Sea Shepherd's Ady Gil Attacked By Japanese Whaling Vessel

[jscheetz]

This to me is no different than what gets talked about right here on this forum regarding illegal activites at Taney or wherever. The problem? Not enough agents to enforce the law. So what do we say? We usually suggest that if you see someone using powerbait at the rebar hole that you say something to them. It was just talked about in another post of having a group go down to the boat ramps where giggers launch to make sure they are aware of the laws. It is citizens taking action against those who are illegally taking what belongs to us all.

Sure, the boats that chase the illegal whalers are much more extreme - but it is a much larger problem. He was right to say that the Japanese government is involved in this - they issue "research" permits to these boats to go do "research" on whales. It is all under the scientific disguise. So when the guy down at the rebar hole with his powerbait says "Too bad, I am staying here" - at least we have the option of then calling the agent and reporting him. What option do you have when you see a vessel from another country doing something illegal? Especially when that other country's government is part and parcel to the whole thing anyway! What - you gonna call your senator? So the problem is much stickier to tackle. And yeah - these guys are always trying to get attention..... but that is their point. The only thing that can cause someone in Washington to really take notice on something like this is to get enough people to make enough noise - so the more extreme thing you do, the better chance you have of someone paying attention. Like the guy pouring the bottle of water on the house fire - he is the guy that will get interveiwed on the news - so therefore HE is the guy that will get the publicity for his cause whatever that may be...... It is basic PR 101 - the more extreme thing you do, the more attention you get.

As far as "sitting down with scientists and international agencies and policy wonks and hashing out what to do to actually prevent whaling" - Well, that has been going on since the 70s and you see how it has stopped the Japanese from killing whales. So I say bring on the "Son of the Ady mach II"...

JS

[Al Agnew]

I agree totally with jscheetz. Sometimes you really need the radical fringe to continue to call attention to a problem if nothing else is working. The "research" exemption allowing whale hunting is a farce, but it's a farce promulgated by the Japanese government. Since it's obvious we ain't gonna nuke the government over it, and the UN isn't is going to look the other way, the only real thing left to do is for somebody to grandstand and keep calling attention to it. Whale hunting is a throwback to an earlier time when there were lots of whales and relatively few people, and whale oil was actually a viable source of energy. It is entirely unnecessary and, knowing what we do about the intelligence of whales, borderline immoral from a human standpoint these days. And it's only one of many ways in which the Japanese and some other oriental nations are at best ignoring and at worst encouraging exploitation of threatened and endangered species. From rhino horn to bear gall to tiger livers, a lot of rich old Japanese and Chinese men are fixated on their gonads at the cost of rare animals (those are all used as aphrodisiacs), and from shark fins to whales, they are fixated on exotic tastes. I have absolutely zero regard or respect for the whalers or the people in the governments who allow it to happen.

[eric1978]

If I had to choose between the two, I'd like more whales and less people.

Amen to that.

It is entirely unnecessary and, knowing what we do about the intelligence of whales, borderline immoral from a human standpoint these days.

And Amen to that.

I've always been fascinated by whales and sympathetic to them because of the history of brutally inhumane and exploitative treatment. But after seeing them up so close last summer, I realized what a majestic and incredible creature they are, and the people that continue to selfishly slaughter them for financial gain knowing full well that their populations are in danger can burn in hell for all I care. I'd like to see them harpooned and chopped up into pieces. Just because we are running the show doesn't mean that everything on the planet is ours for the taking. Good for the Ady Gil and the people who spend their lives fighting for what is right.

[Mitch f]

My inlaws are chinese and I know they are the some of the worst abusers of mother nature. I took my father in law fishing and when I released an 18" smallmouth, he looked at me like I was the "missing link". The culture of these people is so old that they won't change for many generations. Thats why they have little to no natural resources.I'm a conservative by nature but I agree that sometimes it takes a radical element to shock the conventional way of thinking.

[mosouthpaw]

im against whaling, and im against the whale whores of the sea shepherd. There is no difference in attacks on whalers and the attacks on hunters and fisherman by radical animal rights groups. Justifying the acts of the whale whores only justifies the acts of the PETA folks attacking and harassing hunters and fisherman here in the US. Who knows when they will have shows about PETA scum following and harassing sportsman...

[fishgypsy]

im against whaling, and im against the whale whores of the sea shepherd. There is no difference in attacks on whalers and the attacks on hunters and fisherman by radical animal rights groups. Justifying the acts of the whale whores only justifies the acts of the PETA folks attacking and harassing hunters and fisherman here in the US. Who knows when they will have shows about PETA scum following and harassing sportsman...

