Stop the Sea Shepherd

[Fish-R-Man]

Hi Al,
I see that you are from Oregon, so you must be familier with groups like the ALF, Earth First, GReen Peace etc. These are the groups that were spiking trees, chaining them selves to trees , destroying logging equipment, burning down Federal ranger stations etc. All in the name of old growth timber and the spotted owl. So what happened to these people. All they did for a while is make a big commotion and raised considerable funds from misguided people and then fell by the wayside. What they really managed to do is mess up the cutting schedule for the larger companies that were doing a good job managing thier forest holdings. Paul Watson and his group are no better than any one of the militant eco groups. I am really surprised that one of the whaling vessels hasn't T-boned the Sea Shephard yet and been done with him.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Fish Paul Watson's group was spiking trees before he became the Sea Shepherd.

But for your information I am not misguided in the least. And look at the video, his ship has been sunk.

But they won't be done with him. Sorry if my love for whales offends you. But playing kissey face with the Japs hasn't done a bit of good.

 

[Fish-R-Man]

Al,

I have to ask you if you are so proud of what Paul Watson is doing, what about all of the people that were injured in the logging and lumber mills in the PNW due to the spiking of trees? Its the same thing he is doing now. He is endangering not only the whalers, but his own crew.

As far as your love of whales, it does not offend me in the least. I am fortunate to be in a profession where we get to see them all the time. I don't know how to insert pics into my posts so I changed my avatar picture to one I took just the other day. Its a mother and baby Orca that were feeding on discard that we were sending over board during processing. There was a whole pod of them with us for a couple days on that trip.

What offends me is the fact that people will support illegal behavior if they feel the cause is just. Whether its whales or trees or spotted owls or what ever the popular cause is at the time. I get fairly passionate about the subject when it involves the fishing industry. We had to deal with the Paul Watsons with the factory trawler fleet for years. They put out an incredible amount of misinformation to try and support thier "cause". Not many people realize in this fishery we have 24 hour a day coverage by NMFS obervers and every fish that comes on board is weighed and accounted for. They finally had to give it up when science proved that the fishery is sustainable and that the killer whale increase in the Bering Sea and Aleutians are depleting a majority of the Steller sea lions.

I would really like to see people like yourself support the actual science behind what they are doing to the whale population, rather than to support criminal activity of a few individuals.

 

[DennisS]

Watson makes his living as a professional protester, trees, owls, seals, whales, tuna, it doesn't matter as long as he's the face of the movement.

 

[inventor]

Mildly off topic;
My mom, a devout hippie, had a t-shirt-

Save the Protesters

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

If this were a forestry forum I'd be condemning Paul Watson because obviously spiking trees is a horrible thing. We're talking about his position on whaling and his actions in that area which I support.

Dennis greenpeace and most other groups also condemn Paul Watson so he's only the face of Sea Shepherd which is the only one I support. Greenpeace has done little to help compared to Watson.

Seriously if I caught someone spiking a tree I'd react exactly the same way as if I caught someone shooting a whale.

The Japs take 50 humpback whales a year. I had a humpback once give me a gentle bump when I was on the surface after a dive. It was the coolest thing ever. I didn't sleep a moment that night.

 

[Fish-R-Man]

Watson makes his living as a professional protester, trees, owls, seals, whales, tuna, it doesn't matter as long as he's the face of the movement.

Dennis, you nailed it. If he was as passionate about all of the other areas that he protested, why isn't he still involved in them. He just found a form of protest that people will rally around. Trees and owls, no money there any more. Seals, Green Peace messed that one up when they were caught paying guys to club seals so they could video it for thier "cause". Tuna, too many people eat the stuff to care.... Now whales, there is one that everyone can get behind. Now that he is on TV, it really must be feeding his ego.

Personally I don't like the idea of harvesting whales. I personally wouldn't want to be involved in culling elephants either. But it is done all the time to control populations in certain areas of Africa. Now, I am not saying that there is a need to cull whales. But if what the Japanese and other nations are doing is really causing a decline in population and someone can actually prove it. Then I think that you could change public opinion even in country's like Japan that has a long history of whale harvests. I believe that the actions of people like Paul Watson would have a reverse effect making more support for the whaling operations in thier home country's.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I want to see a tank explode. I am also suffering from a case of deja vu.....just different thread title and now different players.....same old arguments.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I want to see a tank explode. I am also suffering from a case of deja vu.....just different thread title and now different players.....same old arguments.

So different thread title but are you aware that people enjoy discussing certain topics? There are topics I don't venture into, not even to leave a popcorn thingy. I just ignore them and head for the ones that interest me.

There are also some current new things going on with the Sea Shepherd which you probably aren't aware of.

Enjoy your popcorn.

 

[Sas]

I want to see a tank explode. I am also suffering from a case of deja vu.....just different thread title and now different players.....same old arguments.

Here's a thought, if you don't like the thread don't read it.

If I had a dollar for every time you complained about a thread I'd be a very wealthy woman.