in Washington and one of the top 50 lobbyists in the US? When he was asked, several years ago, about American Eskimos hunting one of the most endangered whales, he replied, Eskimos are Eskimos, not American, therefore, it is not his business to restrain them from whaling.
Ask yourself, which one is more barbaric and inhumane, raising cattles in absolutely inhumane condition where cows, pigs, and chickens are raised in a crowded place like not allowed to move more than a couple feet or even see the sun or breathe outside air for entire life, or just hunting a whale?
All animals must sacrifice other species to survive themselves, and human beings, even a vegans are not an exception. Another words, eating itself is a sin which we have to bear to survive. If we remind ourselves this unalianated truth, those who cry it is barbaric and inhumane to eat whales and other animals that Americans and Europeans are not familiar eating them despite eating chickens, rabbits, cows, and pigs raised under horrendously cruel conditions are the ones who are barbaric, shallow, and dangerously stupid.
You know Watson is doing something meaningful when he generates posts like the above filled with assorted lies, half truths, obfuscations and distortions.
>>Do you know that Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepperd is a multi-billionair
Any cursory check of his bio reveals a rather working class background. What source do you have for this bald-faced lie?
>>There is a scientific data that shows that if we whale no more than the number that scientific data permits, whales will not become an endangered specie.
Hundreds of animal extinctions have occurred since the start of the industrial era. Many scientists project that half of all animals will be made extinct in the next hundred years if human development remains unchecked. Yet you would have me believe that whales are the threat.
>>When he was asked, several years ago, about American Eskimos hunting one of the most endangered whales, he replied, Eskimos are Eskimos, not American, therefore, it is not his business to restrain them from whaling.
What is this? You want to have your cake and eat it too? He's against meat eating but doesn't have the audacity to impose his view on indigenous cultures who harvest animals in responsible fashion. Compare and contrast this with high tech Japanese fishing fleets sailing a half a world away to slaughter animals in reckless and exploitive fashion.
>>Thousands of Japanese fisheries and fishing industry has been out of business because of anti-whaling bastards.
Source this please. Furthermore, I suspect their practices of overfishing have brought their own demise.
I could go on but I'm certain you get the picture. A disgraceful post if I ever read one.
Your post is full of hateful, incorrect statements. I would agree, though, that raising cows and chickens and pigs in industrial farms for human consumption is evil, and that is why I am vegetarian, because I have no wish to contribute to this evil. Those animals are as intelligent as my cats, and I don't see why I should contribute to massive animal suffering if I can eat heathily without doing so (which I can). But all of this doesn't justify Japan's killing of whales. And I don't believe whales are not endangered. Do you have any actual scientific evidence that they hunt only whales that are not endangered?
Your accusing anti-whaling people in the US of racism is totally unfair. This issue has nothing to do with race. Also, Common Dreams readers do not need to be lectured on the sins of the US government vis a vis war and imperialism. Japan doesn't exactly have an unblemished record as being a pacifist nation. Ask the Chinese.
>>Your accusing anti-whaling people in the US of racism is totally unfair.
Anti-Whaling sentiment stated when Japan bashing by US and Europe was escalated amid highest time of Japanese monopolization of trading surplus. Since then, the media and politicians alike, started using anti-whaling to frame Japanese as demons. There were incident in which paint was thrown at only to Japanese Representatives, not other representatives of whaling nations. When we talk about whaling, we talk about primarily Japanese. Japanese do weird thing such as whaling and eating whales, so they should be a target of censure.
>>Do you have any actual scientific evidence that they hunt only whales that are not endangered?
If you go to the website of International Whaling Committee, you will see the number. Please let me remind you that America hunt 40 North Pacific right whale. The problem is there are less than 1,000 North Pacific right whale, and it is overfishing. It is America that endanger a certain kind of whales. IWC is founded to stabilize the whales' propagation.
>>Japan doesn't exactly have an unblemished record as being a pacifist nation.
I am a Japanese and I don't see Japan is a pacifist at all. Japan has done such a horrendous things to Korea, China, and other parts of Southeast Asia. I am ashamed what Japan had done, and ashamed that Japan has been doing what US orders in order to secure the access to oil and other resources. But that does not me Japanese tradition and culture that as been there for more than 1,000 such as fishing, cooking, and eating whales shall not be interfered by the egoistic force of Americans and Europe.
