Sea Shepherd condemned by International Whaling Commission.

[ekremer]

I beleive I stated earlier, but I could be wrong. I do not like whaling and I do not condone what the Japanese are doing.

However, I also do not beleive 2 wrongs make a right. I do not beleive the sea shepherds have a right to assault the whalers just because their views fit mine. I beleive that it is up to the nation whos waters they are in to remedy the situation if they care to. I beleive its up to the UN and the IWC and their members to enforce the treaties.

and since the IWC is condeming the shepherds I tend to beleive that they don't like their tactics either, or the Japanese are working legally.

I beleive the rights of the whalers should be protected, and their lives (including their health) and their property be protected just like anyone elses.

In the end I would like to see the UN actually do something for once and flex their muscle to force the ship to return home, but from it sounds like the Japanese are working inside a legal loophole so they can't be arrested.

 

[aquaman_06]

In the end I would like to see the UN actually do something for once and flex their muscle to force the ship to return home

I can't argue with that. Although here is some food for thought:

In Africa, Somali poachers are shot on sight for poaching elephants and the world approves.

In India, Indian poachers are shot for poaching tigers.

Yet when the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society crew tosses rotten butter onto the deck of a wealthy high-tech Japanese whale poaching vessel in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, there is a gasp of horror from those who fear to offend the great economic bully from Asia.

The crew of the Steve Irwin did not injure anyone. The entire confrontation was documented by both ships and there has been no video shown by either side documenting violent actions against the very violent whalers. We even offered to send our medical doctor onboard the Nisshin Maru to treat the alleged injuries and to confirm the claim that there were any injuries at all. The Nisshin Maru denied the request.

With all the reaction in some media outlets, one would think the Japanese whalers are the innocent victims of a horrific act of violence.

Yet these same whalers are violating international conservation law and an Australian Federal Court order by illegally slaughtering endangered whales in an established whale sanctuary.
The Sea Shepherd crew did not shoot any of these poachers like the rangers in Africa would when they encounter elephant killers in the bush. No, we tossed rotten butter and fake banana peels onto their deck to discourage their illegal operations. The material tossed onto the deck of the Nisshin Maru was both organic and non-toxic.

The Japanese whalers are spinning the story describing butter acid as caustic and harmful when it is completely harmless. Not all acids are harmful; if they were we would not drink orange juice and some just smell bad.
It is a fact that butter becomes Butyric acid when it goes bad. That does not make it toxic, just obnoxiously smelly.
The objective in tossing a foul smelling substance onto the deck of the largest floating slaughterhouse in the world is simple - to discourage the grisly work of mutilating the bodies of some of the largest and gentlest creatures on Earth.
There is no industry on earth as horrifically violent as whaling. Whales die in prolonged unimaginable agony as blunt tipped harpoons smash into their backsides and shred internal organs. They may take up to forty minutes to die as they drown in a mixture of salt water and their own blood. They thrash and roll on the surface of the sea and scream piteously as they look up to see arrogant men gloating over their suffering.

Yet, some people get upset because these same people now have smelly decks and can't continue their foul sadistic work.
For the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, our clients are the whales and we are defending them by intervening to enforce international conservation law in accordance to the principles established by the United Nations World Charter for Nature.

We have not committed any crime. Despite the fabrications of Japanese public relations spin doctors, we have not injured anyone. In fact in over thirty years of high seas interventions the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has never caused an injury nor have we been convicted of a felony.

Yet in that time whalers, sealers, shark finners, turtle poachers and illegal fishermen have assaulted us, beaten us, bloodied us, rammed us, shot at us and threatened our lives but that never seems to be a story of interest because according to our critics we are exposing ourselves voluntarily to the violence of the ocean rapists. In fact, after being assaulted by sealers who struck my crew with clubs and injured them the Canadian police refused to press charges against our attackers because we "had provoked the violence by opposing the killing of seals."
We have had a very successful campaign this year in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. We have saved hundreds of whales. We have chased this Japanese killing fleet for thousands of miles and they will not fill their death quota and they are not very happy about it.

The crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin are satisfied that we behaved responsibly, that we did not injure anyone, that we did not damage any property. They are satisfied that we have saved lives, hundreds of lives of the most social complex, gentle and intelligent creatures in the sea.
We did our planetary duty and we upheld the law and all of us on this gallant ship are both proud and satisfied at what we have accomplished.

 

[billeelou]

If not another whale was killed, it would not have ended soon enough. I hunt on land in accordance with state laws and sustainable harvests.Japan is absolutely bad./The Sea Shepards actually need to use some more agressive tactics vs the slaughterers.

The IWC is bought and paid for by the Nippon government, who has been pying for the Caribe nations to attend in order to get their way, LOOK it up on the BBC website

 

[ekremer]

If not another whale was killed, it would not have ended soon enough. I hunt on land in accordance with state laws and sustainable harvests.Japan is absolutely bad./The Sea Shepards actually need to use some more agressive tactics vs the slaughterers.

The IWC is bought and paid for by the Nippon government, who has been pying for the Caribe nations to attend in order to get their way, LOOK it up on the BBC website

And the Texas lawmakers are bought and paid for by special intrest groups, so next time you go hunting let me know so I can come on by and destroy all your things (inluding any way to contact people) arrest you take you south of the border (why not I am stopping you from murdering helpless animals who feel pain) and drop you off in some random town, all because I beleive all hunting should be illegal.

