Animal Rights Dummies On Whales Wars

[GCT]

Have any of you watched Whale Wars? There's a couple of things to point out here ...

- killing whales is a dispicable practice , especially when you kill them and immediately package them up right away through an onboard ship factory line.

- The Japanese are doing it in Australian waters , the last time they were there they had very bad intentions about Australia.

However what is really dispicable here is this

The crew - the stars , most of them are morons - are there doing it for the publicity which in turn is to gain monetary support.

- The captain claims that whales were saved. That ship is probably in autopilot , they have specific orders , throwing stinking bombs at the ship is not going to alter the whaler's program. So when they claim that whales were saved they are bs'ng.

- They are getting their nation in trouble.

- They are jepoardizing the livelihoods of the workers on those ships.

The captain knows that throwing stink bombs at the ships is not going to save the whales and he does it soley to gain money. The whole episode is a charade by one societal trash of a scumbag.

Eventually a Japanese spy ship was following the Irwin around and one of the girls on the ship remarked that they were so annoying ... what an infantile.

 

[~christina~]

However what is really dispicable here is this

The crew - the stars , most of them are morons - are there doing it for the publicity which in turn is to gain monetary support.

- The captain claims that whales were saved. That ship is probably in autopilot , they have specific orders , throwing stinking bombs at the ship is not going to alter the whaler's program. So when they claim that whales were saved they are bs'ng.

- They are getting their nation in trouble.

- They are jepoardizing the livelihoods of the workers on those ships.

The captain knows that throwing stink bombs at the ships is not going to save the whales and he does it soley to gain money. The whole episode is a charade by one societal trash of a scumbag.

Eventually a Japanese spy ship was following the Irwin around and one of the girls on the ship remarked that they were so annoying ... what an infantile.

It's really strange. I watched the trailer on youtube and it just makes it seem as if they're trying to annoy the whailers to death. It doesn't make any sense and just looks like harrasment on my part. Annoying them to death won't do anything.

Who funds these morons?

 

[D H]

Greenpeace / Save the Whales are despicable. They (Greenpeace) are committing illegal acts. They are egging the Japanese on and have made whaling a matter of national pride to the Japanese. Their approach is not working to save the whales. It is working in the sense that it generates a lot of donations to Greenpeace / Save the Whales.

 

[mgb_phys]

Simple way to stop whaling.

Pay Britney Spears (or latest equivalent) to go on TV and say
"Killing whales is bad, Japan is bad for killing whales, Sony playstations are made in Japan.
Don't buy PS3/WIII until they stop killing whales."

PS3/WIII sales collapse, Sony/Nintendo buy whaling ships and scrap them,
collect large check from company in Redmond.

 

[pantaz]

Greenpeace / Save the Whales are despicable. They (Greenpeace) are committing illegal acts. They are egging the Japanese on and have made whaling a matter of national pride to the Japanese. Their approach is not working to save the whales. It is working in the sense that it generates a lot of donations to Greenpeace / Save the Whales.

It's not Greenpeace. In fact, "captain" Paul Watson was "asked to leave" Greenpeace many years ago, due to his aggresive tactics.

A whole bunch of upset viewers are posting on the Discover Channel Whale Wars forum:
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/cfrm/f/1991967099

 

[russ_watters]

The crew - the stars , most of them are morons - are there doing it for the publicity which in turn is to gain monetary support.

I saw some of this. I was flabbergasted at how stupid these people are - even the captain of the ship. Doesn't anyone on that ship have even the most basic seamanship skills?

The incident with rolling the rhib over was unbelievable. They could have all been killed by what is a really simple linehandling exercise (the bow line needs to be well forward of the rhib and tied-off to hold it in place. There also needs to be a stern line to help steady it.

But what most people probably missed about that incident was the captain trying to back the ship up to rescue the people. That's inexplicably stupid. Ships don't handle well in reverse and you don't want to run over the people you are trying to save. Going to full throttle and kicking in max rudder can swing the ship around for the rescue in less than a minute. Instead, they were dead in the water and drifting away from their comrades.

It was really tough to watch such sheer stupidity in the face of mortal danger.

[edit] It was also nice to see Greenpeace strengthening my opinion of them by showing that saving the whales isn't the main goal - intra-hippie rivalry is much more important to them.