I agree up to a point, but these whalers aren't sportsman. They're commercial whalers, veiling questionably-legal activities under the guise of "scientific research," the portion-sized pieces of which are sold in markets.

And I don't think it's a cultural thing, as we've had a pretty poor record of managing delicious animals ourselves (sturgeon caviar, buffalo tongue, market hunting of waterfowl and shorebirds in the 19th century, atlantic salmon, orange roughy, redfish, striped bass, chilean seabass, egrets and herons which were shot for their plumage, etc)

[stlfisher]

The way I look it as both sides operate on the extreme ends of what is acceptable. Both sides are wrong and the antics of both do nothing besides inflame the dispute. At some point someone may loose a life because of it. I like whales and don't want to see them over harvested,but if greenpeace disowns you that should tell you something about the captain.

[skeeter]

Killing whales for food? If the fishery is managed, and that's a big if considering enforcement, something we've hashed around here alot, whales, again IF there are enough to harvest, should be. They've been doing it for hundreds of years.

I posted it because of the outlandish statements of the captain... "They ran into us. We weren't even moving. We were trying to get out of their way." Again, they're video shows them pulling right in the way, being careful just to put their pointy part of the boat to be hit.

Phil,

You posted this in the correct area but strongly suggest you go back and view the video again. It plainly shows, and reports from on the scene agree, that the "bat boat" was sitting motionless to the starboard side of the whaling vessel's course. The Captain or helmsman of the Japanese whaling vessel clearly and abruptly turned his vessel sharply to starboard to collide with and sink the "bat boat" and the action of reversing the "bat boat's" engines is all that saved the boat and the crew from being completely overrun and sucked into the propellors of the whaling vessel probably killing all aboard her. Notice also that despite the "bat boat" being cut in half the high pressure fire hoses on the Japanese whaling vessel kept spraying the boat and the crew who had scrambled to the aft section of the boat in fear of their lives. If there is any question of the claim of "piracy" here it would rest with whomever ordered or made the turn to impact the motionless "bat boat". Was International law broken here and was this a deliberate, life threatening attack by the Japanese ?.....obviously.

As someone else posted, the problem here seems to be lack of costly enforcement of International Law and until these whaling laws are strongly enforced I applaud the tactics of the Sea Shepherd in bringing world wide attention to this ongoing Japanese abuse. Remember, it was the Japanese "factory ships" that all but wiped out the Western Atlantic codfish from the Grand Banks area of the Atlantic Ocean. This was a resource that had been harvested at a sustainable level for 400 years and only went into severe, seemingly irreversible decline when the Japanese Corporations arrived. You can ask hundreds of families along the East Coast of Canada what happened to their livelihood when the factory ships from Japan arrived and started decimating the cod population beyond all hope of recovery.

[Flysmallie]

The Captain or helmsman of the Japanese whaling vessel clearly and abruptly turned his vessel sharply to starboard to collide with and sink the "bat boat" and the action of reversing the "bat boat's" engines is all that saved the boat and the crew from being completely overrun and sucked into the propellors of the whaling vessel probably killing all aboard her.

Abruptly and sharply are not things that a whaling vessel can do. And if you actually watch this video and the others on the internet you will see the bat boat moving forward. What's really amazing is the fact that they had so many cameras around when this happened.

I'm not saying that what the Japanese are doing is right but the Sea Shepard group isn't doing the right thing either. When your own country will not support you then something is wrong.

[skeeter]

Abruptly and sharply are not things that a whaling vessel can do. And if you actually watch this video and the others on the internet you will see the bat boat moving forward. What's really amazing is the fact that they had so many cameras around when this happened.

I'm not saying that what the Japanese are doing is right but the Sea Shepard group isn't doing the right thing either. When your own country will not support you then something is wrong.

Strongly disagree. In those seas that were running at the time the change of course the Japanese vessel made was a deliberate "hard to starboard" turn of the rudder. If they were trying to avoid the "bat boat" you don't turn into it at that proximity even if attempting a specific turn like the "Williamson" or "Scharnow" turn to avoid the "bat boat" with the stern of the whaling vessel.

If the people of the Sea Shepherd group don't take action, who will ? I don't see the elitist tree huggers at Greenpeace doing squat here except a lot of lip service. The Japanese whaling interests are breaking International Law and thumbing their noses at all of us so have at 'em.