Do you watch Whale Wars?

I watch the show Whale Wars. I applaud their efforts but I wonder:

1.) Why don't they just drop the bottles from the helicopter? Or better yet, why even drop the bottles- why not just spray the acid or squirt it from hoses?

2.) Why don't they get an LRAD of their own and use it on the whaling vessels that are using the water cannons?

3.) Why don't they get more modern radios such as some digital encrypted radios on some other band where the whalers can't find their radio traffic and thus can't jam it?

4.) What are they thinking about when they send their crew out on an inflatable dingy? These people could be using mortars and shit. Or at the very least they could use sling shots.

5.) Why don't they just use explosives for prop fouling? Oh like a rope is any more courteous?

6.) Why don't they just set up a bogus whaling company in Japan and a couple whaling ships and have the ships leave from some port in Japan and circle around and then return back and say they caught a lot of whales so that they can meet the whaling quota even though they haven't even caught any whales? In other words, lie and say they caught whales when they didn't.

The Sea Shepherds need help, folks. Starting with some common sense practical ideas.

the heli-drops and other points, I don't know. Explosives are out I would think due to the fine line they already toe regarding the term "terrorists". As for the rope, has that ever worked since the show began?

Also, take into consideration that it is a teevee show now and alot of what you see will be driven or withheld because of that.

They dropped their prop fouling rig, missed by a mile.

Their communication tools and protocol are sorry.

The Zodiacs once went out, I thought they'd never come back.

And the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing in this crew.

I think everything they do is designed to fail.

:shrug:

LOL. That reminds me of something Captain Paul Watson said after he watched the most recent season's shows - Watson said the shows were so well edited HE wasn't sure they would make it out of the ice.

That the editors take hundreds of hours of generally boring stuff (ever been on a ship at sea?) and turn it into whatever narrative they wish to present.

They seem to want to make everyone seem incompetent.

Scwatchies.

That's my baby! She's got her doggie friend Cooper over for a few nights.



:hi:

How are you and your doggy friend doing?

...but I do support Sea Shepherd!

why they don't just drop the butyeric acid from the copter... I guess they don't need aggression against the copter. Next season, they'd each have 'copters.

As far as the rest, the radio jamming stuff is new. They'd be better served just learning to use the stuff they have. Of course, now, they need something jam-proof.

Explosives and stuff, though, I think starts crossing the line into literal attacks, major international trouble.

Your last point, well-intended, probably would require them to have an actual Japanese vessel and demonstrate the whales they "caught". Remember, they're not trying to fool the Japanese authorities. The Japanese authorities are all for maximizing whaling. They're not going to stop just because a bunch of American/Australians show up and say "hey, we already caught the limit". That's naive, no offense.

Using an aircraft might open them up to another level of scrutiny?

As it is, they are not supposed to throw anything from the main ship per their agreement with the Dutch as it would jeopardize their Dutch registry.I suppose there is some other technicality in play regarding aircraft.

....use his skills to aerial bomb a ship. Just a guess.

I can get my ticket pulled for flying too close to Farmer Brown's cows so I'm sure I would lose my license for aerial bombing ships with bottles.


Unless he wants to lose years of training and never work again, that TEMPORARY VOLUNTEER pilot better not be filmed bombing ships.

So maybe the pilot is licensed to fly but licensed for some other country.

I think it's not much different than spraying pesticide, probably safer come to think of it. It's not like they're firing missiles from the chopper.

And agree
Poor planing, poor communications,poor training, poor execution, poor training, poor gear, poor use of resources,poor training, poor communication, poor planning. I'm beginning to wonder if they are a floating dude ranch for whale lovers. Which I ain't saying is a bad thing.

1. Money.

2. They are following Norway's laws governing ships they charter.

3. They are committed to acting within international law regarding what are considered crimes on the high seas.

4. They are committed to non-violence and doing nothing that might cause injuries.

few new radios. They really aren't all that expensive in the grand scheme of things. They just need the radios and not all the infrastructure that runs into the millions.