 

[csey]

Paul Watson is a complete idiot. If I were on that ship I would have a very hard time restraining myself from telling him where to shove it. As for everyone else that has decided to follow him and board the ship I give credit for attempting to save some whales and stop whaling, but it won't be done by throwin stink bombs and wasting money playing cat and mouse games at sea, sorry. This has to be stopped by something much more powerful.

This captain Paul is a coward in my opinion. He gets these people that are looking for some limelight to do his dirty work and puts their lives in danger. Just watching them to attempt to set a chase boat in the water, while their are 10 foot waves and freezing temperatures was ridiculous. Then he blames them for losing a chase at sea. Idiot.

 

[Moonbear]

I haven't watched the show, and am glad I didn't by the comments here.

Let's see, chasing whales, inept/insane captain, pending mutiny by the crew dealing with inept captain...have I read this story before?

 

[russ_watters]

A good laugh if you can stomach it, Moonbear:

That's where they roll their small boat over. This one is where they botch the rescue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmxAELvzLoM&feature=related

The first words out of the captain's mouth are something to the effect of 'back it up, we don't have enough time to turn around going forward'. Then he demonstrates why you never back up in such a situation: ships are extremely difficult to control in reverse. Better to do a successful 2 minute recovery than to attempt a crapshoot that might let you recover them (or run them over, screws first) in 1 minute or miss them completely.

 

[Moonbear]

OH MY GAWD! They are an entire crew of bumbling idiots! You know it's going to be bad when the first clip starts off talking about promoting the galley cook to helicopter deck chief. Most of the rest of those flakes look like a bunch of kids who think they're on a pleasure cruise.

That captain should have his license revoked! Yeah, let's back up over the victims to save time...truly, if you grind them up with the props, you probably can save all the time of having to drag them out of the water. They were probably pushing the boat out further with the wake created from trying to back up.

 

[OAQfirst]

So that's how they save whales. Find volunteers, find a whaling ship, then toss the volunteers into the water to shield the whale from harpoons. I guess that's why the rocket line was fired. The overboard crew missed it, though, by quite a distance. Maybe they should spread out more? Because huddling together on that overturned boat is an easy target to miss.

 

[TVP45]

Doesn't Paul Watson's name surface (no pun intended) every few years with some outlandish publicity stunt?

 

[Moonbear]

A whole bunch of upset viewers are posting on the Discover Channel Whale Wars forum:
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/cfrm/f/1991967099

I haven't followed your link yet, but perhaps it's telling that by going through the main Discovery Channel website, you can't find anything about Whale Wars.

Maybe they should put it on back-to-back with Pitchmen. That way we could all avoid the night of propaganda programming.

Edit: Nevermind, I see it's on Animal Planet, not Discovery Channel.

From the comments on that forum, it sounds like that captain doesn't even have a captain's license. Maybe the coast guard (or whatever the equivalent is wherever they are) should just pluck him off the boat for the safety of the crew.

 

[Huckleberry]

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

It's obvious they have no idea what they are doing. They are a hazard to themselves. By the end of the season I bet they are rescued or receive some sort of vital aid from Japanese whalers. 'Dumb Asses' is a harsh, but not unfit, description of these particular activists.

 

[chroot]

It does succeed in one respect, though -- it's hugely entertaining. Yes, it's chock-full of bad decisions that even children could spot, but that's part of the fun. It's a pilot-along show for animal lovers.

I've only watched part of the first episode, but it was enormously entertaining that a helicopter pilot could not find any better way to describe a path than saying "turn right at the cathedral-shaped iceberg." Surely he has a GPS... press the "save location" button! Use a pencil and write down the coordinates!

- Warren

 

[Cyrus]

Get in De Choppah if the whales want to live!

 

[Nesrin]

Let me say, I agree with you. I find Captain Paul Watson very irresponsible and he seems to surround himself with completely incompetent "officers"... Peter Brown, anyone? But there seems to be some misconceptions so I just couldn't resist throwing in some information.

