Sea Shepherd locates Japan whaling fleet’s resupply ship, aims to block access

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Adam Westlake in National with 163 Comments

Activist group Sea Shepherd says that is has located the key resupply ship for Japan’s whaling fleet, the Sun Laurel, and plans to prevent any of the nation’s vessels from refueling. The 5,700 ton tanker ship is said to have been found in the Southern Ocean, roughly 1,250 nautical miles south of Western Australia.

The Sea Shepherd vessel Sam Simon, the environmental extremists’ latest ship, which was actually purchased in secret from the Japanese government and then retrofitted to be used against the yearly whale hunts, reportedly found the Sun Laurel on Thursday and now the flagship Steve Irwin is rushing to catch up. Jeff Hansen, Sea Shepherd’s co-director for this year’s “Operation Zero Tolerance” campaign, has said that they will do all they can to block Japan’s whaling ships from accessing the tanker to refuel. By doing this, they will significantly “cripple” the fleet’s abilities.

Hanson issued a statement that it was “time for Japan to rein in its fleet and head back to Tokyo.” 2011 was the last time the activists located the Sun Laurel during Japan’s whale hunt. Sea Shepherd successfully blocked access to the tanker for weeks, until it eventually broke free and managed to refuel the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese processing factory ship. A lawyer for Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) has threatened to cite Sea Shepherd for violating the recent injunction granted by the U.S. Ninth Circuit appeals court after one of their ships reportedly came within the restricted 500 yards of one of the Nisshin Maru’s harpoon vessels.

The last week has seen the Australian government order one of Japan’s whaling ships to leave their exclusive economic waters as they tried to flee Sea Shepherd’s pursuit, as well as the activist group claim early success this year by preventing the death of any whales and this point as they locate and impede Japan’s fleet.

[via WA Today]

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Tags: Australia, Jeff Hansen, Nisshin Maru, Operation Zero Tolerance, Paul Watson, Sam Simon, Sea Shepherd, Southern Ocean, Sun Laurel, Whaling

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Far East

“Activist group Sea Shepherd says that is has located the key resupply ship for Japan’s whaling fleet, the Sun Laurel, and plans to prevent any of the nation’s vessels from refueling.”

Those guyes are just to funny. They are just moving air, that’s all. Them trying to prevent those 5,700 ton tanker and other ships from refuling tantamounts to an attempt by a fly to prevent a cow from farting. Just hilarious in their illusions.
- John Smith
  
  They stoped them refuling last year and so forced them to return early!!
  - Far East
    
    Hmmm, I doubt that very much. Maybe that’s what they want us to believe. It all comes down to size. They are not equipped to prevent that from happening.
    - John Smith
      
      Actually the Japanese fisheries agency confirmed that Sea Shepherd was the reason for there early return, partly as a result of them catching the fuel ship. Here’s some links:
      http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-10/sea-shepherd-declares-japan-whaling-victory/3881288
      
      http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/4545664/Southern-whaling-season-hard-work
      - Far East
        
        So says Paul Watson…. Not very credible. He has a track record of lying constantly. Do you have a more credible source preferably frm the Japan Fishery Agency that recognizes their early ending being due to this ?
      - ddpalmer
        
        LOL!
        
        First where is their claim that they left early because they couldn’t refuel?
        
        Second isn’t it possible that the Japanese use the SSCS as a reason, whether it is true or not, to cover up their problems? Or maybe they use the SSCS as a reason to save money and leave early since most anti-whalers claim they have tons of meat in storage?
  - ddpalmer
    
    You are lying!
    
    They never found the resupply ship last year.
    - Vincent Burke
      
      It was the year before…and it is easy to stop a refuelling attempt…lets see if the NM comes in for fuel in the next couple of weeks.
      - ddpalmer
        
        So you agree he was lying. Thank you.
        
        Do you know when they last refueled? They may not have to refuel for quite a while. Meanwhile the SSCS will be wasting their time following the refueler. And attempting to block the refueling would violate international law much less the injunction.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Yeah! SSCS are wasting their time…right…just wait and see what the ICR puts up as their kill numbers in March and we will see what “a waste of time” can do. ddpalmer, you are just another impotent and bitter bystander watching conservation activists defeat an evil empire, peacefully….and there is not a thing you can do to stop us.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Did I say they where wasting their time? No, sorry. Learn to read English and/or stop the strawmen. I said IF the whalers don’t have to refuel anytime soon, THEN following the Sun laurel is a waste of time.
        
        Vincent Burke you are just another impotent and bitter aging hippy claiming to be an activist while floating around in a rusting boat breaking the law. Where did I say I wanted to stop you? Another comprehension problem or another strawman?
        
        It is great fun to watch your childish antics and read the lies that come from the whole group.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Hmmmm…”aging hippy”…I like that!
      - ddpalmer
        
        Hmmmm…no response to the facts. Well at least no more strawmen.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        I guess you just dont get my sarcastic disinterest in your facile dribble pal….sayonara.
      - ddpalmer
        
        But you have enough interest to waste time and bandwidth to keep responding. Maybe the problem is you don’t have the ability to discuss an issue beyond a facile level? That may explain the strawmen and avoidance.
        
        You didn’t seem like a very sarcastic person when I met you in
        person.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Hi,
        It may take a little time to get back to you depending on my location and computer availability … I will respond to you ASAP. You can also phone me on 0425 70 6667 and we can talk now.
        Cheers…
        Vincent
      - Whirled Peas
        
        Huh? You equate your mission to stop the whaling of a country you do not belong to as defeating an “Evil Empire??” I believe you and the SS movement have developed delusions of grandeur — perhaps a Poseidon-complex?
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Hi,
        It may take a little time to get back to you depending on my location and computer availability … I will respond to you ASAP. You can also phone me on 0425 70 6667 and we can talk now.
        Cheers…
        Vincent
- Vincent Burke
  
  Well just standby and wait and see…Im sure you have been on the helm of a ship docking to another at sea…Oh, you havent…its pretty easy to stop that mate.
  - Far East
    
    Well dude, I am not saying it ain’t, I am just saying I have not read any credible evidence of that claim.
    - Vincent Burke
      
      Well thats because the captains of any of the whaling ships will never attempt a docking with a third ship in the way…mate, you wouldnt believe it without being there, just accept this as truth.
      - Far East
        
        Accepting second hand information ‘as the truth’ without credible evidence or source of information is what leads to misinformation. And in turns, leads to people making ill-advised harsh statement on either side based on those poor and often biased information.
        
        So, thanks, but no thanks. I’ll believe it when I will read it from a credible source. Until then it is merely propaganda from an organization who has a conflicting interest in making people believe it happened that way.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Well I was on the bridge of the Bob Barker during the chase of the Sun Laurel and the Nisshin Maru..as I have been the last 3 years…that enough ‘evidence’ pal. Look at my photos on FB (Vincent ‘El Gordito” Burke)
      - Far East
        
        You look nice dude, but outside of paintings and violins, I don’t see anything.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Well at least I look nice…I’ll leave it at that…and wait for your friendship request!
      - Far East
        
        Seriously, if what you said was true, it is sensational enough to make a video and post it on Youtube.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        True, but as I said, no captain in his right mind would bring his ship in with another in the way…its hard enough to tie up to another ship in friendly environments. IF..it is attempted this season, it will be on Whale Wars season 6 in June, guaranteed!
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Hi,
        It may take a little time to get back to you depending on my location and computer availability … I will respond to you ASAP. You can also phone me on 0425 70 6667 and we can talk now.
        Cheers…
        Vincent
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Hi,
        It may take a little time to get back to you depending on my location and computer availability … I will respond to you ASAP. You can also phone me on 0425 70 6667 and we can talk now.
        Cheers…
        Vincent
    - Vincent Burke
      
      Hi,
      It may take a little time to get back to you depending on my location and computer availability … I will respond to you ASAP. You can also phone me on 0425 70 6667 and we can talk now.
      Cheers…
      Vincent
Sun Wu

