Animal Planets "Whale Wars" airing this week

[cdreamer]

Then why are the Sea Shepherd group not in the markets where whale meat is sold? Why are they not in the ports doing something about the ships?

These designer protests are the work of poseurs who lack the fortitude to attack the source. Much as animal rights activists never attack leather clad bikers but choose to assault old ladies in fur.

Uh, Hello, they are trying to prevent the meat from being there in the first place.
It is not even fit to eat. The meat is loaded with poisonous chemicals.
"Designer protests" "Posers" - you must be talking about Greenpeace, because these
terms do not apply to Sea Shepherd. Clearly you know nothing about SeaShepherd
because "attacking the source" is exactly what they are doing.

 

[cdreamer]

I'm sorry. I had not heard that the Japanese fleet had in any way stepped down their activites. Perhaps you'd care to define what you mean by "works".

Steve, Sea Shepherd keeps the Japanese ships on the run, therefore preventing
them from reaching their self imposed quotas. Last year, SEA SHEPHERD prevented them from taking their quota of 1,000 whales. The Japanese left the Antarctic
Whale SANCTUARY with less than half of that quota (which hits them quite hard
financially).
The Japanese also wanted to take 50 humpbacks last year, but after a great deal
of public outcry they "stepped down" from that endeavor.

 

[mavdog]

Walter

I'm not going to debate the concept, but these folks are incompetent. I'm not sure I'd even let their "captain" be a passenger on a cruise ship.

Teamcasa

I too think their goals are admirable but the way they run that ship is like watching an engineering major teaching a group of drama students how to do brain surgery.

This is the reason that I watch it. Im amazed they haven't killed themselves yet.

 

[adurso]

Uh, Hello, they are trying to prevent the meat from being there in the first place.
It is not even fit to eat. The meat is loaded with poisonous chemicals.
"Designer protests" "Posers" - you must be talking about Greenpeace, because these
terms do not apply to Sea Shepherd. Clearly you know nothing about SeaShepherd
because "attacking the source" is exactly what they are doing.

Oh I know what Sea Shepherd does, quite clearly; an inept overweight poseur takes a crew of inept wannabes on a trip to throw smelly stuff at the bad bad men who do not fight back.

The "source" is the demand for the meat, which is sold, for a profit. Same goes for shark finning.

If there were no demand, there would be no supply.

Although you may feel the meat is "loaded with poisonous chemicals" the Japanese still sell it for consumption, this is the reason for the accusation of conducting commercial operations under the guise of research. The Japanese response is that nothing prohibits the sale after the research and that they "waste" nothing.

So why are the Sea Shepard group not bothering the Finns or Norwegians who blatantly engage in commercial operations?

Maybe because the Finns and Norwegians fight back? Just like the animal rights activists avoid the animal skin clad bikers in favor of the harmless old ladies?

 

[Teamcasa]

Suzanne, I just want to personally thank you for the real work you and your organization does. You are the ocean's real unsung heroes and do the work that really matters.

Oceana and other organizations like them are the ones that get legislation passed, education programs placed, treaties signed and sanctuaries established around the world. They do the legal heavy lifting, not just the stuff that makes it on the news. They toil away saving the oceans, marine life and the environment the hard way, by getting the nations to act.

Divers, the work they do will not make it onto a reality TV show or be splashed across the front pages of newspapers but it is working and working in a way that will last far longer than groups like Watson's.

There could be a semester-long course devoted to the legalities of whaling.

In a nutshell, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is the main management body regarding whale hunting. It decides who may hunt whales, which species and how many, and allocates permitted kills based on a variety of factors like species population, IUCN status (endangered/threatened), cultural traditions, etc. Most of the countries represented on the IWC no longer actively hunt whales, but there are still groups who rely on whales for food. So while the US doesn't support whaling, it does receive a small number of permits for cultural/subsistence reasons. And like many other international organizations, the IWC really doesn't have any teeth. If a country requests permits for whaling and is denied, it can pull out and continue whaling anyway since it's technically no longer a member of the IWC.