Sea Shepherd throws Butyric acid onto the decks of the whaling ships. It's basically rancid butter and is considered one of the nastiest smelling chemicals in the world. It lasts for several days, causes vomiting and contaminates meat on the deck (where all of the processing is done on the whaling ships) so it can't be sold. It's not dangerous and doesn't harm the whalers, it's only meant to make it difficult for the crew to do their jobs. They also throw a powder that turns into an incredibly slippery goo when it gets wet (I believe it's also used by police to stop car chases) and fouling lines, which are a kind of braided rope that if snagged can disable/damage a ship's propeller. For the most part, the Japanese whalers run away as soon as they see Sea Shepherd, some of their chases last for days and effectively keep them from whaling. Sea Shepherd has been pretty successful in the past in preventing the whalers from meeting their kill quotas. The last season, they killed less than half as many whales as they wanted to. But due to the international incident orchestrated by Sea Shepherd (where two volunteers were taken "hostage" aboard a whaling vessel in early 2008), Japan actually tripled funding to the whalers and their action provoked indignation among Japanese citizens. Japan has a very ancient whale hunting tradition and they consider the anti-whaling movement as intolerance to their culture and heritage.

The whalers do fight back. They consider Sea Shepherd to be pirates and eco-terrorists and fire high pressure water houses at the crew on the Sea Shepherd's inflatable Delta boats. At the end of the last season, they had started using tear gas grenades and flash bombs to discourage further attacks. So far the conflict has been non-lethal, but it seems to be intensifying. The Sea Shepherd ship, the Steve Irwin, has rammed whaling vessels on several occasions and Paul Watson has alleged he was shot in the first season's finale. The whalers claim several of their crew members were injured during last season's campaign.

Greenpeace is absolutely not associated with Sea Shepherd. Paul Watson, the captain of the Steve Irwin and founder of Sea Shepherd, is in the middle of a feud with Greenpeace and often refers to the group as "the Avon ladies of the environmental movement". He was one of the original founders of Greenpeace, but was voted out of the organization for his extremist tactics. Greenpeace does not support Sea Shepherd's aggressive actions and has condemned the group publicly.

 

[Moonbear]

Sea Shepherd throws Butyric acid onto the decks of the whaling ships. It's basically rancid butter and is considered one of the nastiest smelling chemicals in the world. It lasts for several days, causes vomiting and contaminates meat on the deck (where all of the processing is done on the whaling ships) so it can't be sold.

Even more examples of the idiocy of animal rights wackos. So, they're going to contaminate the meat of the whales already killed, making it impossible to sell...what do they think the whalers who are trying to make a living doing this are going to do as a result? Go kill another whale of course. They're no better than the pirates in Somalia interfering with other ships like that.

 

[signerror]

Why haven't they been arrested yet?

 

[Cyrus]

Why haven't they been arrested yet?

There's no police in the middle of the ocean.

 

[russ_watters]

They are lucky the whalers aren't defending themselves more vigorously. These actions are criminal in any other context, but like you said, no one's policing the area. But that sword cuts both ways.

 

[Nesrin]

Even more examples of the idiocy of animal rights wackos. So, they're going to contaminate the meat of the whales already killed, making it impossible to sell...what do they think the whalers who are trying to make a living doing this are going to do as a result? Go kill another whale of course. They're no better than the pirates in Somalia interfering with other ships like that.

The kill quota for the 2008 whaling season was 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales (which are endangered). They are only allowed to kill that amount of whales for "research purposes" within a 3 month whaling season. Sea Shepherd's main goal in that time is to track down and disable the whaling fleet's processing ship, the Nissun Maru. Several ships make up the whaling fleet; there are kill ships, a refueling tanker, spotting vessels to track the whales, and then the processing ship. The Nissun Maru is where all of the kill ships unload the whale carcasses to be processed, packaged, and then loaded onto cargo ships to be shipped back to Japan. If the Nissun Maru is disrupted, it stops the whole fleet from whaling because there's no point in catching more whales if you have no where to process them. The problem is of course finding the Nissun Maru and then managing to stay with the boat as long as possible. Last season, they only found the Nissun Maru at the end of the season. As far as I know, because of the size of the ship it can't be disabled with a fouling line (unlike the smaller kill ships). The crew on board is also the most aggressive toward the Sea Shepherds. They hinted at the beginning of the first season that they had previously disabled the Nissun Maru and completely ended a whaling season early, but didn't elaborate on how that was actually done so I'm not sure how effective the whole strategy is. Sea Shepherd does manage to be fairly successful in stopping whalers from meeting their kill quotas, but so far they have not prevented the whalers from returning for a new season. A lot of their stunts seem better aimed at creating publicity for the cause (and their organization) more than anything else.