Can’t help myself, but last time I got the impression Sun Laurel had been looking for Seashepherd…the funny thing was all three Seashepherd-ships followed it directly into a storm…
Seashepherd did not mention the Sun Laurel again during the rest of the campaign…
I am not really too sure if they found it anyways, most likely they just made up a story once again using old photos.
I am always wondering why there still is 5000 tons of frozen whalemeat in Japanese warehouses though for years Paul Watson claims to have saved whales. To me it looks like Japan is catching more whales than they need.
They do this because they will not give in to a Watson pouring oil into this conflict for years…therefor I believe Seashepherd to be responsible for the death of many whales rather than them having saved any.
Paul Watson, MAKE BANNERS, NOT WAR! Whales are no actors for reality-disaster-TV.
- reporter
  
  I feel a bit sorry for you. All that comes from your mouth is verbal diarrhea. Go and join some useless debate where you’ll fit right in.
- Vincent Burke
  
  A Storm?…I was on the Bob Barker and I can tell you, the Sun Laurel had a worse time than we did…we left it to go straight onto the Nisshin Maru and chased it all the way to South America …and sent it home with 176 whales instead of 1000…not bad work I reckon.
RP

There comes a time in any culture and society to recognize that their un- civilized and barbaric traditions must be put into their history rather than continue them to save face with no real value in the modern world. If the Japanese want to be true to their whaling history and customs, they should be hunting whales with paddle boats and spears in the same way they once did, not with explosive harpoons that instantly kill and chasing down whales in mechanized ships.

Carrying on these Japanese traditions serves no one except those corrupt Japanese individuals entirely bent on using this system for their benefit. Their acts are evidence of how cruel and barbaric they are to the rest of the world.

Ask why has the Japanese government spent nearly 30 million USD of Tsunami relief funds to subsidize a dead industry. Those funds should have been spend on improving the lives of Japanese citizens that have suffered greatly after the earthquake and Tsunami. Beyond this 30 million USD, the Japanese government has spent nearly 10 million USD each year to subsidize their floundering and broken whaling industry.

If Japanese culture is to grow up and leave their barbaric ways behind, they need to completely dismantle their whaling fleet and the entire industry related to whaling and replace it with whale watching… which would be of real economic benefit to Japan, the whales and how the rest of the world perceives Japan.
- Whirled Peas
  
  ” If the Japanese want to be true to their whaling history and customs,
  they should be hunting whales with paddle boats and spears in the same
  way they once did, not with explosive harpoons that INSTANTLY KILL and
  chasing down whales in mechanized ships.”
  
  Huh? I thought the idea was to try to reduce the suffering. So “Instantly Kill” is a good thing. No? It occurs to me that many whale activists have never witnessed the realities of the breeding and slaughter of cows, pigs, sheep or any other mammal for food. Maybe not even chicken or duck. So when activists see a whale slaughtered they are understandably startled and horrified. Unless you grow up in a rural area or hunt for your own food, you are shielded from the reality of the slaughter of what you eat. Meat is what you find all nicely prepped on a styrofoam tray. Slaughter is sanitized. At least the whale has lived its life swimming the seas. Much of the animals we eat don’t see the light of day.
  - John Smith
    
    Sea Shepherd took a video of one of these “INSTANT KILLs” the whale was harpooned electrocuted and shot 8 time before dying over half an hour later. I don’t mind hunting and have hunted myself but this is just cruelty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1b8YCxJiIc
    - ddpalmer
      
      You mean the Sea Shepherds edited a video to make it appear that a certain situation happened. If you blindly accept any edited video from either side then you are more pathetic than I thought.
      - John Smith
        
        When the Australian Gov. sent a ship to document
        the hunt as part of their court case against Japan they recorded similar time of death for the whales. Your clinging to Japans lies just shows how unwilling you are to accept the truth. It was the same or of ignorance that allowed so many people to suffer in Nazi Germany.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Really? And where did you find this fact. And why would they have even considered doing so? Time to death has nothing to do with there case.
      - HumaneSociety
        
        Paul Watson isnt exactly a saint either so you cant really blame ddpalmer for not believing the whole story. I do believe that the whales need to be saved but I also think Watson is an extremist nut. I rather shed my tears for the money i dont have that could save the local pound pups/cats from being killed cause no one will adopt them.
    - Whirled Peas
      
      The whale kills today take less time to death than in the old days of Ahab and Moby Dick, when harpooner had to stab and stab and club a long time until finally the whale died. Even the people on the Sea Shepard are amazed at how “efficient” the whale kill was, calling the operation a killing machine. So apparently the people who watch a kill are conflicted: appalled at how efficient and fast the kill is on the other hand appalled at how long the death throes last (1/2 hour) on the other. Either way, it is a shock to those who aren’t used to witnessing just how our food comes to our table. You say you’re a hunter but you are appalled by how long it takes for a whale to die and therefore think it’s wrong to hunt whales. With respect, I don’t think the quickness or slowness of a kill should determine whether that species should or should not be a food source. And it’s a rather common argument made by anti-whalers, but even if a kill could be truly instantaneous the anti-whalers would not cease their activity — because many have endowed the whale with most-favored status as an intelligent, social creature. (I’d argue there are other mammals that have those qualities).
      
      So yes, hard to see any animal killed. It’s even hard to the uninitiated to pluck a duck of its feathers! And while we can rationalize that factory-bred and slaughtered animals don’t suffer and so in all good conscience we can eat them, that’s not true, since they are captives all their lives usually in sub-optimal conditions and when led to slaughter they sense doom big time. The issue of what species gets to NOT be food for humans is a political and cultural one. Cow, pigs, lamb, and chickens have drawn the short straw in the western countries. Fish and marine animals are the mainstay in many coastal countries. It depends on what has been historically available to the country, and also how strong the political lobby of the businesses that benefit from people eating their product. Nowadays cholesterol-laden beef, pork and chicken are more available to Japan, exported from other countries, but its expensive, and have you heard that Heart Attack is the Cow’s Revenge? Take away the sea mammals and large predatory fish from the Japanese diet and what will they have: imported beef and pork and chicken to make some other country rich? Or should they start using precious land to graze animals of their own, which causes its own problems. The Japanese traditional diet consists of a lot of veggies, rice and a modest amount of animal protein (fish or mammal) or tofu (bean curd). It is the western countries that are gluttons for meat, not Japan! And they want beef/pork hegemony it would appear.
      
      Nowadays, with the accumulation of mercury in many large fish and sea mammals, perhaps its time for everyone to voluntarily reduce intake of those sources. (For example, I love swordfish steak, but I haven’t eaten it for 15 years, and I have no desire to eat whale!) But that’s MY personal preference. People who do NOT have any investment in making Japan a better place, or do NOT have any desire to help Japan replace one source of protein economically with another, and do NOT care about the people but just rant and rave about their pet cause may have good intentions but it violates an important precept of organizing: first start from a point of unity.
    - Common Sense Hunting
      
      Well what do you expect they are in the middle of the ocean hunting large animals…. You have a better method of killing? They dont exactly have the luxury of the slaughter house on land…
  - RP
    
    Not a meat eater… For all these reasons and more…
- Whirled Peas
  
  But I agree on the promotion of whale-watching and other activities that educate the public about the whale and eventually people will probably lose their taste for whale meat, on their own. I just don’t think whale killing is any more “barbaric” than slaughter of other animals. Nor are the Japanese whalers any more insensitive than cow and pig slaughterhouses and the Beef and Pork Lobby.
- ddpalmer
  
  What a foolish screed.
  
