Fair enough.
Iceland has a special extended territorial range in their surrounding waters. I’m no International law expert, but I think that means that their jurisdiction extends plenty far enough to ensure that any whaling that they do is done on their home turf. I plan to eat some whale while I’m there.
Don’t die of mercury poisoning. 
I’m not overly worried.
Also, It seems that I may be confusing an exclusive economic zone with territorial waters. Anyone got the correct answer on that?
The first episode I watched was the one where after an encounter with a Japanese vessel, the captain comes out and claims to have been shot, only the bullet “miraculously” impacted the sheriff’s badge he had pinned to his chest instead, leaving a pristine bullet and resulting in no bruising to his chest.
uh-huh :rolleyes:
That was the moment I switched from being sympathetic to the SS’s cause to rooting for the Japanese whaling fleet instead. I haven’t watched another episode since.
That was the moment when I started thinking that the show was produced and distributed by the whaling fleet. It was so transparent that even the production teams tried to distance themselves from it and starting talking in legalese with all the “allegedly” and “supposedly” when mentioning the incident. Then it was never mentioned again.
It’s not just the whales, looks like they are going to lose one of their boats here by me because of the seals…
SYDNEY — Two anti-sealing activists have been found guilty of interfering with Canada’s East Coast seal hunt in waters off northern Cape Breton last year.
Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden, first officer of the protest ship Farley Mowat, and Captain Alexander Cornelissen of the Netherlands violated marine mammal regulations by repeatedly coming within half a nautical mile (926 metres) of the legal seal hunt without first obtaining an observer permit.
The charges stem from incidents March 30 and April 11-12, 2008.
Neither man appeared or had legal counsel for the 3 1/2-day trial that began in Sydney in late April.
In a lengthy decision read in provincial court Tuesday, Justice Jean Whalen said the case hung on three issues: whether Canada had jurisdiction to enforce relevant laws at the time, whether the accused were clearly identified, and whether they had come too close to the hunt without authorization.
“Based on the totality of the evidence, I find that the Crown has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt on each element of (the offences) and find the defendants guilty on all counts,” Whalen said.
The boat has been sitting in a local harbour since the incident and it may be going to auction, there will be an update in the local paper tomorrow if anyones interested.
Please quote me chapter and verse of maritme law that says (as you have said in this thread) that a person who hand-throws something at another ship is acting perfectly within the bounds of the law but a person that fires the same object at another ship with a cannon can be hanged. Thanks.
I’m coming to this thread a bit late, but I started watching the show after reading the thread and I find myself returning to it every week.
On last week’s episode (8-7-09) we did see some activity that could arguably be described as discharging a weapon, I think. At various points the captain launched flares in the general direction of the whalers (and apparently toward his own helicopter as well) and fired some sort of emergency line gun. Those events happened at times when he seemed to believe that the whalers were getting too close, but I can’t say that the whaler’s tactics seemed any more aggressive than the SS’s in earlier episodes.
I think it’s been interesting to see a few signs among the crew that some aren’t all that enthusiastic about some of the captain’s strategies any more. The rubber boat mutiny when he wanted them to throw a grappling hook at the factory ship, the confusion over just why the flares were being fired seem to suggest that some crew members are thinking that their own safety might not be priority #1.
I haven’t recorded any of the episodes so I can’t go back to check, but didn’t they get word two or three weeks ago that they could lose their ship’s registration if they continued to throw objects from the Irwin? The decision to resume that activity seemed based on anger and frustration, which isn’t the best motivation in a CO. It would also seem to put them in a bad situation legally.
I thought the reaction of the various crew members to the whaler’s throwing objects at them was a little illogical, too. One of the rubber boat crew members complained that the whalers’ throwing bolts and nuts at them was meant to injure while they were careful never to throw their acid bottles where Japanese crew members were standing was a little disingenuous. It doesn’t appear to me that the aiming of the bottles goes much beyond trying to get them aboard. I also don’t think that they can claim that their efforts to entangle the whaler’s propellers is harmless. As was mentioned earlier, losing propulsion in dangerous seas is a dangerous thing, and even if the entanglement happens in calm waters I would think that a diver would have to make a pretty dangerous dive to repair the situation.
At the end of the episode we saw the factory ship actually processing a whale. It was a reminder of the thing the SS’s are trying to accomplish, which gave me a little perspective. Even so, some of the crew members commenting that they couldn’t believe that the whalers would capture and process a whale right in front of them didn’t make much sense. I would guess that the whalers processed that whale with a certain amount of satisfaction.
Since this thread re-surfaced, I’d like to let everyone know that despite eating several pounds of minke whale in Iceland, I have neither contracted heavy metal poisoning, nor did any friendly Icelandic official limit my consumption of the meat. For the record, Whale tastes like lean beef with a slightly fishy finish. It is lovely to eat.
My thoughts like up with Curate’s pretty closely.
I like whales, but don’t want to eat one. I appreciate the SS crews love of whales and desire to protect them. I agree that the Japanes are ‘tweaking’ the laws and I don’t believe they are doing ‘research’.
But, the SS crew is made up of a bunch of doofuses. I am suprised no one had died yet. They never plan ahead (at least not well). The captain often “leads” with “Yeah. Whatever. Do whatever you want.” They seem totally suprised that the Japanese would both protect themselves and respond agressively. They were flabbergasted that the Japanese would - OMG- throw things at them! And pushing that weak ship through those ice fields- shoudln’t people be suiting up during those times? (Remember how those two guys “shored up” the hull with 2x4’s… like that’s gonna help.)
I guess they just thought the Japanese would put up with season after season of stink/slip bomb throwing and prop fouling.
Surprise, surprise.
that means they just have to kill more whales. Great strategy.
I’m surprised the whaling ships don’t consider the boats that approach them to be hostile and act accordingly.
They do, Magiver, but they are whaling boats not Frigates. What are they supposed to about it? They best they might have are small arms or non-lethal devices. Otherwise, their defense is to distract the SS ship and run for it.
After all, the planet was created as Man’s little meat park, free for us to exploit and devour to oblivion by God-granted right … is that not so? Who cares whether past harvesting of whales nearly drove many species to extinction, and that many of those populations have have never come close to recovery? They’re a resource on the planet, and that means God put them there for Man’s consumption, 'cause they’re animals, not humans. Right?
Tuck in!
:rolleyes:
And yet you’ve demonstrated more than once you don’t really care for people, either, unless they’re born to privilege and wealth, I guess.
Let’s a cite for any fox species that has caused the extinction of a rodent species.
Well, yes, basically. I mean, obviously, don’t hunt them to extinction or near extinction, but hunt them responsibly. Pacific Salmon are more endangered than Minke Whales, but there’s not a show about people going after salmon fishermen.
They have frickin’ harpoons.
Yah, and the anti-whalers have a helicopter. They know where to draw the line so as not to escalate it to the type of shit involving navies and so forth.
And let me just say the anti whaler’s crew are the biggest bunch of incompetent, inept and useless seafarers I’ve seen since Gilligan. They don’t know how to navigate celestially, don’t seem to understand that maneuvering a ship is not instantaneous, think their 25 mile range radar can see 400 miles out… all in all I don’t think the Japanese are too worried about these treehugging hippy flowereaters. They should go see Captain Phil or Sig since they spend so much time in the Antarctic and apparently don’t know the least fucking thing about sailing in the polar waters
Also that fat captain is a vegan??? 