 

[Tibarn]

As long as it's just harassment, nobody will do anything about it. However, if it escalates to the point that someone gets killed, I'd expect that the Steve Irwin will be "escorted" to the nearest harbor by a warship.

 

[Nesrin]

Why haven't they been arrested yet?

This whole conflict is happening in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary off the coast of Antarctica. The area is in International waters and hundreds of miles away from the nearest country, Australia. Commercial whaling was banned in the area by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), but Japan does not recognize this provision in regard to its whaling permit and continues whaling for "scientific research." Due to the location no country has been willing to enforce the ban, but provisions in the United Nations World Charter for Nature allow for "independent entities to enforce international conservation laws." Technically both the whalers and Sea Shepherd are within the law. If you're interested in Sea Shepherd's justifications, I would suggest their page on Laws and Charters: http://www.seashepherd.org/who-we-are/laws-and-charters.html

It's an interesting read.

 

[Moonbear]

Yeah, like I'm going to take the Sea Shepherd's word for what the laws allow. They're obviously a bunch of idiot whackos, so why would I trust their interpretation of law? On the other hand, if they get themselves killed through their own poor seamanship, nobody is likely to feel bad for them.

 

[Cyrus]

 

[chroot]

Yeah, like I'm going to take the Sea Shepherd's word for what the laws allow. They're obviously a bunch of idiot whackos, so why would I trust their interpretation of law? On the other hand, if they get themselves killed through their own poor seamanship, nobody is likely to feel bad for them.

Moonie, what's with the direct hostility towards people you've never actually met? The Sea Shepherd truly is acting in accordance with all applicable laws. The Japanese fleet, on the other hand, is directly breaking at least some laws, including those of Australia and several international governing bodies. In fact, the Japanese fleet appears to only acknowledge the laws of Japan itself.

Vigilantism is not really a solution to crime, but it certainly does draw attention to inconsistencies in the laws themselves. Regardless of your personal opinions of their actions, and regardless of whether or not they make it back to their harbor alive, you have to admit that they have been successful in their mission.

(And it really does make for some very interesting television!)

- Warren

 

[Moonbear]

Moonie, what's with the direct hostility towards people you've never actually met? The Sea Shepherd truly is acting in accordance with all applicable laws.

- Warren

Did you watch the clips from the show? They're bumbling morons! Besides, I generally oppose animal rights nuts on principle.

 

[chroot]

Did you watch the clips from the show? They're bumbling morons! Besides, I generally oppose animal rights nuts on principle.

Yes, Moonie, they are bumbling morons, which is partially why the show is so much fun to watch. (I've watched the first two episodes.) I'm not going to judge their actions solely on their being morons, though. Sometimes morons do the right thing, even if they do it in moronic fashion.

- Warren

 

[russ_watters]

Yes, Moonie, they are bumbling morons, which is partially why the show is so much fun to watch. (I've watched the first two episodes.) I'm not going to judge their actions solely on their being morons, though. Sometimes morons do the right thing, even if they do it in moronic fashion.

- Warren

Didn't we have someone who ran for President on that platform?

 

[chroot]

Yes, Russ, we did... and he went on to do the wrong things, still in moronic fashion.

All I'm saying is that the morality of one's actions is independent of how well they are executed. Hopefully you agree.

- Warren

 

[nrqed]

Did you watch the clips from the show? They're bumbling morons! Besides, I generally oppose animal rights nuts on principle.

So what are your principles? That it's always ok to kill or hurt animals??

Talking about bumbling morons...

 

[nrqed]

Let me say, I agree with you. I find Captain Paul Watson very irresponsible and he seems to surround himself with completely incompetent "officers"... Peter Brown, anyone? But there seems to be some misconceptions so I just couldn't resist throwing in some information.

Sea Shepherd throws Butyric acid onto the decks of the whaling ships. It's basically rancid butter and is considered one of the nastiest smelling chemicals in the world. It lasts for several days, causes vomiting and contaminates meat on the deck (where all of the processing is done on the whaling ships) so it can't be sold. It's not dangerous and doesn't harm the whalers, it's only meant to make it difficult for the crew to do their jobs.

Unfortunately, when politicians are too cowardly to do what is right, some people feel obliged to take up some action. Good for them.