  So Christians should have lit candles on live Christmas trees the same way they once did?
RP

BTW, it is illegal to refuel in that part of the ocean according to international maritime law. And no, bigger is not going to prevent illegal activities related to re-fueling in international waters..
- ddpalmer
  
  It is simple, you travel just a little ways north to the 60th parallel at the northern edge of the whaling zone and viola it is legal to refuel. then back to whaling within hours.
Richard Brunt

So hang on, it’s OK to kill hundreds of highly intelligent mammals, with complex social structures and sophisticated communication; creatures that exhibit loyalty and sacrifice to one another. And it’s OK to kill them in a whale refuge, calling it “research” when everyone knows it’s not research. But try to stop this and you are an “extremist” organization?

Wrong is wrong, and no amount of clever media spin by the Japanese can fool people any longer (well, OK, many are apparently fooled!).
- racism
  
  Bias against dolphins. Alot of other meat we slaughter and eat are of highly intelligent mammals, with complex social structures and
  sophisticated communication; creatures that exhibit loyalty and
  sacrifice to one another. In human terms we would call it RACISM lol.
  - John Smith
    
    Dolphins and whales have brains larger than our own and shown levels of self-awareness that was once thought to be exclusively
    human. Can u name one animal westerners eat that has a brain larger than ours? Some meat is arguably ok but you have to draw the line somewhere. Only a psychopath would think Japans killing methods are acceptable.
    - ddpalmer
      
      Whales and dolphins are large than us so they would be expected to have larger brains. Also brain size is not related to intelligence.
      
      Lastly whales have not shown levels of self-awareness as they are too large to capture and study, that claim is based on assumptions from studies on their smaller cousins the dolphins. Dolphins are all active hunters who would be expected to be smarter as hunting animals are usually smarter than grazers. while most whales are essentially grazers.
      - Think
        
        Then why were large dinosaur brains so small?
        
        It’s not unreasonable scientifically to suggest that the amount of stimuli and computation a dinosaur required to survive is greater than that of a baleen whale.
        
        You lose ddpalmer. A comment like that is enough to sink your credibility.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Because all animals at that time had small brains. But the carnivorous dinosaurs tended to have larger brains.
        
        You lose Think. All your comments are enough to prove you have no credibility and don’t even live up to your name.
      - Think
        
        I’ll let the audience decide. So tell me, what’s your interest in this issue?
        
        Did you see a bunch of vegan liberals having a lot of fun on Whale Wars and it made you angry?
      - ddpalmer
        
        I’ll let the audience decide. So you tell me do you have any facts or just lies and ad hominems?
        
        Did you see a bunch of nips and japs eating meat and it made you angry?
      - Think
        
        On two or three occasions now, all you have done is mirror back the opposite of what someone has said to you without saying anything.
        
        It makes it look as if you are an idiot who has run out of arguments and is just indulging in a childish tit for tat.
        
        Seriously, answer the question, what motivates you about this issue?
        
        The rights of a private company to make profits from causing suffering? Or are you going to tell us … “scientifically … that actually whales don’t suffer as they are harpooned?
      - ddpalmer
        
        What motivates me is that the SSCS are a bunch of law breaking lying racists who think that ‘doing good’ (as defined by them) makes their actions legal. And then sheeple like you lap it up and give them money rather than support groups that are really helping the environment.
    - racism
      
      Thats basically putting a high/low price on living things based on their ‘intelligence’. Its easy to not recognize it when its not based on humans, but incorportate that mindset on people and you will find that it is a pretty biased and selfish thinking. Only a psychopath would single out one country and one industry.
  - Vincent Burke
    
    It takes 20 agonising minutes to kill a whale…any abattoir that took 20 minutes to kill a cow would be shut down IMMEDIATELY…
    - Whirled Peas
      
      But the animal is imprisoned in the abattoir all its life before going to slaughter. And those abattoirs aren’t pretty.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        I have not eaten meat for 30 years…no argument from me…
      - John Smith
        
        Animals are raised on farms and then sent to abattoirs for slaughter. There are good ways to raise and slaughter them and there are bad ones. I know how the animals I eat are raised and killed as I ether kill my own or buy free range from a
        certified slaughter house. However whales because of their size cannot be slaughtered humanly and therefore shouldn’t be killed, and as I’ve said before if all animals had to be killed like this I would be a vegetarian.
      - Guest
        
        Roughly 99% of the cows, pigs and chickens consumed by humans in western countries come from hell-on-earth factory farms. And ‘free range’ is a gimmick created by a heartless, dishonest, murderous industry in order to make people like you feel better about unnecessarily consuming murdered animals. Do some research on ‘free range’ please.
      - Vincent Burke
        
        Hi,
        It may take a little time to get back to you depending on my location and computer availability … I will respond to you ASAP. You can also phone me on 0425 70 6667 and we can talk now.
        Cheers…
        Vincent
  - http://www.facebook.com/robert.tarzwell Robert Tarzwell
    
    one real reson to not eat whale meat is mercury , why kill a whale when 10 million pounds of mercury tainted meat is already wasting away in deep freeze.
    - ddpalmer
      
      Well all seafood has mercury. But whales from the Southern Ocean have some of the lowest levels of any seafood.
      - TAB
        
        The Japanese should know. They carry out plenty of RESEARCH!!!!! LOL
      - ddpalmer
        
        They do know that whales from the Southern Ocean have lower levels of mercury. One more reason to continue hunting whales there.
    - http://twitter.com/RSPW_DEP David Powell
      
      There are a ton of logical reasons to oppose whaling, and a ton of rational arguments to make. Instead the Sea Shepherds are going about the worst way of pushing their point. If thye think the Japanese are more lilely to back off if challenged publicly and directly they do not know Japanese culture well. Far better to use education and try for boycotts, instead they have gone about playing bumper boats on the high seas and have come close to getting people killed, including the crew of the Brigitte Bardot last year.
      - Guest
        
        The attention that sea Shepherd has drawn to whaling is literally ending whaling. The majority of the world had no idea that these whalers were sneaking down to the whale sanctuary to murder whales. Hell, the majority of the world didn’t even know there were still humans that were whaling.
        The world now knows what they didn’t know and whaling is being brought to an end as we speak, thanks to Sea Shepherd.
      - ddpalmer
        
        The attention Sea Shepherd has drawn hasn’t slowed whaling by one iota. In fact another country has indicate they may start whaling soon.
      - TAB
        
        Yes it has slowed whaling. The number of whales killed by Japan each year is decreasing. That would not be happening without Sea Shepherds presence. Korea have now scrapped their original plans to resume whaling. This is largely due to the negative publicity the Japanese are receiving due to their lethal “research” programme.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Please learn to read English.
        
        He claimed the attention Sea Shepherd has drawn to whaling is causing the affect.
        
        Korea decided not to make a request this year. Nothing stopping them from doing it next year or even quitting the IWC and whaling all they want. And you claim as to the reason they withdraw their request is really laughable. Do you really expect thinking humans to believe that somehow between the beginning of 2012 and June of 2012 Korea suddenly became aware of the negative publicity? Something they didn’t know about before? Something they somehow missed at the last 20 or so IWC meetings? LOL!
      - http://www.facebook.com/gillian.easterwood Gillian Easterwood
        
        What about Iceland? Norway? … Moreover, when they come home from the Southern Ocean and the SSCS are yelling victory, the Japanese fleet is getting ready for its annual whale hunt… in the Northern Pacific.
      - Think
        
        What about Iceland or Norway?
        
        Most of the demand serviced by Iceland or Norway, or that Iceland or Norway seek to exploit, is created in Japan. Therefore stopping Japan is key to stop all whaling for once and for all.
        
        It a weak argument shills for the whalers often put up … “What about Iceland or Norway?”, it’s like a kid arguing why he cant do something bad just because some other kid does something bad.
        
        Adults don’t think like that.
        
        You are repeating, time and time again, all the usual arguments the industry shills use. Think about the issue …
        
        Again, it comes down to the available support and resources of the animal rights and environmental movement. It only has so much time, money and human resources and so it applies them where the great need, atrocity and likelihood of success is.
        