And they can get a sprayer for their helicopter at a landscape supply or farm supply house.

I don't know what LRADs cost but if they can't afford one they can just take a TV satellite dish antenna and point it at the whalers and psyche them out.

I agree with the idea about psyching out the whalers.

but some of the SS ideas seem a bit fucked up.

like cutting a harpoon line AFTER a whale has been hit. after a shot from one of those cannons, the whale is almost certain to die. cutting the line just means that one whale will die and another whale will probably be harpooned to replace it. the whalers can only take so many. if they have already killed one, why put another whale at risk?

and throwing chemicals onboard a ship to foul a whale carcass, again after a whale has already died. the japanese will then just discard that carcass and go harpoon another one.



change the whaler's course, prevent a harpooning, harass them all you can, but once a whale has been killed?

don't help them kill another one SS...

if i were running the show i wouldn't waste time trying to "find" the whaling fleet in open waters, i would get a bunch of ships and follow each of the whaling ships out of port. harassing them at every step. or select the biggest producers and just follow and fuck with them.

i know that idea has some financial problems too, but it might be more effective...

Fucking with the whaling fleet in Japanese waters will bring the Maritime Self-Defense Force on your ass.

End of Line.

because the explosives would blow a hole in the whaling ship and probably sink it.
that would be akin to an act of war, inviting the whalers to retaliate by using explosives against the Sea Shepard. You don't want to escalate the situation anymore than you have to. There's only so much they can do.

They need a little guidance for this.

in a heavy sea way, she will run the risk of turning turtle. You do not need to blow a hole in a ship to sink one. I killing sailors you objective.

send those whaling ships to the bottom of the sea, by any means necessary! Explosives, torpedo, bomb, whatever it takes. The crew of the Sea Shepard say they're willing to die for the cause, so I say go for it. I can't see any other way to stop those whalers anywho. It's obvious they're never going to respond to reason or any non-violent tactics. So I say sink'em any way if you can!

Personally I'd get out there with fake LRADS by day and be spraying their ship with stink juice and slippery juice by night.

The Japanese Government will start using the JMSDF (Navy) to chase Sea Shepherd to the ends of the earth. And when they catch them, things will not be pleasant. I've read some pretty horrible things about Japanese prisons.

Possibly with the help of other nations.

Once you use explosives and or firearms on the high seas against civvie vessels, most nations will agree that you've crossed the line from harassment to piracy.

Nobody wants to see that happen to SS.

and every week it's a damn cluster.

And as far as the "Paul being shot" thing, if the Japanese have a gun, why not shoot the rafts with it while the rafts are on the SI? A bullet wouldn't hurt the SI, but without the rafts they'd be neutered.

IF they're on the deck of the ship the Japanese could shoot them. Nobody would be in them, so there would be no risk to life.

and that's what makes the show so funny. I don't understand why they don't get rubber band "slingshots" (like the ones that hurl water balloons) to hurl their bottles from outside the water-cannon range.

The prop fouling episode was the funniest of them all. They dropped the net so far away that the Nishin Maru had time to stop and fish it out of the water! Bwahahaha.

1. From the chopper? Who should drop it, the pilot or the cameraman? Exactly. Plus, it's better that the chopper isn't seen as being in any way on "attack" at any time.

2, 4 and 5. A big part of Sea Shepherd's mission is to see to it that even using the tactics that they do, to be careful that nobody gets hurt.

3. Money, most likely. The use the sat phones more now.

6. The whaling is subsidized by the Japanese govt. I think they'd probably see through that plot.

Next year, they expect to be back with three ships, including the Earthrace vessel. Should be pretty good.

Um, are you watching the same show I am?

Sea Shepherds seems to have a really cavalier attitude towards safety.

The volunteer crew take risks, and now and then a superficial injury may happen. Helps to look a tad bit deeper than what's shown on the television.