Who cares if im making an illegal arrest (kidnapping) and destroying private property right? the goverement who made up that rule is obviously corrupt. and what you are doing is obviously wrong? we have supermarkets ya know, therefore you must be doing it for sport and that is cruel.

the sea shepherds are not operarting under UN consent in this case, they are operating on their own and have no oversite to make sure what they are doing is legal (which is probably isn't.)

 

[aquaman_06]

ekremer perhaps you are misdirected. I don't remember Sea Shepard kidnapping anyone. Throwing rancid butter at a person on a multi-million dollar ship outfitted with the latest electronics hardly compares to what you described. I don't remember Sea Shepard saying they had anything against legalized and sustainable sport fishing or hunting???

I don't think Sea Shepard is going anywhere whether you or Kim or anyone likes it. They are funded through a large network of private donations that clearly must keep their operation running very nicely. I guess everyone is at a compromise here. I don't like whaling but the Japanese still do it. You don't like Sea Shepard but well they still do what they do too.

 

[Mr.X]

It's interesting to see the higher levels of participation on this topic. Certainly better than previous years. If anything, it indicates that Sea Shepherds are doing an excellent job with PR.

Again, in the end the Japanese fishing industry will slowly end this sector of the business. It's too bad that so many of the participants are wasting time, resources, fuel and the lives of whales on a dubious food resource.

 

[ekremer]

Pro shephard people have stated they remove the crew of their ships before sinking them...That in my book is illegal detainment, hence kidnapping.

I am looking now and don't see a confirmation that they removed the crew before sinking those ships, so I could be wrong and the crew gets away on life rafts.

And you are right we can argue this all day and nothing will happen, unless supporters realize they are supporting pirates and stop funding them.


and maybe since the IWC has offically condemed them and is urging the member nations to stop them, then something may happen in the near future.

 

[cdreamer]

The ships that were sunk at port were inspected room by room to make sure that
no one was on board before they were flooded and sunk.
Ekremer, I don't know who your talking to but your are clearly misinformed.

 

[cdreamer]

Here, you want to learn some history -
complete with photos.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - Whales SSCS History

 

[ekremer]

I think you guys have forgotten somethings here and there. First, Sea Shepard doesn't just patrol the high sea's without any justification for their actions. If they did that Paul Watson would likely be in jail aborad. Sea Shepard often (possibly always) acts under the jurisdiction of international law.

Guess what folks whaling ain't legal in international waters. I don't remember if you all read this but National Geographic covered it several years ago. The consortium that outlawed whaling in international waters was getting ready to re-vote on the issue. Small pacific islands make up the majority of the voting clout since they are the people that live on the ocean's shores. Japan fudged the numbers of whale populations and tried to say that there were more humpback whales in the ocean now then ever. When that didn't work and the islands didn't buy their funny science Japan tried paying them off. Guess what, that didn't work either!

Sadly many governments and the Whaling Consortium itself doesn't have the funds or manpower to actively enforce anti-whaling regulations. That's where Sea Shepard picks up the slack. Sea Shepard gets many donations from private party's and Hollywood actors like many other conservationist organizations thus funding (w/ the help of dedicated volunteers) their operations world wide.

Furthermore, no person (except for Sea Shepard crew) have been hurt or killed in a Sea Shepard induced action. Sure they have sunken boats though they made sure the crew was not injured and given a ride back to port. Many, many times Sea Shepard's services are requested by governments that can't themselves enforce international law. Anyone watch "Sharkwater." IMO there is a big difference between throwing what amounts to a big stink bomb on a ship and shooting a person in the chest. Paul Watson was shot, he and his crew were throwing stink bombs. BTW have you ever watched Sea Shepard make an approach against a whaling vessel. They start by radioing the ship and asking it to be escorted, by them, to port.

As for wardric's comments clearly you didn't follow Irwin or Fossey's lives very closely. Dianne Fossey would dress up in intricate halloween masks, around fires, and make chanting noises to scare both poachers and their children to stop the slaughter of the great apes. Fossey's more controversial methods of conservation are what many believe led to her death at the hands of a poacher.

Remember when Steve Irwin was in Antarctica. He was prosecuted for playing with penguins and some other ridiculous stuff. Although Irwin's ship, Croc 1, pursued, filmed and got involved in the capture of a whaling vessel. When Irwin was on Larry King Live post the whole Baby/Croc incident he broke into tears while describing the process used to kill both adult whales and their tiny calves. He went on to become more upset when he described the protective behavior mothers use to try to defend the small whale in the last moments of its life. Irwin made many, many calls to all people to do "whatever it took" to stop the slaughter of whales.

I would assume that both Dianne Fossey and Steve Irwin would both agree with Sea Shepard's mission and the way they pursue it. To say that comparing Watson to Irwin and Fossey, both highly controversial figures during their lives, is degrading, well I just disagree. BTW I respected them all.

Bold is my emphasis. Excuse me for taking something that someone said as fact and pointing out that these can be described as kidnapping.

The ships that were sunk at port were inspected room by room to make sure that
no one was on board before they were flooded and sunk.
Ekremer, I don't know who your talking to but your are clearly misinformed.

And that makes it alright? So I come torch someones house when they aren't there and use the excuse "they are drug dealers" and that would be alright? WOW. So tresspassing, vandalism, and Destruction of property in many cases worth millions of dollars is alright because the "owners were doing bad things with it" interesting philosophy really, maybe next time they will let a judge figure out what to do with them, hey what a novel concept.