Whale Wars

[D_B]

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What Im saying is that theres no reason not to handle whaling as any other hunting/harvesting as long as the creature at hand is not endangered.

The japanese "research" is probably just an excuse anyhow.
Norway does the whaling openly and commercially, however we only hunt non-endangered speciec. We also never signed mentioned agreement and as such is not bound by it.

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we choose to go by what marinbilogists say about the numbers of whales of the species were hunting and we have set quotas as to how many animals the whalers are allowed to harvest.

If people want to call the whales "too intelligent" or "to cute" or "too whatever" not to hunt, thats all fine with me, but the same could be said for lots of animals people do hunt, but its got nothing to do with sustainable harvest.

When Watson called the press after he rammed the harpoon ship, he lied and said that the harpoon ship turned in front of him. The multiple videos show that Watson was deliberate in his effort to turn starboard into the harpoon ship. He lied about what he did, because he knew that what he did could get his chit revoked. The men working on the whaling ships should not have their lives put in peril by anyones ecological agenda. Sure, go ahead and film the whaling activities in all their gory detail. Use that footage to bring pressure aginst the owners of the whaling ships. Don't try to hurt their employees. Watson has me pulling for the whalers!

This has been done for years. It doesn't work. People that don't want to support direct intervention against whaling, dolphin killing, shark finning, cyanide fishing of reefs, etc. should acknowledge the fact that when they say they are against these things that their opposition is limited to what leaves them feeling comfortable. Comfortable and ineffective. As Edward Abbey said, "If the end doesn't justify the means, what does?"
Paul Watson has many flaws (as I know very well as I spent a year researching Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace for the book), but he's out there and he does have some effect, not what's ultimately needed for sure, but more than has been done from years of hand-wringing protests by armchair environmentalists. It's easy to criticize, not so easy to do something.

Don't care if it is not easy, don't do anything if all you can do is endanger the lives of those sailors. If they can't come up with a better way of getting the whalers to stop, that does not justify risking the lives of others! And you betcha', it sure is easy to criticise these reckless actions of Watson and his crew. Also, when you suggest that if we don't suppport direct opposition of activities such as shark finning / whaling/ ect....that somehoe our convictions are not as deep as others, you are way of base. We just draw the line at attempted murder to save the whales. YOU DON"T RAM ANOTHER SHIP IN THE Antarctic TO SAVE A F_CKING WHALE!!!! Activism is good, but not taken to this extreme.

 

[diverdoug1]

I really think that Watson is now in it for the chicks. Greenpeace kicked him out with a vote of 10 to 1 (Watson was the only dissenting vote) because of his terrorist tactics. He goes on and on about how a dying Sperm whale looked him in the eye, and changed his life. And then every sortie, spends half the time trying to chat up the latest pus-y on the boat. I guess it works for him, the second of his 3 ex-wives was a Playby model.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Japan's ruling party conceded a crushing defeat Sunday after 54 years of nearly unbroken rule as voters were poised to hand the opposition a landslide victory in nationwide elections, driven by economic anxiety and a powerful desire for change.

I wonder if Whale Wars and Captain Paul Watson had just a little bit to do with this???

 

[DennisS]

I wonder if Whale Wars and Captain Paul Watson had just a little bit to do with this???

I'm sure if you asked Watson, he would claim it was totally his doing

 

[kneptoon]

Get your face in the water and have a real look. It is going, going gone. Better make it quick because the harvest of the oceans is relentless, whether its cod, grouper, sharks, tuna, whales or whatever. There is always a rationale to keep the catch going to zero. I appreciate anyone who is fed up enough to do something about it.

 

[Tigerman]

Get your face in the water and have a real look. It is going, going gone. Better make it quick because the harvest of the oceans is relentless, whether its cod, grouper, sharks, tuna, whales or whatever. There is always a rationale to keep the catch going to zero. I appreciate anyone who is fed up enough to do something about it.

By that way of thinking we should all be eating nothing but weeds. But hey thatd be a terrible strain on the ammont of plants around the world, which again is food for the other animals thatll start to starve.
Maybe we should just stop eating at all just to make sure?

Sustainable harvest, wether its deer, whales, sheep or whatever else is the right route to go regardless. Human is the only carnivore who even give that any thought. Any other carnivore will kill and feed at whatever they find, whenever they feel like..

 

[drdiver1952]

By that way of thinking we should all be eating nothing but weeds. But hey thatd be a terrible strain on the ammont of plants around the world, which again is food for the other animals thatll start to starve.
Maybe we should just stop eating at all just to make sure?

Sustainable harvest, wether its deer, whales, sheep or whatever else is the right route to go regardless. Human is the only carnivore who even give that any thought. Any other carnivore will kill and feed at whatever they find, whenever they feel like..

Sustainable harvest is a nice idea, but as there is no international enforcement of fishing activities it is a meaningless statement for the open ocean. Even within national waters with countries with some similar culture and economic relationships, it is hard to get agreement and enforcement on what sustainable harvest is. The cod fishery in the Atlantic (almost totally collapsed) is a good example. In certain areas it has worked, Pacific Northwest is a good example, and a few European areas, but for the most part, it's winner take all and devil take the hindmost. We (collective humanity)will fish the open ocean until the take is no longer economic. There will be a few protected areas that we will pat ourselves on the back about and say what a great job we're doing, but for the most part the oceans will be collapsed biological ecosystem.

If you'd like a view of the future of the oceanBrave New Ocean

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Human is the only carnivore who even give that any thought. Any other carnivore will kill and feed at whatever they find, whenever they feel like..

Are you sure?

Orca and other toothed whales are carnivores who have had plenty of chances, even in the wild, to eat helpless humans, yet they evidently gave it a thought and chose not to.

Just one off the top, here's another;

Tiger Sharks off Laysan during Albatross fledging; often there are helpless human cameramen in the water and the carnivorous Tigers seem to give them no thought, at least as food.

Many people have stood within striking distance of Grizzly's but as long as they didn't threaten to compete for salmon they were not attacked.

 

[Capt.JimDavis]

Are you sure?

Orca and other toothed whales are carnivores who have had plenty of chances, even in the wild, to eat helpless humans, yet they evidently gave it a thought and chose not to.
Just one off the top, here's another;

Tiger Sharks off Laysan during Albatross fledging; often there are helpless human cameramen in the water and the carnivorous Tigers seem to give them no thought, at least as food.

Many people have stood within striking distance of Grizzly's but as long as they didn't threaten to compete for salmon they were not attacked.

As in your example, many people saw Orcas and other whales toothed or not, but still not all of those humans grabbed a harpoon and chased them.Even they may have every chance to do so.

What Tigerman says that only humans act with their thoughts while hunting. If there are only two whales left in the world I don't think anybody will hunt them. Can you say the lions will do the same if there were only last two gazelles left in their environment? Will they act thoughtfully as you claim and choose some other food source instead of eating that two last tasty gazelles?

 

[Deep-6]

Can't we all just hug a tree? I mean, I don't want to see any more whales killed either but endangering the lives of your crew and another ships crew. Not to mention boarding another ship in the absense of any official jurisdiction or authority is just plain stupid. According to the law of the sea, that idiot should have been keel-hauled on the spot.