Acts of sea piracy won't help whales

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23073402-16741,00.html

Unlawful action will only harden Japan's resolve
ENTERTAINING though it may be for some, the confrontation in the Southern Ocean between Japanese whalers and the self-styled eco-guardians on board MV Steve Irwin could ultimately prove counter-productive to the conservation cause. If the objective is to persuade Japan to forgo what it says is a long-held and much-cherished cultural practice, acts of near piracy against their countrymen are likely to harden public opinion against making any concessions. This is not to say that the Australian Government should withdraw from monitoring the Japanese whaling fleet to gather evidence that proves Japan's claim that the whale hunt is needed for scientific research is a sham. But the cause of whale conservation is best served through legal action and international co-operation, not eco-terrorism.

How would mainstream Australians react if Japanese protesters stormed an Australian vessel at sea as colleagues threw stink bombs and attempted to disable it to protest against the killing of kangaroos, the issue most cited in Japan as proof of Australia's hypocrisy? It is a fair bet that the popular view would be to demand that protesters be charged with piracy and brought before an Australian court. This would be particularly so if the protest group had a history of self-styled vigilante action, as the Sea Shepherd does. MV Steve Irwin skipper Paul Watson proudly claims a long record of boarding, ramming and sinking ships at sea. He openly states his protest group's objective is intervention, not protest, and he has been very active on several environmental fronts over many years.

Mr Watson justifies his anti-whaling actions against the Japanese on the basis of the misleading claim that Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean represents illegal poaching. However distasteful it may be, Japan is operating its whaling operations with the agreement of the International Whaling Commission. An injunction granted in the Federal Court in Australia to stop Japanese whalers from operating in an area claimed by Australia has little prospect of being successfully enforced. Only four countries recognise Australia's claim to exclusive rights, and Japan is not one of them. Any attempt to prosecute the Japanese whalers for breaching the injunction risks undermining Australia's broader, long-term interests in the region.

The Australian understands that many people share the view of philosopher Peter Singer that hunting whales is unethical because they cannot be humanely killed and there is no essential human need to harvest them. And on economic grounds, Australia has every right to try to preserve what has become a multi-million-dollar whale-watching industry. Just as, on scientific and environmental grounds, every legal effort should be made to protect stocks of southern bluefin tuna, for which Japanese poachers have proven to have a clear disregard for all international efforts to maintain a sustainable resource. It's just that tuna aren't as likely to be imbued in the public mind with the sorts of qualities people imagine for whales.

IF

Your goal is to stop the whalers and not simply to play at stopping them, you should consider that a bellicose attitude is NOT really helping.

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Sea Shepherd vows more attacks on Japanese whalers
Posted Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:11am AEDT


The Sea Shepherd group says it has stopped the Japanese from whaling for 10 days so far. (File photo) (AFP: Greenpeace)
The captain of the anti-whaling ship pursuing the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean says plans are in place for further harassment over the next few days.

The campaigners Sea Shepherd attacked the fleet for a second time yesterday, just days after two of their crew were returned from the whaling ship.

Sea Shepherd's ship, the 'Steve Irwin', threw about a dozen stink bombs at the Japanese fleet, in what the activist group says is a non-violent method of stopping the killing of whales.

The group says their methods have stopped the Japanese from whaling for 10 days so far.

The Japanese fleet has condemned the attack, describing it as an inhumane terrorist act. Captain of the 'Steve Irwin' Paul Watson says similar attacks are planned over the next few days.

"Every time we show up, they begin to run, and if they're running they're not killing whales," he said.

The Japanese whalers have once again called for the Australian Government to seize the 'Steve Irwin'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/20/2142337.htm?section=world

Maybe it ain't helping the Japanese in their efforts to slaughter whales, but it appears to be helping the whales.

If not, Sea Shepherd's methods are quite comprehensible.

I just love those who criticize, as the OP does, the only people doing anything at all to stop this crap. Might there be a better way? There might, but so far this is the only group doing anything at all to prevent this nonsense. I suspect the motives of the do-nothing naysayers. As in the starfish analogy down thread, at least this is making a difference for those whales that were not slaughtered.

Washed up on the beach, stranded, with no means of getting back to the sea, except by tide or accident.

A wise man walked along a beach, and saw a gracefully dancing human figure. As he approached the figure, he discovered a child, who was not dancing at all, but bending and reaching down to sift through the debris and gently toss something back into the sea.

"What are you doing?" asked the wise man. The child smiled brightly, pointed upward and, with exquisite simplicity, replied, "The sun is up, the tide is going out. If I don't do something, they will die."

The wise man surveyed the vast expanse of beach. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the child's plan became clear. "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot hope to make a difference."

The child listened politely, then bent down, picked up another starfish, and tossed it gently into the sea, just beyond the breaking waves, and exuberantly declared, "I made a difference to that one."

--

We all do what we can to make the world a better place! All that is within our power to do..

The good is always the enemy of the perfect, and until the perfect solution presents itself, then nothing else will do.

all very funny. thanks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown-of-thorns_starfish

uh - talk about your flawed analogies. Can you guess why that analogy is total bullshit?

Noted.

Stop the ships, you've stopped the slaughter.

Because the Japanese Government doesn't really give a rat's ass about this,
and the whalers have almost ZERO popular support from a Japanese public
that has very little interest in eating whale meat.

The only reason there's any "official support" for whaling in Japan
is because some rich whalers made a few campaign contributions and got
a few special laws passed in return.
So sure, some Japanese bureaucrats may be willing to shuffle the necessary
paperwork to "lodge a complaint", but that's as far as it goes.

The Japanese Navy is -NOT- going to be hunting anyone down over this.
No Japanese politician is going to put his ass on the line for the whalers,
when push comes to shove. They thought it was no big deal when they passed
a minor law or two at the Whaler's request, but now it's turned into a worldwide
HEADACHE for them, and they're all wishing the whole thing would just go away.

Nothing will harden Japan's "resolve", because its "resolve" doesn't EXIST
in the context of whaling.

There is no resolve, and there hasn't been for a very long time.