        It’s simple … give us the US Navy and we will go after all of the nations tomorrow.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Sorry you are wrong. Norway doesn’t export whale meat and Iceland has exported less than 30 tons. 30 tons is about 5 or 6 whales meaning less than 10% of what they catch.
      - Truth
        
        The dying Norwegian industry announced in 2001 that they were going to, their Government gave the authorisation in 2006 and by 2008 Norwegian whale meat from an endangered species was in Japan, according to the Norwegians themselves.
        
        Greenpeace organized a partial air blockade, the Japanese market is cautious about mercury levels in their meat, what with sluggish and dropping sales in Japan, who knows what the current levels are, however, we do know the motivation is purely financial. The Japanese market paid more and consumed more of what the Norwegian domestic market did not.
        
        Would it sell more, if it could? Of course. That’s why we are working to stop them and kill the market dead. No demand, no point supplying.
        
        Another question to ask is, would Norway have re-started its slaughter if the Japanese not continued to set an example and circumvented the IWC by their bogus “scientific” slaughter? Probably not. Personally, I don’t know but I’d be looking for back-door exports via Iceland who buy the. The entire industry is shady.
        
        As for your response to my analogy, it’s completely illogical and irrelevant. It makes you look like your scrabbling around in the dust looking for your glasses unable to pick yourself up after losing.
        
        I suppose the whalers just sprinkle fairy dust on the whales, who then fall asleep naturally and are picked up in down quilt, before giving them flesh voluntarily to the butchers so they can go and live with Jesus?
        
        Norway: beautiful country, attractive people, unfortunate cultural tendency to collaborate with Nazis.
      - ddpalmer
        
        You appear to have Norway and Iceland confused.
        
        Norway can’t export whale meat due to CITES and Norway never stopped and restarted whaling. Iceland on the other hand has a reservation in CITES and thus can export whale meat and Iceland stopped whaling for a number of years and then restarted.
        
        So maybe you need to check you facts. And the Nazi reference just proves how pathetic you are.
    - EKBlue
      
      Robert – Wouldn’t your reasoning also dictate that all things that come from the seas are tainted with mercury? Hence we should stop eating all seafood? Come off it….
  - Guest
    
    So, because humans are murdering and eating a bunch of other animals, they should murder and eat whales too? That’s your argument? The madness has to stop somewhere and whales & dolphins are a good place to start, especially when you take into consideration that Sea Shepherd is an ocean protection and preservation organization. If you want Sea Shepherd to cover land animals too, feel free to donate a couple billion dollars to their organization. I’m certain they’ll be glad to open a Land Shepherd division. Also, it’s worth noting that Sea Shepherd heavily recommends vegan diets and requires everyone on their ships to adhere to vegan diets.
    - Whirled Peas
      
      No. A good place to start is at home, where protesting against what your own country is doing or building positive modesl of what you envision does the following:
      
      (1) sets an example to inspire people in other countries
      
      (2) enables you as an organizer to understand viscerally and concretely what it takes to move a country, state or even community economically, logistically, and culturally from one set of beliefs and habits to the next. In organizing in your own country among people you presumably care (and in your own language) you start to understand that, for example, to make your countrymen stop raising and slaughtering beef, it’ll take decades of patient work to change habits and to “take down” the beef lobby. You also have to deal with your country’s pride in being a meat and potato society and figure out creatively how to slowly change that. And if you propose to eliminate beef as a protein source, what do you plan to replace it with and who loses and who gains? You have to have a plan or set up a pilot program on how land that grazes cattle today can be turned into productive vegetable farms or greenhouses, or aqua and hydroponic farms and feed the many. You have to have a plan for areas of the country that have short growing seasons. You have to have an employment plan for when your country goes beef-less what will happen to the beef ranchers and workers and what will become of their land. And on a personal level, you may have to face the ire of family and relatives within the beef industry whom you are hurting, not to mention a mother or aunt who wants to serve the traditional prime rib for Christmas, to which maybe you’ll relent because you don’t want to miss your Christmas gifts! You get to be very savvy when you begin to explore all that complexity!
      
      To make change you need to think comprehensively, not just about your single issue And organizers who spend the good part of their time being a battering ram against another country’s practices are less likely to be motivated or experienced enough to offer comprehensive solutions.
      - Think
        
        It makes more sense for the environmental/animal rights movements to target the greatest needs and the most winnable battles first. Why be bound by national borders and nationalist interests? That’s just a kind of right wing nimbyism gone mad.
        
        As much as we’d love to stop the beef and pork industries dead tomorrow, they are just too big, too well defended and have too much marketing and PR money to spend on succouring politicians and blinding the general public.
        
        Hence, they organize themselves against the worst cases of animal abuse, which would include whale hunting and slaughter, and the greatest needs, e.g. protecting those species which face extinction.
        
        As the conscience of humanity in its relationship with other animals, the environmental/animal rights movements have very little money, as they have no “product” to sell, consequently they face limits to the size of the enemy they can take on.
        
        The slaughter of whales is barbaric regardless of whether you eat meat or not. It can never be done in a humane manner.
        
        • Imagine chasing down an elephant in a semi (articulated lorry in the UK) for 4 or 5 hours until it is exhausted,
        
        • Firing an rocket propelled grenade (RPG) through its lung cavity,
        
        • Then dragging it across the plains for 45 minutes, still alive, until it finally drowned.
        
        That is basically the equivalent.
        
        In the case of the dolphin slaughters in Japan
        
        • Imagine a dozen trucks chasing a herd of wild horses across the plain into a closed gulley blasting their horns at them to create fear.
        • The horses being locked in and starved for 2 or 3 days, not allowed food or water.
        
        • Then the truckers wading in amongst the horses with machetes stabbing and cutting them as they panic, finally dying in an orgy of blood.
        
        Neither of those are excusable industrial processes or animal welfare management.
        
        Don’t be blinded by the nationalist rhetoric … next he will be telling us we should not give charity to starving African kids until every American child has a free university education and healthcare for life.
      - ddpalmer
        
        “That is basically the equivalent.”
        
        LOL! No it is not.”Hence, they organize themselves against the worst cases of animal abuse,
        which would include whale hunting and slaughter, and the greatest
        needs, e.g. protecting those species which face extinction.”
        
        Then that would be the Japanese whaling in the North Pacific where they actually hunt species listed as endangered.
      - Think
        
        It’s a nigh perfect analogy ddpalmer, except the whaling slaughtering ships are bigger than semi and RPG are not pointed and barbed like explosive whale harpoons.
        
        The whaling slaughterers chase the whales to the point of exhaustion where they cannot dive deeply and have to keep coming up to breath.
        
        One of the reasons they kill so many females and pregnant females or females with calves is that they tire quicker, swim slower of will not leave each other.
        
        The harpooning does not kill them and the Japanese prefer to use body cavity shots because the head contains luxury food items for them. I would have said 20 minutes was too conservative a death period and put it at 45 minutes but sometimes it takes hours until the whale drowns in its own blood. Sometimes it will take multiple gun shot wounds or electrocution by electric lance.
        
        The whales thrash about in agony as a low voltage electrical charge slowly kills them.
        
        The ICR has a typical Japanese two-facedness of not wanting to show the unsightly reality nor for it to be exposed as any reasonable thinking person would be disgusted at its barbarism. Even meat eaters.
        
        The Japanese whaling industry is hiding the truth, and seeking to bury or poison all discussion of the truth because they know that the more people who do more, the more likely they are to disagree with the practise.
      - Think
        
        Just for the sake of accuracy, and prove I do actually know what I am talking about …
        
        It is true it is Japanese habit to use body shots to capture whales on the end of a harpoon and reel it in *before* killing by gun fire or electricity because the head and jaw contain luxury food items for them. It is not the Norwegian habit, which is to use headshots far more likely the whale instantly. This is one reason the Japanese habit is worse. The reason they do so is not purely for the luxury food items but also so that they can retrieve the whales’ ear wax which is of some interest to them.
        