Yeah, if SSCS didn't give a shit, they could firebomb the Japanese vessels for all it matters. Nonviolent tactics that don't injure anyone are far better.

As for who should drop it, they can wrap some water baloons filled with the butyric acid in some kind of device that releases them by remote switch. The pilot can do it.

As for the nobody getting hurt, they don't seem to have a problem doing what is necessary for self defense.

The Earthrace vessel is joining them, and they're considering possibly buying another one if the money is there.

The next conclusion is a little further away, but I hope you make the jump just as easily.

On edit: since you seem to have all the fucking answers, why don't you ship yourself to Australia and put your ass where your mouth is and help them out?

Don't get me wrong, I support the idea of stopping whalers and I think the Sea Shepherds are well-intentioned.

But these guys are apparently absolutely clueless. Nothing goes right, and every time they send out the small boats somebody manages to get injured. The Japanese are always one step ahead and have now reached the point of openly mocking the Sea Shepherds. Next week, they are apparently going to kill a whale right in front of them, which I figured was going to happen soon.

are complete fuck-shows. People like to talk about what they're going to do, but when it comes to execution of attack or disrupting the whalers, everything goes to hell in a hand basket within about 12 seconds.

The idea of high-power sling shots to get the butyric acid onto the decks seems much more reasonable than attempting to hurl a bottle of it at a target the size of a six story building. Maybe they need to get some ex-outfielder ball players to join their campaign if they're going to stick with their current plan.

Radios and communication need serious, serious help. This last episode seems to be the only one where they actually transmitted properly, but even with more constant communication, their strategies are just piss poor. They seem to either injure themselves before they reach their target or they get so off course that they spend all their time trying to find the SS before the next storm moves in on them.

Prop fouling seems to be one of the greatest potential deterrents they can use against these ships, yet they can't even deploy the damn thing properly. I'd think a netting of high strength material would likely be a better option than a single line, but either way, if you can't drop it in front of the bow, neither will work. Maybe a deployment utilizing both inflatables, one holding each end spread apart and coming directly at the ships like they did in this last episode when they tried to hurl the bottle up the bow of the ship would work. It seems they need a head-on approach, split the middle with the line or netting and pass on either side of the ship. Guaranteed to get it into the path of the ship.

Part of me wonders if that would even work though. One time they seemed to get it near the prop and their "strong as steal" line was chopped in half and left bobbing in the water.

In a nutshell, they need some serious strategies and directives. The impression of the crew running around like chickens with their heads cut off could definitely be a result of editing, but they just don't seem all that well put together.

Still gonna watch. Next week will be a mess when the whale is harpooned in front of them and hauled up onto the NM.

but it is. each week.

save some whales, buds. do it!

but maybe it is time for you to exit the arena. you seem to do more harm than good. much like PETA.

eh?

Donations to their cause have got to be dropping, too. It's hard to justify writing checks to a charity that routinely fails to accomplish anything.

would love to have as motivated a crew. But a crew is only as good as their leaders allow them and teach them to become.

I think they have saved some whales for sure by chasing the whalers around, but this season the tactics of LRAD, netting, water cannons, etc just seem to be overpowering the feeble attempts at disruption the SS is employing.

Unless they really come up with some heavy funding and can expand their resources and team and really fight back, it does seem very futile.

I don't expect this show to be around next season. The show seems to be heading toward a morale collapse and physical defeat of the SS crew and its mission. Sad, but reality.

good people.

no leadership.

so sad.

Maybe they could jam their radar? I don't know if they do this or not though.

I don't know if they edit it to make it look like the SS are failing or what but damn, they just can't seem to get anything right. The whalers are always outdoing them at every turn and the SS can't seem to adapt and overcome to the new defenses of the whalers.

I have a hard enough time dealing with Animal Cruelty as it is, I just can not handle it well...it is very upsetting to me.

I do appreciate what Sea Shepherd does very much.