There's plenty more, but this is already feeling like a dissertation, so I'll leave it for now. And for the record, I'm not saying that any of this is right, it's just how the system works (or doesn't, depending on your take).

 

[cdreamer]

YouTube - This Is Sea Shepherd

 

[Oceana Diver]

Suzanne, I just want to personally thank you for the real work you and your organization does. You are the ocean's real unsung heroes and do the work that really matters.

Aw, shucks:blush:

So much of what we do comes about with lots of support from people who know and care about the oceans, so thank you. You've made our day.

 

[FrankPro1]

(Same principle applies to sniping doctors who perform abortions, hunting illegal immigrants, or arson that burns down occupied houses built where someone thinks they encroach upon habitat. When people get hurt or killed due to someone's agenda, its time to re-think tactics...)

IMHO.

Its not the same principle at all. Sniping doctors who perform LEGAL abortions would be ridiculous. They are conducting a LEGAL activity. The Japanese fleet has continued to ignore international law and whale in environments that are banned from such activities. I haven't watched any whale wars episodes but I have been a long time supporter of Sea Shepherd. I did watch a "boarding" video on youtube, which left me with an unsettled feeling. It seemed that all they wanted to do was board the ship and get captured. If it was me..there... well... you don't want to know the extremes I'd go to end such activities. If there wasn't any causalities or martyrs in history, nothing would ever have gotten done. Being a neutral, passive watcher of mass genocide would make you just as evil as those committing the murder. I think there are some things in this world worth saving and protecting and if it takes some people to get hurt and lose their lives... well they died for a cause. A lot of people sat idling by when Hitler and Stalin committed mass murder. We continue today to sit idling by when hundreds of thousands die from "ethnic" cleansing by Muslim extremist in Africa. Are such causes not worth preventing and possibly dieing for? Is preventing the slaughter of highly evolved sentient life on this planet in areas banned from such activities, not worth dieing for? As a diver I would think that you would have more passion for such an ideal and support those who carry out such brave work. I agree that Paul Watson and his crew can appear to careless, disorganized and sometimes outright dangerous. But there they only ones out there, putting themselves on the line for a noble cause.

 

[adurso]

Its not the same principle at all. Sniping doctors who perform LEGAL abortions would be ridiculous. They are conducting a LEGAL activity. The Japanese fleet has continued to ignore international law and whale in environments that are banned from such activities. I haven't watched any whale wars episodes but I have been a long time supporter of Sea Shepherd. I did watch a "boarding" video on youtube, which left me with an unsettled feeling. It seemed that all they wanted to do was board the ship and get captured. If it was me..there... well... you don't want to know the extremes I'd go to end such activities. If there wasn't any causalities or martyrs in history, nothing would ever have gotten done. Being a neutral, passive watcher of mass genocide would make you just as evil as those committing the murder. I think there are some things in this world worth saving and protecting and if it takes some people to get hurt and lose their lives... well they died for a cause. A lot of people sat idling by when Hitler and Stalin committed mass murder. We continue today to sit idling by when hundreds of thousands die from "ethnic" cleansing by Muslim extremist in Africa. Are such causes not worth preventing and possibly dieing for? Is preventing the slaughter of highly evolved sentient life on this planet in areas banned from such activities, not worth dieing for? As a diver I would think that you would have more passion for such an ideal and support those who carry out such brave work. I agree that Paul Watson and his crew can appear to careless, disorganized and sometimes outright dangerous. But there they only ones out there, putting themselves on the line for a noble cause.

Any number of knuckleheads have sniped doctors performing legal abortions, a bunch have also blown up or attempted to blow up legal abortion clinics.
Sea Shepherd has no authority to enforce any laws anywhere, therefore their activities are unlawful, if they use that excuse.
So what extremes are you utilizing to end these heinous activities? Or is this more rhetoric?

 

[cdreamer]

Well said Frank. I'm with ya.
I prefer to live and dive in a world WITH cetaceans.
Like the Sea Shepherds I believe that there are some things in this
world worth fighting for.