        It’s used to calculate the whale’s age. Unfortunately, the whale must be dead in order for its ear plug to be extracted and studied.
      - ddpalmer
        
        “but also so that they can retrieve the whales’ ear wax which is of some interest to them.”
        
        Thank you for first proving you don’t know what you are talking about and second for using an argument that supports that it is research. The ‘whales ear wax’ as you call it is of interest because it is how you tell how old the whale is. Something that researchers would be interested in while hunters wouldn’t really care.
      - Think
        
        You obviously did not read my post because that is exactly what I said.
        
        The purpose of Japan’s “industrial research” is primarily about justifying commercial exploitation, not science.
        
        There is more than enough “science” to be done non-lethally and at a far smaller expense. The ICR has been widely criticized by scientists for the poor quality and irrelevance of its research … projects like trying to inseminate pig and cows ovum with whale sperm! (A trick SeaWorld also tried).
        
        Does that sound like real science to you?
        
        If so, I think you should lay off the Kool Aid for a while.
        
        You see, they exhausted justifiable scientific research a long time ago and now they are scrabbling about to find anything to justify their bogus industrial slaughter.
      - ddpalmer
        
        LOL!!
        
        Minke don’t dive deep and if they did the whalers would lose them as soon as that happened.
        
        No the reason they kill so many females is because females make up about 50% of the whales so about 50% of their catch is female. And about 80% of the Minke females are pregnant every year so about 80% of the females tend to be pregnant.
        
        Actually the Japanese prefer to kill the whales as quickly as possible just like any hunter. And the prime cuts are the belly, to make whale bacon, and the tail, to make onami.
        
        They don’t electrocute whales any more.
        
        The SSCS and their sheeple like you keep repeating lies in some kind of pathetic belief that repetition will make it become true.
      - Truth
        
        I’d say 400 m to 2000 m is “deep”, however, in the given context I only mean too deep to harpoon.
        
        As for the rest, it’s unsubstantiated and made up twaddle.
        
        The ICR made a mistake in the ’90s of inviting a non-Japanese onto their ships to document actual deaths. Ultimately his conscience at their pain and suffer led him to release the footage to the rest of the world.
        
        The Japanese response was to sue him to shut him up and suppress the truth of their slaughter. As with Taiji, they knew that if the rest of the world, and indeed their own market, saw what was going on there would be outrage. And there was.
        
        I don’t know what has raised your ire about this issue. Perhaps you are just some conservative American who does not like “liberals” or “eco-loons” who infuriated himself watching whale wars.
        
        Why does it interest you? You obviously don’t know very much about the facts behind it, so why all the polemics.
        
        If you are being paid to shill as some are, I could understand it. But if you are doing this for free and voluntarily, you must be insane.
      - ddpalmer
        
        No everything you write is unsubstantiated and made up twaddle.
        
        My claims can be back by science and basic logic.I don’t know what has raised your ire about this issue. Perhaps you are
        just some anarchist American who does not like conservatives or laws who infuriated himself watching whale wars.
        
        Why does it interest you? You obviously don’t know very much about the facts behind it, so why all the polemics.
      - Think
        
        On two or three occasions now, all you have done is mirror back the opposite of what someone has said to you without saying anything.
        
        It makes it look as if you are an idiot who has run out of arguments and is just indulging in a childish tit for tat.
        
        The impression I get is you would not know what science is even if bound volume of Nature magazine fell off a shelf and hit you on the head.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Well when an idiot, like you, makes a stupid statement with no that need to be refuted I tend to get sarcastic at their stupidity and parrot back their own clueless ramblings.
        
        The impression I get is that you know the truth but continue to spew lies because it is the only way you can support your ideology.
      - Think
        
        Again, I’ll response to both your increasingly irrational, insulting and angry responses here.
        
        There are two issues here; the animal rights and conservation issue, and the Sea Shepherd issue.
        
        Sea Shepherd have no monopoly on animal rights and conservation issues. Rather they are riding on an international swell of public opinion in favour of animal rights and conservation.
        
        As individuals and societies evolve, they care more about such things; increasingly so as we discover our existence is connected to their existences. Our shared morality also evolves and continues to expand beyond our own immediate self-interests.
        
        I am not a member of Sea Shepherd. I have my own criticisms of some of their leaders’ actions, primarily where those action damage the causes of animal rights and conservation.
        
        Who do you suggest are really helping the environment … the Japanese whalers?
        
        Direct action can be the only course of action to take and is valid up until a certain point. The law is far from complete nor an even playing field. Again, as with ‘science’, it strikes me you don’t really know what ‘law’ is about.
        
        Is there a personal connection between you and Sea Shepherd or is it just something you have seen on the TV which has made you angry?
      - Think
        
        Or do you like killing things and causing animals suffering too therefore you dislike people like Sea Shepherd who make you think that perhaps you should not do so?
      - ddpalmer
        
        “As individuals and societies evolve, they care more about such things…
        
        Our shared morality also evolves…”
        
        In your opinion. And guess what? You are the arbiter of what constitutes evolving or morality.
        
        Oh and so you are going to redefine “law” too. Just where do you get these great powers and how did you get put in charge?
http://twitter.com/46nd2 46nd2

You are right to sensor my comment , truth would only show your readers what deceitful puppets you are. @46nd2
TAB

I am absolutely disgusted that money donated by citizens of other countries as a gesture of friendship to help the good, innocent people of Japan whose homes etc were devastated by the earthquake/tsunami has been used to prop up the nations financially bankrupt whaling industry. This decision was made by the Japanese Government whose members have more than enough money to cope with any hardship – unlike the normal citizens of Japan who should have received this aid. The Japanese Government will say they are a proud nation but the truth is they will not allow themselves to be seen as being beaten by Sea Shepherd or any other anti-whaling group or outside organisation. It is this single minded stubbornness that caused the US to drop the atomic bomb to end the war. They did not want to take this action but unfortunately it was known the Japanese Government would never surrender. Such a shame as so many innocent Japanese people could have been saved back then if the correct decision was taken and the Government accepted they were beaten. Much the same as their whaling industry is now beaten. The Japanese Government need to accept this now.
- Whirled Peas
  
  That the whalers get government subsidy is NOT the same as gov’t using Tsunami donations.
  - TAB
    
    Same comment to you as I have made to ddpalmer above. The whalers were given a smaller contribution from tax subsidies – $10 million, and $30 million from the disaster relief fund. I personally donated to this fund to help innocent, good Japanese families rebuild their lives, not to fund whaling activities!!
    - ddpalmer
      
      And same answer to you here. The disaster relief fund was and is government money. repetition of your lie wont change the facts.
      - TAB
        
        Not appropriate to comment here. You have replied to my comment in response to your comment above. It is not your place to reply here as the comment here was not made to you. Let’s obey some level of etiquette and not just try to get as many posts as possible on this discussion. If I comment on your comment then by all means reply but do not reply on another’s behalf!!
      - ddpalmer
        
        ROFLMAO!!!
        
        You posted a comment on a public forum where anyone could read it and where anyone could comment on it. If you don’t like that then don’t make comments in public. It is “my place” to reply anywhere and to any comment I want to.
      - Kramer
        
        Dude you are a freaking troll. Yadda yadda yadda.
    - Whirled Peas
      
      Hey TAB. I have found no reported evidence that private donations to help the victims of the earthquake were used by the government toward whaling. What I do find is that $30 million in subsidies, which the Japanese government had initially allocated toward reconstruction was used instead for whaling research and other. While I don’t agree with this re-allocation, AND while I wonder if this doesn’t violate some kind of budget committee or finance ministry protocol, AND if I were a Japanese taxpayer I’d be very irritated, this re-allocation isn’t the same thing as using donations toward whaling. If donations were used, then I would be upset too. I donated through the Buddhist Churches of America and I imagine the Buddhist Churches of Japan used the money for church relief projects — at least I hope that is the case!
      