Not a single reference in this character's rantings.
The following species of whales are endangered or vulnerable, solely because of man.
Species/Population
Northern Right Whale 500-1,000
Southern Right Whale 3,000
Bowhead Whale 8,000
Blue Whale 10,000-14,000
Fin Whale 120,000-150,000
Sei Whale 50,000
Humpback Whale 10,000+
Sperm Whale 200,000
http://tinyurl.com/yhuj7vt
Let me shoot an arrow into your back and then tow you around in water until you drown. Let us know if you think that is cruel.
Plants that are harvested for human consumption are near the end of their life cycle. Animals that are harvested are usually pre-pubescent or teenagers at the beginning of their life. To compare the moraility of harvesting elderly plants or young, healthy animals is both stupid and specious. I do, however, agree with you about the immorality of the entire animal protein industry.
As for your rant overusing the word racist, you become what you hate.
First two wrongs, or many horrendous wrongs, do not make any right.
Secondly the Japanese can feed themselves quite well without eliminating species or hunting whales.
The population totals of the whales being hunted do not seem very high to me.
I am glad you did not attempt to claim it is "research".
USAans are very racist but so is most of the world.
No one I know who is against whaling is racist towards Japanese.
You know people cry racism when we berate our fascist president.
Yes animals die when plants are grown, but one may avoid it as much as possible.
Whereas one is intentially killing a very intelligent creature.
Sea Shepard fights other nationalities is it all racism?
Do you have other than Japanese sources claiming overpopulation of these whales?
Neither "tradition" nor "diversity" are excuses for wrong-doing. It used to be traditional that men were allowed to beat, even kill, their wives. It used to be traditional that people could treat their domestic animals with great cruelty (we still allow this in slaughterhouses), it used to be traditional for native tribes to kill one another and steal women and children, and so on.
We hope we know better now. Whales are sentient creatures, intelligent and an important part of the ecosystem. It is quite immoral and disgusting of the Japanese to insist that they be allowed to destroy these creatures which are not theirs to take.
This is not research - this is about money, like so many other immoral and barbaric acts taking place on earth today.
I just wish I were still physically able to be with the Sea Shepherds on the high seas!
Stealing women and children is not limited to the much maligned Tribal People.
Greeks and Romans stole women and children and at this very moment the sex slave trade is one of law enforcements greatest challenges, also right here in USA.
<>this is about money
Yes, Watson is using whale to make money and satisfy his ambition and power motivation by making whale as a political scapegoat for our politicians.
Whether Watson is altruistic or not, does not detract from the need not to hunt whales.
Your last phrase is murky, scapegoat for what? species extinction?
Where are your replies to the other counter arguments posted?
It is a gutter and incoherent argument to equating hunting whales with killing wives or stealing women and children, and so on. Also, Americans and Europeans are eating animals that have been raised in abusive factory farmers. It is wrong to kill and eat endangered species unless the nation is in a brink of famine or so. But, number of several whale species have been multipled in last two decades. They are not endangered specie at all. It is far worse doing to destroy one of other nation's vital ways of survival for your fanatic and demagoguery belief.
<
Why doesn't Japan listen to its Buddhists and stop this senseless "research"?
Bravo for the heroic crew of the Sea Shephard. May they prevail against this cruel slaughter of whales.
'"The repeated obstructive behavior against legitimate research activities is extremely dangerous action" the fisheries agency was quoted as saying.'
I understand that all Japanese oceanographic research vessels are operated by the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA), and that no research vessels are operated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, unless of course you believe government propaganda.
Mmmmm. Forget the ropes and bottles, I wonder how hard it will be to fit the Gojira (Japanese for gorilla-whale, or should that be guerrilla-whale), with the 100Kw Tactical High Energy Laser?
Direct action taken by the likes of the Sea Shepherds has become an unavoidable necessity given the extent of corporate-driven plunder of the planet. Japanese (Iceland & Norway as well) whalers are a glaringly obnoxious example of that which makes for compelling television while fighting against them. While the media-savvy efforts of Paul Watson & company are quite commendable, they are only a first step of a very long and undoubtedly difficult struggle to re-take this planet from those whom would plunder it for their own profit, then leave it barren for future generations.
THIS is a protest!