Now, I’m all for keeping the whales safe from poachers, but I think this guy is going overboard with some of the things he does to these whalers out here on the ocean. He literally threw acid onto the decks of this one ship so there would be a smell and a chemical reaction take place making it almost impossible to walk on the decks of the ships. He also tried three or four times to use some sort of net to disable the propellers on this huge ship.
Now, these aren’t little tiny fishing boats, these are million dollar ships that he is trying to disable. What I also noticed is that he is flying a skull and crossbones type of flag, meaning he can technically be labeled a pirate.
Now, in your opinion, do you think this guy is going a little overboard or not? I personally think he’s kinda asking for it by trying to sabotage someone’s ship. I mean, I can see trying to board and askin them to stop and handing them a pamphlet with the laws printed on it, but trying to purposely disable a multi million dollar vessel on the high seas is another story. The Japanese whaler that he was trying to disable actually held the two guys who boarded the ship captive until this guy agreed to stop messing with them.
I think he may be treading on dangerous ground and he will one day mess with the wrong ship.
Sorry for any grammar mistakes, typed this in a hurry.
Everyone on that boat are sanctimonious pricks. Especially the guy in charge. They kept referring to the guys who boarded the boat as kidnapped and being held hostage. Fuck that, they illegally boarded a boat they have been trying to disable. That makes them pirates in my books. Bastards are lucky the crew didn’t shotgun them while trying to board the ship or throw them overboard once they made it. Hell, if I were the captain of the whaling vessel I would have put them in the brig and turned them over to the Japanese authorities once I reached port.
I have spent months in the Bering Sea. If anyone for any reason put the boat in danger I would support anything including death to protect it.
Jamming up the props or making the decks unwalkable is a threat to my life. I really think that they would just be killed in Alaskan waters. The Captain/crew must have shown great restraint.
I think that most of them are idealistic and earnest. I can see how that might come off as sanctimony, but I think that for the younger ones it’s a large measure of I’m Going To Save The World. I think most of us have gone through a stage when we think we know everything. I think they are militant because they don’t know any better. And it’s something they can point to to get laid. The doctor seems to have some sense, though he does have that crunchy-hippy vibe going on.
But Paul Watson – who co-founded Greenpeace and was thrown out for being too radical – is a piece of work. I think he believes his own PR, and that he is on an ego trip. He’s definitely a sanctimonious prick. He comes up with a dangerous, crackpot scheme and then asks his gullible crew to volunteer for it. Then he manipulates the guy who damaged the helicopter into volunteering to ‘make up’ for his carelessness. He engineered the ‘hostage’ situation knowing fully well what would happen. I have the impression he wants someone to be injured or killed so that he can validate the seriousness of his mission.
The First Officer seems unqualified for his position, and only got it because he’s a friend of Watson’s. He makes poor choices, and Watson backs him up.
Launching the Zodiac. Does anybody have a clue? Aside from a cruise when I was three or four, the biggest ship I’ve been on have been the Washington State and BC Ferries. Other than that it’s just been sailing in San Diego and crashing waves in my zodiac in the Georgia Strait and riding JetSkis various places. And even I, with no experience in such things, could see what was going to happen when they did their test launching of the Zodiac. Guys, the pointy end has to point forward. The guy on the bowline, of course, denied any responsibility. According to him he was pulling on the line. Obviously not; else the inflatable wouldn’t have been dragged like a sea anchor until the cable snapped. But no, he didn’t do anything wrong.
‘Ship Of Fools’ comes to mind.
I applaud efforts to protect cetaceans. But in this case we have a shipload of idealistic pawns being manipulated by a megalomaniac.
What? Hostile Dialect, we’re talking about whales here, not people. Killing them may be illegal, but it certainly doesn’t merit the death penalty - and vigilante “justice” is never[ appropriate.
Anyone who attempts to cripple vital ship systems at sea is threatening the life of everyone on board that ship. I care far more about that than the life of some whale - and so should you.
Oh come on, if you’re already willing to go out in rough seas for the privilege of fighting a whale illegally, how frightened are you really going to be of some unarmed goofballs in a Zodiac waving a pirate flag?
I sincerely doubt that any whale poacher is likely to quit his job in fear of these guys. ‘Terrorism’ explicitly requires terror. These fellows are at worst annoyists.
Fear of death doesn’t qualify? And I’ll note that groups which destroy laboratories which use animals are officially classified as terrorist organizations. Hounding people out of their business by using violent means, even just those which make it unprofitable, is terrorism.
Well yeah, but aren’t the victims here also criminals? My opinion of groups which destroy animal-research laboratories is markedly distinct from my opinion of groups which focus on destroying illegal gorilla- skull ashtray research laboratories.
The day al-Qaeda decides to focus on fighting whale poachers is the day I start offering aid and comfort to their organization. The 9/11 attacks? Well… I see no benefit in continuing to obsess over past mistakes. If America can elect a black president, there’s no reason why we can’t extend the laurels of peace to a terrorist religious organization and finance their new jihad against illegal whaling. We could even give them Oregon if it would help. But they’d probably just sell it again to pay for saltwater-resistant fabrics.
Vigilantes are criminals, too. It’s no deep secret that whale hunting is, for all intents and purposes, legal according to the Japanese government–regardless what they chose to call it officially. Either way, it’s up to Japan to corral their people, not some wonks from Greenpeace. It’s not the individual’s right to countermand the agreements of their democratically elected government.
See, “vigilante” doesn’t really work for me either. It has an undeserved cachet in American culture. The Shadow was a vigilante. In the public mind, vigilantes are cool. Much as I might sympathize with their cause, these whale guys do not sound particularly cool. If they were attacking whalers with the Nautilus or something, that would be cool. But they’re using a Zodiac and a pirate flag. The pirate flag actually makes the whole enterprise sound infinitely less cool.
So “pirate” is right out. “Terrorist” doesn’t work either. “Vigilante” is too impressive. It is a conundrum of nomenclature.
What about “jagoff?” Can we agree on “jagoff?”
“An illegal whaling vessel was damaged today by a group of jagoffs…”
I didn’t watch the show but I saw an extended trailer in the movie theater and I was astonished. I could see, say, putting your ship in between the whaling ship and the whale, or otherwise obstructing their task, but I can’t believe they are outright attacking the ship. I have no love for whalers, and generally have an open mind towards hippy dippy or greenpeace types, but these guys go way too far in my book.