      Also, I personally don’t mind if ddpalmer chimes in on posts directed to me. He seems much more knowledgeable than I on this subject. Sometimes I find it hard to navigate this forum, and overlook posts! Best, WP
      - TAB
        
        Please read the article detailed in the link below from ddpalmer and my subsequent post which highlights the statement made by the Fisheries Agency : “The fisheries agency said the use of the fund was justified because one the towns destroyed by the tsunami was a whaling port”.
        I suppose that’s ok then. Spend $30 million on whaling and don’t worry about the innocent homeless Japanese citizens.
        I hope this article provides you with the evidence you require. My thanks to ddpalmer for posting the link I was actually looking for. The Fisheries Agency (Government) confirms it has used the money and attempts to justify it by the statement in the article which is quoted above!!! I assume you are comfortable with it not being spent on the homeless and devastated Japanese people and are happy it was spent on the whaling expedition???
      - ddpalmer
        
        Actually it is legal whether you like it or not. Maybe not what most people thought the fund would be used for but still apparently legal. And whaling was just one small expenditure that was investigate and found to have minimal connection to rebuilding the affected area.
        
        “Yoshimitsu Shiozaki, an academic specializing in urban planning at Kobe University, who has conducted his own survey of the spending, believes that little will be done to reverse the spending priorities.
        
        “Legally speaking, there are no problems with these projects,”
        Shiozaki told the Japan Times, noting that before signing off on huge subsidies, bureaucrats only had to prove that a company was in some way connected to the disaster area, even if it is through a single supplier.”
      - TAB
        
        So now you are admitting the fund has been used to prop up the whaling industry. That is progress and I’m not a liar anymore!! I am not arguing over the legality. I am happy you have accepted the fund has been used to support the whaling and the only issue now is the legality. I will leave the decision on legality to other readers to make up their own minds. And before you put up yet another mindless post we already all know that you think it’s legal. That is fine and ok with everyone. At least we now all agree that the fund was used in part for whaling. Thank you for your post.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Again learn to read English.
        
        I am claiming the fund was used to rebuild whaling facilities in the affected area and subsidize whaling jobs from the area, the kind of things it was meant for. WITH government funds NOT donations.
        
        And you are still a liar.
      - Whirled Peas
        
        Hi Tab: I read the Guardian article and can’t find text that says the gov’t used Tsunami donations toward whaling. What I do see is this quote:
        
        “According to campaigners the government used 2.28bn yen (£19m/US$30m) from the earthquake recovery fund, on top of its existing $6m annual subsidy, to pay for this year’s hunt. ”
        
        The earthquake recovery fund is not private donations. It is money the Japanese government originally set aside from its annual budget to help earthquake victims, And no, of course I am not happy about their decision to later use it toward whaling! I think the taxpayers dollar/yen would have been MUCH better spent on reconstruction of the devastated area, and I stated as much in my last post to you. But an unwise or even misappropriated use of Japanese taxpayer money is NOT the same as diverting the generous tsunami DONATIONS of people worldwide toward whaling. That’s all I’m trying to say.
      - TAB
        
        Hi Whirled Peas. I cannot do ant more than I have above. I extracted a statement made by the fisheries agency and put it in quotation marks. Again I repeat below:-
        
        “The fisheries agency said the use of the fund was justified because one of the towns destroyed by the tsunami was a whaling port”.
        
        That is a government agency explaining (and admitting) that it did use the funds. How can you not find this text. Or do you not want to find this text? LOL
      - Whirled Peas
        
        All your excerpt says is that the fisheries agency admits to using the FUND. The FUND of which they speak was the earthquake relief fund, which the gov’t originally EARMARKED from taxpayer dollars for earthquake relief). The problem is you keep trying to claim that FUND was composed of private donations and it’s not true. And your quote gives no evidence that the Fund was donations either.
  - TAB
    
    The whalers received $10 million in tax money and $30 million from the disaster relief fund. The Japanese Government admitted this as they had to account for where this money went. I personally contributed to the disaster fund to help good, innocent Japanese families rebuild their lives, not to fund whaling!!!!!
    - ddpalmer
      
      And the disaster relief fund was and is government tax revenues.
      
      And unless you sent a check directly to the Japanese government you DID NOT contribute to the disaster relief fund from which the whalers received funding.
- ddpalmer
  
  I am disgusted that people like you continue to spread that lie. No donate money went to the whalers. the fund they got a small portion of was Japanese tax money allocated by the government. The donated money is still with whatever charity it was given to, not with the government. But go ahead continue spreading the lie and making all anti-whalers look pathetic by association.
  - TAB
    
    I am afraid you are incorrect with your comment. The Japanese Government were forced to admit that they used $30 million to fund the whaling activities as this sum of money could not be accounted for. They stated it would help rebuild the economy by providing employment. I am sure innocent affected Japanese families would much rather the money had been spent on rebuilding their homes. As regards Japanese tax money – surely this would be better spent on rebuilding the countries damaged infrastructure than funding a whaling activity when tonnes of existing stored frozen whale meat remains unsold? I just cannot understand the logic of this.
    - ddpalmer
      
      You can be afraid of whatever you want.
      
      I KNOW I am right. The fund was purely Japanese tax revenue, no donations involved.
      
      As to whether there were better uses for the money, well I am sure that depends on individual biases and situations. There are lots of things my government spends money on that I think are a waste, but that is how democracies work.
      
      And you want to appeal to logic when it comes to how a government spends its money? Really? LOL!
      - TAB
        
        It was donations. The biggest mistake made by the rest of the world was allowing the Japanese Government to control the fund. It should have been controlled by an independent body, maybe the International Red Cross. That way it would have been used for what it was donated for – helping innocent Japanese citizens whose lives were devastated through no fault of their own. I wonder if we asked an affected Japanese citizen would they rather have a new house built or donate $30 million to prop up the financially crippled whaling industry what they would say? My Government spends money on things that I disagree with and I agree with you – that is how a democracy works. The problem here is that the money was donated by citizens of other countries to aid the affected Japanese people. Not to go whaling!!!!
      - ddpalmer
        
        It was not donations. the donations went to and are still controlled by the charities they were given to, not the Japanese Government. It si controlled by multiple independent bodies, namely the charitie to whom it was given. And it is being used for whatever those independent charities have decided to spend it on. The problem here is that you keep perpetuating a lie. The donations did not go to the fund that gave money to the whalers. That fund was a special allocation from tax revenues by the Japanese government. The vote creating the fund is public record and the money transfer from the Japanese Government tax revenue to
        the fund is public record.
        
        Here is an article that shows you are lying.
        
        http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/07/japan-whaling-fleet-tsunami-earthquake-funds
        
        Greenpeace is as opposed to whaling as Sea Shepherd an their spokesman says;”It is absolutely disgraceful for the Japanese government to pump yet
        more taxpayer money on an unneeded, unwanted and economically unviable
        whaling programme, when funds are desperately needed for recovery
        efforts,” said Junichi Sato, the executive director of Greenpeace Japan.
        
        Hmm, taxpayer money.
      - TAB
        
        Thanks for posting this link. I have been trying to find this Guardian article. I hope all the other readers read this article as this is what I have been referring to. I suggest you read the article again as it admits it has used donations – $30 million to be precise!!! The reason given is as follows (and I quote):-
        
        “The fisheries agency said the use of the fund was justified because one the towns destroyed by the tsunami was a whaling port.”
        
        Therefore despite you calling me a liar on numerous occasions I have been proven to be correct and I thank you for finding the link to this article.
        By the way – nice picture as well – illustrates exactly what all the fuss is about. The whale in the picture is not actually dead – yet!!
      - ddpalmer
        
        How is the Guardian article the one you have been referring too?
        
