Japanese whalers, activists clash off Antarctica

By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press – Sat Jan 1, 5:15 am ET

SYDNEY – Japanese whalers shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists on Saturday, the conservationist group's founder claimed, hours after the activists tracked down the hunting fleet in the remote and icy seas off Antarctica.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is chasing the fleet in the hopes of interrupting Japan's annual whale hunt, which kills up to 1,000 whales a year. The two sides have clashed violently in the past, including last year, when a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling ship.

On Saturday, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson was talking to The Associated Press by telephone from his ship when he said the whalers suddenly began blasting one of his group's inflatable boats with a water cannon.

"They just turned their cannons on our Zodiac," Watson told The AP. "Right at this moment."

New Zealand-based Glenn Inwood, spokesman for Japan's Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, which sponsors the whale hunt, said he had no comment.

Every year, Japan and Sea Shepherd make claims of aggression against each other, but the accounts are generally impossible to verify. Their skirmishes take place in an extremely remote part of the ocean off Antarctica.

The Japanese are allowed to harvest a quota of whales under a ruling by the International Whaling Commission, as long as the mammals are caught for research and not commercial purposes. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts. Each hunting season runs from about December through February.

Japan's whaling fleet set out for Antarctic waters in December. Sea Shepherd has been searching for them since, and spotted the first whaling vessel on Friday, Watson said. By Saturday, the group had tracked down three of the fleet's ships in an area about 1,700 nautical miles (3,200 kilometers) southeast of New Zealand, he said.

"We got them before they started whaling and now that we're on them, we're hoping to make sure they don't kill any whales for this season," Watson said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110101/...BhbmVzZXdoYWw-

Truly sick, wasteful people. Have you seen them do shark finning before? Or what they use for shark bait? Thank god the US has a grasp on regulating our fishing fleet.

Or their outrageous prices on bluefin tuna? Despite the fact that bluefin tuna is an endangered species and will be extinct in less than 50 years if we continue to harvest them?

We learned in the 1800s that allowing an open market on wildlife is catastrophic. Market hunting was eliminated by the Lacey Act in 1900 in North America to save terrestrial wildlife from over harvest. Free market principles should not apply to wildlife. Think about it... simple supply and demand says that even if demand remains the same, as the supply becomes more diminished, prices go up. Increased prices increases the effort of fishermen because they get more bang for their buck, so instead of backing off and allowing the species to recover, fishermen fish harder and harder until there's nothing left.

We saw this with many terrestrial game species, but thankfully more people were aware of the problems because they could see wildlife disappearing from their backyards. It's thanks to forward thinkers like George "Bird" Grinnell, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Lacey that we now have sustainable hunting regulations that fund conservation in North America. Unfortunately, the ocean requires international cooperation and agreements and is far more difficult to regulate. With hungry countries like Japan out there, I see little hope for our ocean wildlife.

The most expensive animal on earth is always the last of its species. Sad but true. Imagine what the last bluefin tuna will sell for. One... one animal... sold last week for over $300,000 in Tokyo's fish market.

I forgot about bluefin. Great points Vanessa!

The whales that are legally harvested are not an endangered species. In addition the whaling fleet often does not reach the quota that is set forth which makes their impact virtually negligible on the overall population.
The opposing force (Sea Shepard) is trying to impose its beliefs on others in a way that is both illegal and illogical. Their extremist views are on display for all to see by simply tuning in to an episode of Whale Wars or searching the world wide web.
They are dependent upon kneejerk reactions and skewed data to support their agenda which is woefully lacking in factual evidence.

I refuse to watch Whale Wars, because I don't believe in environmental terrorism (which is Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace). I dislike Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace probably as much as those Japanese whalers do. However, I have little faith that these Japanese boats are truly conducting scientific research. They aren't harvesting just minke whales, they also kill beaked whales, which is a group of several species we know very little about.

I'm all for sustainable management through hunting, but I find it offensive when people try to hide blatant commercial use of wildlife under the guise of "research." Biologists have a difficult enough time trying to get the public to understand why we implement certain policies and wildlife management regimes without having pseudo-"research" organizations undermining our credibility.

Originally Posted by snowgyre

I refuse to watch Whale Wars, because I don't believe in environmental terrorism (which is Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace). I dislike Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace probably as much as those Japanese whalers do. However, I have little faith that these Japanese boats are truly conducting scientific research. They aren't harvesting just minke whales, they also kill beaked whales, which is a group of several species we know very little about.

I'm all for sustainable management through hunting, but I find it offensive when people try to hide blatant commercial use of wildlife under the guise of "research." Biologists have a difficult enough time trying to get the public to understand why we implement certain policies and wildlife management regimes without having pseudo-"research" organizations undermining our credibility.

I agree to a large extent. I simply would like to point out that if comparing apples to apples, the Japanese whalers are conducting themselves in a more lawful manner than Sea Shepard.

The Japanese DO gain a great deal of research from the whales they kill. That's not the main purpose of killing the whales, no one is fooled by that. But the info they get is valuable. The species they harvest are not severely endangered, and are being legally harvested according to the Japanese rules and depending on which people you listen to, legal even by the IWC, which sets forth all the rules regarding whaling.

Watson is such a lying piece of turd that it's unimaginable to me that ANYONE believes anything that idiot says. He's a complete Animal Rights terrorist and will do whatever he thinks will gain him media attention without regard to human lives. He's been shown in massive lies time and time again, and even claimed to have been SHOT by a Japanese whaler, when it was so clearly faked that if it had been in a film, people would have walked out of the theater.

As far as the Sea Shepard and the piracy they've commited, I personally think they should be treated as the pirates and terrorists they've shown themselves to be. If they tried to dodge in front of a commerical boat plying it's trade, then they get run down. Oh so sad. Commercial boats plying a trade have right of way on the water. If they board ANY vessel without permission, they are committing piracy and should be shot.

To look at it in a open and honest form.. how would you feel if extremist vegans from India came to the United States and started throwing acid on cattle producers and throwing themselves in front of cattle trucks to prevent anyone from taking beef cows to market? Seems like a idiotic venture? Not that different. It's the same animal rights crazies, just not in our personal backyard.. right now.

Theresa, I completely, 100% agree with your assessment of Sea Shepherd. They whine and moan about their precious ships getting rammed, when you know gosh darn well that they probably purposefully put their ship in the way of those whaling vessels. Park your car in front of a train, you're gonna get smashed. They deserve what they get, and it would not surprise me one bit if one day that whole crew gets claimed by the sea. It seems to be what they want anyway.

Originally Posted by Luvthemtorts

The whales that are legally harvested are not an endangered species.

not yet anyways... give it some time.

Originally Posted by Luvthemtorts

the whaling fleet often does not reach the quota that is set forth which makes their impact virtually negligible on the overall population

Just curious what your source for that information is?

***
In the movie 'The Cove' at the UN meeting, the Japanese government official presented their view that dolphins are pests that are responsible for declining fish stocks worldwide (hense, they should be able to kill the dolphins). No, it couldn't be their over-fishing... It also showed footage of the fish markets selling whale meat (and DNA test proving some was actually dolphin labeled as whale). I can't remember the rule but how is it they can sell whale meat? Is it the 'excess' left over after their 'scientific testing' is done?