 

[Nesrin]

Raw whale fat and fermented blubber oil... The things that guy is willing to eat.

 

[ibnsos]

Moonie, what's with the direct hostility towards people you've never actually met? The Sea Shepherd truly is acting in accordance with all applicable laws.


- Warren

If what they are doing is completely legal, then why do I keep hearing they are wanted on felony charges by three countries? I know one of them is Costa Rica. Do you have any further information about those warrents? I'll see what I can come up with.

Edit:
http://swindlemagazine.com/news/the-eco-pirate-captain-paul-watson/

Watson calls himself a non-violent “pirate,” but his opponents call him a terrorist. He has been arrested in the Netherlands, Germany and Canada; Costa Rica has filed attempted murder charges against him; Norway convicted him, in absentia, of attempting to sink a fishing vessel; and Greenpeace—which Watson helped establish—has broken ties with him.

But the captain has carved out a niche for himself. Recently, Sea Shepherd partnered with the Ecuadorian police, giving the organization carte blanche to patrol and arrest eco perpetrators in the Galapagos national maritime park—prompting the Guardian to say, “The idea of environmental activists becoming a new green police force may develop in years to come.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watson Covers the same incidents and mentions he was kicked out of Iceland.

 

[Cyrus]

Raw whale fat and fermented blubber oil... The things that guy is willing to eat.

It looked pretty darn tasty to me. Fat contains all the flavor in meats. Why would you find that distasteful?

 

[Cyrus]

So what are your principles? That it's always ok to kill or hurt animals??

Talking about bumbling morons...

Says nrqed to the PhD biologist that does Animal Surgery.

I think the people that should be allowed to kill/eat whales are the Islanders in Alaska because its part of their heritage for hundreds of years.

 

[D H]

PETA has moved from whales to smaller fry. They want to save the fish. Oops, I should have said http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/", now that Obama has shown that he too can be cruel to little animals.

 

[GCT]

The Japanese have been whaling for years so when these no-life nutjob animal rights activists insist that they abandon the tradition purely on the basis of a spontaneous whim of what is right and wrong on their part ... it seems infantile to the people of Japan ... these people on the Irwin are morons and they are going to cause trouble for their own country and as eager as these people seem to play war and cause trouble , they are really not going to like any kind of an official conflict with Japan.

Whaling is pretty much " wrong " however they're completely ignoring the human aspect of the issue here...

 

[chroot]

Ah, yes, people should respect other cultures, right? Should we give the same respect to the martyrdom of radical Muslims? It's a very deeply-ingrained part of their culture, after all.

People who do "wrong" things should be stopped, regardless of whether or not they are part of their culture. I don't support the Sea Shepherd's actions (which are at best vigilantism, at worst terrorism), but I certainly don't support the Japanese assertion that they should be able to hunt endangered whales, in defiance of international laws, because it's part of their "culture."

- Warren

 

[GCT]

Ah, yes, people should respect other cultures, right? Should we give the same respect to the martyrdom of radical Muslims? It's a very deeply-ingrained part of their culture, after all.

People who do "wrong" things should be stopped, regardless of whether or not they are part of their culture. I don't support the Sea Shepherd's actions (which are at best vigilantism, at worst terrorism), but I certainly don't support the Japanese assertion that they should be able to hunt endangered whales, in defiance of international laws, because it's part of their "culture."

- Warren

I'm not supporting whaling here , my assertion here is simply that under no circumstances whatsoever does any particular nation , regardless of the " righteousness " of their beliefs or how deluded they are , have the right to meddle in an other nation's intrinsic affairs especially if the incentive isn't directly related to self preservation or self defense. The issue with Muslim Jihaad is directly pertinent to the issue of self defense. In addition , Jihaad is not Muslim culture.

Bottom line - different parts of the world has , for a while , existed in and of itself ... we have our own world here and they have theirs ... it's not about the philosophical notion of " respecting other's cultures " ... Not meddling in another person's space is absolutely fundamental , there is no way around this. You have the right to respect or not respect another culture's way of doing things however it's another thing to actually go over there - once you do you've crossed the line and crossing the line is war. Whaling is just wrong ... but do not cross the line.

 

[chroot]

Not meddling in another person's space is absolutely fundamental

The Japanese are not in their "own space." They're in an internationally-declared whale sanctuary near Antarctica!