        For days you have insisted that the money was from donations. And now you claim an article that clearly states it wasn’t from donations is the one you have been trying to find? What, you where trying to prove yourself wrong? You do realize you have serious mental problems and are a pathological liar?
        
        And then you claim it proves you correct. man you are seriously deranged. I never said money from the Tsunami Relief fund went to the whalers and I can’t find where anybody else did either. The argument has been about where the money in that fund came from. And this article you now trumpet, proves YOU were wrong and proves YOU have been lying. So I have been right (as I knew) in calling you a liar all along, and now you are even lying about that.
        
        And here is another article you might like:
        
        http://rt.com/news/japan-tsunami-relief-fund-697/
        
        “Yoshimitsu Shiozaki, an academic specializing in urban planning at Kobe University, who has conducted his own survey of the spending, believes that little will be done to reverse the spending priorities.
        
        “Legally speaking, there are no problems with these projects,” Shiozaki told the Japan Times, noting that before signing off on huge subsidies, bureaucrats only had to prove that a company was in some way connected to the disaster area, even if it is through a single supplier.”
      - Mickey
        
        LOL troll. Its well known Japan has used funds that would have been better served for other things than this whaling expedition they go on. Its not like they do not already whale all the time off their own countries coast. Get off your high horse you jacka$$.
      - ddpalmer
        
        I never said there weren’t better things they could have used the money for and they don’t whale off their own coast “all the time”.
        
        So I guess you are a lying troll who uses strawmen. Why not crawl out of your sewer and try using some facts?
      - TAB
        
        I think you are thick!! Read the quote I have extracted from the article. A government agency admitting it used the funds and trying to offer a reason to justify it. If you also notice the sums of money referenced in this article exactly match what I have been quoting since you decided to take issue with me. This was the article that I obtained these sums from but could not locate it. So thank you ever so much for posting the link and allowing all the other forum readers to realise how stupid you are. It is written in black and white in the article YOU posted the link to. Well done. I cannot thank you enough. Now everyone can see that you are not interested in having a reasoned, fact based discussion because you deny the facts when they are in front of you in black and white. I am laughing writing this as I am now finding your responses very amusing. Maybe you should be on the whaling ships. One thing I can guarantee you is that no matter how much discussion goes on here the Japanese whaling programme is failing. Each year they take fewer whales and each year more people are aware of what they are doing. We will win and end Japanese whaling by bankrupting them. Looking forward to your next amusing reply. They are getting better all the time!!
      - ddpalmer
        
        So you expect us all to ignore your repeated claims that the money came from DONATIONS, which this article you now trumpet directly contradicts?
        
        So you are going to bankrupt the entire government of Japan? LOL!
        
        Looking forward to your next attempt to divert attention from your days of lying about donations. They are getting more pathetic all the time!!
- FJJ
  
  You talk like japans the only prominant government in the world that ever did such a thing. Are you naive or just downright dumb? Just cause this topic interests you doesnt mean that its ok to be biased about one countries actions while there are many many more out there.
  - TAB
    
    I am not dumb and I suggest you keep to the topic of discussion and do not resort to personal insults. For your information I also strongly object to the “Grind” which is carried out by the Faeroese people and the killing of dolphins carried out in Taiji, Japan. I am also deeply disturbed by the killing of elephants, tigers, etc worldwide. Japan is not being singled out here but after all, this article is written about a particular subject – Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. Therefore that is what is being discussed. Let us keep to the subject and not try to offset it against other issues!!
- RP
  
  Sadly, this extreme stubbornness is built into Japanese and many other cultures in Asia. Some years ago when the Japanese real estate and banking bubble burst causing an economic catastrophe in Japan that persist to this day is not resolved due to the problem of losing face.
  
  It appears the Japanese government will continue to dump millions upon millions of Japanese tax payer’s Yen into the bottomless pit of whaling to save face regardless of the barbaric practice of killing whales and dolphins.
  
  What the Japanese culture must do to grow up and move past their cultural restraints it to let go of the idea and belief that losing face is worst than death. Until that day comes, Japan will be trapped by their irrational cultural prison of chains.
  - TAB
    
    Couldn’t have put it better myself RP. Fully agree with your comments regarding the Japanese culture and attitude. You only have to read some of the pro-whaling comments on hear to realise that they will not give in until they are crippled financially. Hopefully Sea Shepherd will send them back to Japan having achieved nowhere near their required level of “kills” and the decline in consumption of whale meat will continue. It will be yet another year that they have suffered a huge financial loss and a year nearer to having to quit whaling. The Nisshin Maru factory ship is not in great shape and has been repaired prior to this years expedition. It won’t be too long before it needs replacing and that will probably not be financially feasible. Japanese whaling kills are on the decline and it won’t be much longer before they are forced to quit.
    - Ledger
      
      You guys really need to visit japan and actually learn how much of what is stated on the net/books are carried out in japan to what degree. Just because its a big issue and headline doesnt mean that its actually so. I realize you guys mean for the good and all but its kind of funny watching those poeple that blow things out of proportion. I lived in japan for nearly 20 years till 2009 and during that time i saw less than 3 whale meat sold. You guys make it like their gobbling up whales like US eat bread and potatos! haha
      - TAB
        
        Hi Ledger. I appreciate your comment however can I please suggest you watch a video on YouTube called The Cove. This is filmed in Taiji in Japan and whilst not about whaling it will blow your opinion about good old Japan out of the water. The Japanese have a lot to hide and if we could get more mainstream publicity from our own governments then whaling etc would be closed down. Unfortunately other governments rate their trade deals above animal suffering.
      - U.N.
        
        I dont think its about hiding. Every government hides something. Its about being able to accept cultural differences that dont do us any good.
- Think
  
  Foreign and public donations were not given to the whaling industry. That is a lie Sea Shepherd put out. Why Sea Shepherd put out such a lie, I have no idea. I wish they would stop.
ddpalmer

“The last week has seen the Australian government order one of Japan’s whaling ships to leave their exclusive economic waters as they tried to flee Sea Shepherd’s pursuit, as well as the activist group claim early success this year by preventing the death of any whales and this point as they locate and impede Japan’s fleet.”

Japan ignored Australia’s whining because they were within their UN CLOS rights to be there. And sorry but it was Sea Shepherd fleeing from the Japanese pursuit.

Yeah Sea Shepherd “claims” lots of things. they haven’t seen the Nisshin maru yet but “claim” no whales killed yet.

The only way they can prevent whaling is to violate the injunction. Blocking access to the Sun Laurel would require impeding one of the whaling vessels.
ChickenNoodles

I realize whaling is a sensitive issue but i cant help but notice the favoritism people show for dolphins while not thinking of all the other animal products we eat, sleep, and put on =/ All this hate for one country while we are blind to our own actions….
- RP
  
  Become a vegetarian and stop eating meat all together. In the long run this is healthier for you in many ways.
  - ChickenNoodles
    
    Meat is too good to give up They are my important nourishment.
    - Guest
      
      Meat’s poison for humans my friend.
      Plant foods have everything you need and they’re good for you. If you’re concerned about losing the meat-containing foods that you love the taste of, check out the meat substitutes that are available now. Even the unhealthy ones are better for you than meat, and their taste gets better every year.
      - ddpalmer
        
        If meat was poison to humans the species would have died out millenia ago.
      - Carol
        
        Not all poison kills in such a fashion my friend. Most humans who consume meat as a regular part of their diet have poorer overall health, reduced lifespans and greater occurrence of illness and disease. Some diseases, such as heart disease and colon cancer are virtually non-existent amongst vegans. Meat is an incredibly toxic food for humans. It is poison accompanied by a few nutrients and, in societies that have mastered plant agriculture, no human should be eating it.
      - ddpalmer
        
        Yeah, that explains how with increasing levels of meat consumption, US life spans also continue to increase.
      - Richard
        
