There has been an update from the International Whaling Commission which recently met. Unfortunately, this is a toothless organization without the power to enforce their regulations. An exemption to the original 1986 moratorium on whaling has been for scientific research. The Japanese have seized on this exemption and claim that what they are doing is conducting research. However, what they are doing is shooting whales with harpoon guns, haul them onto their factory ships and cut them up and box them for consumption. No research involved. The Sea Shepherd has courageously brought this issue to the international community through their very popular show "Whale Wars. There has been a recent update from the International Whaling Commission which basically states that they will revisit the issue. Meanwhile, the Sea Shepherd is in the Southern Oceans filming, intercepting and preventing illegal Japanese whalers. Like many of the historical social issues that we, as a species have confronted, commercial whaling like slavery, is cruel, unnecessary and immoral.
SS are clearly into direct action. Why? Because indirect action via toothless organisations, laws and enforcement, are clearly impotent in achieving their stated aims. They are pathetic.
To paraphrase an eternal misquote, it is enough that good men do nothing for evil to prevail.
I say good on SS, breaking laws or not, endangering life or not. They are drawing attention to the issue - which is absolutely key. If no-one knows about it nothing will be done. It's the first step - bringing the matter to people's consciousnesses.
And this and other environmental issues are bigger than our current petty, narrow interest law making, both domestic and international.
Desperate attempts to avoid the devastation of the planet has the moral imperative in my book.
Anyone that thinks humans are not screwing the planet clearly lives on another one. If anyone really wants to fight that argument please let me know, we'll kick off another thread, and we'll see where that goes.
My only hesitation in endorsing SS is whether they're picking the right battles. I don't know enough to say whether they are or aren't but to take the example of the Panda - a huge amount of money is donated in some vain attempt to save them. I can't see them being saved and this resource would likely be better spent elsewhere, on potentially winnable battles. No matter how cute and cuddly they are, Pandas are not going to make it and they don't play a significant part in the overall ecosystem. Will be sad to lose them, of course, but there are more important battles to be fought and won. And with Whales - if the whaling is being done in a sustainable manner, and is being managed in such a way that it is not impacting their long term survival then there are more pressing needs.
I wish there were other organisations like SS that would take similar measures against shark finning and get the same publicity.
J