- Warren

 

[GCT]

The Japanese are not in their "own space." They're in an internationally-declared whale sanctuary near Antarctica!

- Warren

Yeah , I guess this is where things get a little fuzzy ... you're right something needs to be done to protect the whales to some extent ... if the Japanese had it their way the whales would become extinct however it's not damning that they fish to some degree because , face it , animals get killed all around the world. Killing anything is wrong , yet it has to be done , whether it's your choice of cows , deers , kangaroos , whales.

I would still consider getting that close to the Japanese ships as crossing the line. Something bad is going to happen.

 

[Nesrin]

If what they are doing is completely legal, then why do I keep hearing they are wanted on felony charges by three countries? I know one of them is Costa Rica. Do you have any further information about those warrents? I'll see what I can come up with.

Edit:
http://swindlemagazine.com/news/the-eco-pirate-captain-paul-watson/



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watson Covers the same incidents and mentions he was kicked out of Iceland.

Ooh interesting question, I had to investigate. (I highlighted the names of countries so you'd be able to find the parts most relevant to your question) It seems the majority of the websites with information on his criminal record are pretty biased. It's either coming directly from Sea Shepherd and Paul Watson himself or someone interested in comparing the organization to Islamic terrorists... But I did manage to find two articles with tons of information:

1.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/51...-fighting-to-stop-whaling-and-seal-hunts.html
2.http://rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=236753&D=2008-04-14&SO=Great"

Paul Watson was voted off the Greenpeace board of directors in 1977 for refusing to apologize for an incident where he grabbed a club and pelts away from a sealer and threw them into the sea. Sea Shepherd was founded later that year and claims to have sunk 10 illegal whaling ships in the time since without any injury, loss of life, or the conviction of a crime.

Paul Watson attempted to sink a pirate whaling vessel in 1979 called the Sierra off the coast of Portugal. After ramming it twice, the vessel did not sink and Sea Shepherd was ordered to return to port in Portugal by a naval ship. Sea Shepherd was then court ordered to turn over their ship to the whalers in reparation for the damaged Sierra, but crew managed to sneak back on board and sink it. The Sierra was eventually repaired by the whalers, but was sunk when an unknown individual, assumed to be a Sea Shepherd member, blew a hole in the bottom of the ship using a limpet mine.

In 1981 Paul Watson sank the whaling ships Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7 in Reykjavik Harbor in Iceland. He subsequently turned himself into the Icelandic police and was asked to leave the country.

In 1983 amidst the Canadian seal hunt, Watson used his ship to block the port at St John's, Newfoundland and threatened to ram sealing ships leaving the harbor. When told authorities were considering boarding his ship, he threatened to sink it and create a barrier. The incident cost the sealing industry millions of dollars and he left the port later under the cover of fog.

Paul Watson was arrested in 1997 in connection to the scuttling of a Norwegian whaling ship called Nybraena in 1992. He was arrested in Amsterdam and spent 60 days in prison, but Dutch authorities refused to hand him over to Norwegian authorities and he was released. He was arrested on the same warrant three days before in Germany but was released that same day because of "major discrepancies" in the warrant and court documents.

In 2002 Costa Rica filed 7 counts of attempted murder charges against Paul Watson for an incident where he rammed a 13 foot Costa Rican fishing boat poaching sharks off the coast of Guatemala. The charges were dropped after prosecutors were shown a film of the incident shot by a team making a documentary, called Sharkwater, about Sea Shepherd. Watson fled the country.

According to Paul Watson when asked why he has not been convicted of a crime, "Because all those vessels were operating illegally and criminals do not generally want to go to court, and because we have the legal authority to do what we do. The United Nations World Charter for Nature, section 21, empowers any nongovernmental organization or individual to uphold international conservation law in areas beyond national jurisdiction and specifically on the high seas."

 

[chroot]

Well, after having watched a few more episodes of the first season, I've grown to believe the Sea Shepherds really are "eco-terrorists," and their behavior really is unacceptable. Boarding other ships while they are attempting to run away, and then claiming the boarders are being kept hostage? Give me a break...

Still, interesting television.