        Are you being serious? The *average* U.S. lifespan continues to increase because of medical advancements and other advancements. In other words, an increasing percentage of the people who drive the national lifespan average down by dying young are now being kept alive because of technological, educational and societal advancements that either prevent them from reaching their death bed early, or revive them when they do reach it early.
        The people who are consuming meat are keeping that national average increasing at a much slower rate than it otherwise would be, because, although they do now often make it to the hospital for that triple bypass surgery that gives them a bit more time in their destroyed bodies, they are still likely to live lives that are shorter and more ailment-filled than they would have lived had they excluded meat from their diet.
        As a side note, the average meat consumption per person in the U.S. is no longer increasing; it is decreasing.
- John Smith
  
  If any slaughterhouse killed like the Japanese it would be shut down. It can take 40 minutes for a whale to die in agony after being harpooned. On top of this they have a brain larger than our own. Also Japan hunts endangered fin whales which are extremely slow to reproduce and
  live longer than ourselves.
  - ChickenNoodles
    
    Thats not logical because you cant bring such ‘fast killing gadgets’ like what the cattle butchery has into the ocean environment. (rather i think land butcheries are worse because the animal can clearly smell ‘death’ as opposed to the sea) Same goes for any other sea animal that is fished up. A life is a life and it doesnt mean that by being cuter nor intelligent you get special treatment.
    - John Smith
      
      If they cant be killed humanly then they shouldn’t be killed, if all animals had to suffer like this in slaughterhouses I would be
      a vegetarian. But even if they harpoon was a quick death it’s still cruel because whale pods are chased for days as there family members are picked of and butchered. As for your last argument are you happy to eat humans as intelligence
      is the only thing separating us from most animals, however this clearly provides no moral boudry for you.
      - ddpalmer
        
        “But even if they harpoon was a quick death it’s still cruel because
        whale pods are chased for days as there family members are picked of and
        butchered.”
        
        Where do you get this from?
Hayashi

Where is Ryohei Uchida? Im calling him out, this thread is missing its favorite troll!
- Whirled Peas
  
  You might not agree with Ryohei Uchida, but I wouldn’t say he or she is a troll. He has an opinion that he can elaborate upon intelligently and with nuance.. Trolls are those who come onto a forum and make inflammatory statements to provoke rather than to discuss a topic in any sort of depth. There are definitely some trolls on this forum, but I don’t think Uchida qualifies.
ddpalmer

What international law?

And the meaning of having spindle cells is speculative. There is no proof it has anything to do with intelligence. It is just as possible that any brain exceeding a certain size develops spindle cells for any number of reasons.
A.C.

Has anyone seen the South Park episode “Whale Whores” dealing with exact this issue? ^___^
- Vincent Burke
  
  Yeah…we watched it 3 years ago on the Steve Irwin while on campaign…thought it was hilarious…then we stopped the NM from whaling for over 20 days…great eh!
ddpalmer

Cows are sentient. Pigs are sentient.
- Guest
  
  So stop eating them troll.
  - ddpalmer
    
    How do you know I eat them? Ignorant strawman spewing troll.
leah

y’kno, people are going to whale reguardless of the sea shepherds laughable and probably illegal attempts to stop them. Why can’t people kill whales? What makes them different from a deer or a bear? People kill those for foodevery year just like whales. I know some whales are endangered, but instead of trying to prevent whaling, I think people should have regulations. Regulations would ensure that the whales would die in the most humane way possible and if people had to apply for a whale harvest tag, then the whales that were killed could be monitored. And it could be limited to a specific whale that is not endangered, if there is one.
TAB

I have a straight question to both ddpalmer and Whirled Peas as you are the most prominent and aggressive posters on this forum. Will you both state whether you are in favour of the Japanese whaling programme and tax payers money being used to fund it?
- ddpalmer
  
  No I won’t.
  
  Not being a Japanese taxpayer I have no say in how the democratically elected government of Japan decides to spend their money.
  - Truth
    
    I do therefore I have, so if you are an asshole American butt right out of this conversation and go fix your own country’s problems.
    - ddpalmer
      
      Oh, well I am not an asshole American, so I guess I will keep right on making comments.
- Whirled Peas
  
  I’m not a Japanese taxpayer either so have no say in how Japanese taxpayer money should be used. (I couldn’t even convince my own government not to go into Iraq!) It is up to the Japanese people to decide their own stance on whaling and to organize themselves in their own way around this issue, and to say yay or nay to tax money being used to fund whaling. There are Japanese people who are against whaling you know.
  
  The whaling issue is complex and is only a tiny part of a larger discussion all countries should be having around sustainability of land, air and sea.. But IMO blocking whalers from whaling or pouring red paint on their national flag only makes people defensive. Rather, it is so much better to emphasize and build upon the positive. For instance,: Japan’s excellent traditional low-fat and naturally vegan cuisine. Japan’s efforts to improve aquaculture. How Japan and other Asian nations are raising fish in rice paddies. Efforts to grow organic rice and use frogs to keep down insect pests. How Japan is using technology to save sea turtles. Japan’s model recycling and re-use program, which they had before most countries, which is not surprising because one traditional trait is a deep regret for anything that goes to waste expressed as “Mottainai.” Anyway, TAB I don’t know how “prominent” a poster I am. I think I may be just wordy So signing off now. I have to go eat my veggie and tofu lunch!
Mike C.

“environmental extremists”

I think these monsters who are murdering whales — firing giant harpoons into the bodies of a peaceful, innocent, defenseless beings for no good reason whatsoever — are the extremists.
They butcher these gentle giants — these sensitive, intelligent beings — simply because they cannot speak for themselves and cannot defend themselves. These ‘whalers’ are bullies of the worst kind and their actions merit methods of intervention far more radical than any used by Sea Shepherd.
It’s incredibly disturbing that a non-profit environmentalist organization has had to assemble a f**king security fleet to compensate for the crookedness and cowardice of governments who fail to back their words with actions.
ddpalmer

Actually that is not entirely true. You may want to read the article without your rose colored glasses.

“Whales may share our kind of intelligence…”
So they MAY share our kind of intelligence.

“…are the cells that are credited with allowing us to feel love and to suffer emotionally.”
Hmmm, ‘credited’ not known to be responsible even in humans.

“Exactly how spindle cells function in whales is still under investigation, but Hof believes the long, high-speed connections may fast-track information to and from
other parts of the cortex.”
Hmmm, don’t know how they function. And high speed connections to and from parts of the brain. That sounds like something that any sufficiently large brain would
need, whether intelligence or emotion is involved.

“Hof and van der Gucht suggest that whales probably evolved the spindle cells completely independently of humans and apes…”
So they probably evolved them seperately meaning they may have a different function than in humans.

“However, many highly intelligent but smaller cetaceans examined by Hof and van der Gucht did not have the spindle cells. The explanation could be that these smaller
cetaceans, including bottlenose dolphins, evolved different but equally complex alternatives to the spindle cells”
Hmmm, so spindle cells aren’t needed for intelligence but they want to claim that their existence is proof of intelligence. Sorry that is a logic leap with no basis.
Think

As this comes up often on related discussion, I would like to underline, the Government of Japan did not use public or international donations for 3/11 tsunami relief to fund the whaling industry.

This is a lie Sea Shepherd told for the sake of their own reason, probably to make people angry and exploit their emotions for donations.

Why Sea Shepherd use such strategies, apart from the inherent racism of some of their leaders against Japan, I do not know.

Ultimately, it only damages the cause and the reputation of animal welfare and rights activists everywhere.

I am completely against whaling but am sick of Sea Shepherds’ sloppy, dishonest, cheap and low level manipulation of its adherents and its engendering of racist sentiments. It’s counter-productive.
susaningred

Leave whales environmental friendly Australia says leave our waters whaoes and protectors alive and unscathed. Leave our waters now…

Sea Shepherd locates Japan whaling fleet’s resupply ship, aims to block access

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