- Warren

 

[russ_watters]

There's a Whale Wars marathon on Animal Planet right now and it has me hooked. I'm spellbound by the stupidity. It's hypnotic. In addition to more demonstrations of poor seamanship that almost resulted in the Sea Shepherd getting cut in half by a factory ship, the Sea Shepherd purposely rammed a whaling ship. Here's a youtube shot from the whaling ship:

The funniest part of the episode is when after the collision, the "captain" of the Sea Shepherd says something to the effect of 'someone go check for damage'. Huh? Ya want to be a little more specific than that? A couple of people go up to the bow and look over the side, concluding that their anchor took the brunt of the impact. Everyone is happy...

...later, someone happens to be below-decks, forward, and notices several large holes in the hull and water sloshing around. So...after a collision, no one (captain?!?) thought to check that immediately? Anyway, the damage was above the waterline and so it was only a little water sloshing-in, but it could have been serious if the water was rougher - one of the lacerations was pretty big.

I will give them one thing, though: weddings don't get to be much cooler than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEp5M-wTAog&feature=related

 

[russ_watters]

In addition to more demonstrations of poor seamanship that almost resulted in the Sea Shepherd getting cut in half by a factory ship...

Explanation:

The SS is stalking a factory ship with whaling ships pulling up behind it to unload whales. The goal is to block the whalers from getting to the back of the factory ship. The SS is astern and slightly to the starboard (about 5 o'clock) of the factory ship, when the captain leaves the bridge to do a media interview (!), leaving the ship in the hands of his doe-eyed, bearded (not fooling anyone: he's like 25) first mate, with orders to hold station. Apparently capable of steering, but not controlling speed, first mate, with a deer-in-the-headlights look, let's the Sea Shepherd drift up alongside the factory ship when it slows down. When the captain comes back on to his bridge (!), he's not thrilled, but decides the proper way to get back into position is to speed-up and loop around in front of the factory ship, doing a 360 to get back behind it. Doing this maneuver when both ships are moving is a little tricky, since if you turn too fast and position your ship perpendicular to the ship you're "crossing the T" on, it is moving toward you, but you are no longer moving along the same line of bearing: All your motion is perpendicular it and it closes on you.

They avoided a collision by (they estimate) 10-15 feet.

...saw another little clip of the SS hitting an iceberg softly, but hard enough to bend-in the hull. Almost punctured it.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

killing whales is a dispicable practice , especially when you kill them and immediately package them up right away through an onboard ship factory line.

Why does immediate packaging make it worse?

 

[Galteeth]

It is interesting to me how people's perception of the relative legitimacy of authority influences their moral judgments.

Consider for example, the following hypothetical situation, which I will call example 1. The Japanese whalers are breaking the law by whaling in an established whale sanctuary. The law is enforced by an American Naval ship, empowered by the UN. The Naval ship encounters a Japanese whaler, and orders them to surrender. The US Navy proceeds to board the ship, and with guns drawn, take the whalers prisoner. Attempted resistance is of course met with severe force.

Example 2. The Japanese whalers are breaking the law by whaling in an established whale sanctuary. The law empowers any group to enforce the law, so a bunch of incompetent hippies follow the boats around and throw stink bombs.

Obviously, one tactic is much more effective. But does that effect the morality of the action? If the Sea Shepard were more competent and more effective, would people's moral feeling be different?

I'm not sure how I feel personally about the sea shepard's actions. But it is interesting that the crew, who do not fit the image of conventional authority, but are apparently legally empowered as authorities in a sense, are sternly condemned by many on the board. How would these posters feel about example 1? Does the nature of the authority and tactics change the morality of the action, even if both are technically legally empowered authorities? And if throwing stink bombs and such other tactics are wrong, by what reasoning would much more severe actions be right?

Just something to think about.
Recall the Milgram experiment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

 

[D H]

Consider for example, the following hypothetical situation, which I will call example 1. The Japanese whalers are breaking the law by whaling in an established whale sanctuary. The law is enforced by an American Naval ship, empowered by the UN. The Naval ship encounters a Japanese whaler, and orders them to surrender. The US Navy proceeds to board the ship, and with guns drawn, take the whalers prisoner. Attempted resistance is of course met with severe force.

Several things are wrong here. First off, the International Whaling Commission has no teeth. Japan does not recognize the legality of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. By the IWC's own rules, Japan is doing nothing wrong.

Secondly, there is another name for this example: Declaration of War. Do you really think the US would declare war against Japan over whaling?