Then you did not watch the third video.
For others reading, I did know the answer to the question, but it never hurts to re-ask every once in a while.
Are you saying that the SS were peacefully enjoying the weather when the whalers came out of the blue and attacked them unprovoked? The SS had been harassing them for who knows how long until they finally made them react, which is exactly what they wanted. The SS provoked the whalers until they decided to use force and then that’s all the SS show. The big bad Japanese being mean to them.
My own WAG on all this is that after years of harming themselves the SS finally found something useful to harass the whalers with this new speedboat and the whalers decided to take their chances to get the one boat that bothered them out of commission.
So yes, I am saying that the Japanese intentionally rammed the SS boat. And I applaud them for it. “The law” (whatever that is, I once started a thread asking just that) has been turning the blind eye to the encounters of the SS with the whalers. Might as well take advantage of the lack of adult supervision.
When your small and fast boat is idling in the path of the large and slow boat. It’s your fault, period. That accident was TOTALLY avoidable. If your fast and maneuverable ship gets smashed by a big ship, it’s your fault, period.
It’s pretty funny that, despite modern radar and such a big ass whaler managed to sneak up on these clowns and smash up their power boat.
-XT
The thing about radar is that you have to, you know, pay attention to it. Looking cool and telling tall tales with your crew doesn’t avoid big ass whalers.
lol, exactly.
-XT
Good and I understand. Thank you for acknowledging reality.
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Japanese whaling activities are 100% legal under every letter of the international treaties they have signed.
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Probably 90% of the Japanese population probably had whale meat as school children; it is rarely actually sold in stores, almost all of end ends up in public school lunches. 99% of people who have had it in school lunches hated it. I’d bet a significant amount that 90% of people haven’t had whale meat after leaving elementary school.
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I’ve never officially seen it on any restaurant menu, but there are some high-end sushi restaurants that are known to have whale meat if you know who to ask. 99% of people that have had it at high-end sushi restaurants did not particularly care for it, and wouldn’t order it on their own dime (i.e., companies order it when taking clients out on the town and wanting to look like a big spender). The only reason whaling continues in Japan at all is 100% a matter of national sovereignty and pride: Japan will not allow other nations to bully it around just because a bunch of hippies in other countries think ‘whales are cute and smart’. Tell that to all the pigs that get killed every year for their ham sandwiches.
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Japan is hardly the only nation that hunts whales - Norway, Greenland, Iceland, and yes, the US, also hunt whales. I wonder why the SS guys don’t go around bothering the Alaska fishing boats?
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Japan is allowed 50 or so whales of various types - for example, 50 Bryde’s, 10 sperm whales (population estimates range from several hundred thousand to over a million). The vast majority of whaling is for Minke whales - and even consevative estimates put the total population of Minke whales at over 500,000. Japan is allowed 950 a year. If half the population is female and only half of one percent of the female population has a baby whale in any given year, 1,250 new minkes are born each year - for a species that isn’t in any way, shape, or form considered endangered.
I am concerned about the future of our overall fish supply - particularly tuna. But the whole whaling debate has been hijacked by a bunch of well-meaning but ill-informed (or ill-intentioned) zealots - like the young kids that riot at every G20 summit to protest ‘globalization’ and ‘big companies’, these idiots are more interested in creating news than bringing attention to any actual issue even if there was one. Note SS and his cretins don’t target Norwegian boats. Or Greelandic boats. Or US boats. If they were serious about stopping whaling, they’d target all whaling. They are media whores.
I’d happily support reasonable and lawful efforts to focus more attention on our overall fish supply. There are lots of issues out there worth getting upset about. Japanese whaling ain’t one of 'em.
You mean the 3rd video that shows them standing firm in the path of an oncoming whaler, with LRAD running, and cuts out just before the critical damming piece that shows the small boat running it’s engine up, and moving into the path of the Japanese ship?
Creative start/finish can do all sorts of wonders to “prove” your case.
What video are you watching? The guy stopping filming after the collision is a signal of creative editing?
Watch the three-way split screen.
Note that the two ships are in no danger of colliding at the start. If everyone keeps doing what they are doing at the beginning there is zero problem. No one is worried. Won’t be close at all.
At 1:17 we get the Japanese video cutting in. Note the SS ship is idle.
At 1:21 we have all three versions. The whaler is now notably turning INTO the SS ship. Had it not turned there would be no collision at all. Without a doubt, and the most amazing part of your take to miss it, is the whaler clearly initiates a collision course.
At 1:29 we can see the whaler is on a collision course. If the SS does not move they have every reason to think they will be run over.
At around 1:32 the SS ship seems to have started moving.
At 1:37 crunch time.
To think the SS ship intentionally tried to put itself under the prow of the whaler is to assume suicidal people. They may be crazy but if they wanted to kill themselves they could have done it at anytime. Pretty sure they wanted to live and keep their multi-million dollar boat intact.
Do you seriously think that’s how boating works? You just drive your boat wherever you want in the middle of the ocean and everyone better get the hell out of the way? You’d make a great Sea Shepherd.
Not so much suicidal as precognitive. “Here we are, idle in the middle of the open ocean, right where a whaling ship intends to drive by a mere several minutes later. Look at all the natural barriers around us! They’ll have to run us over. Haha!”
I guess he is thinking something along these lines.
Well, yeah. There is no point in being obtuse about it. Thinking otherwise either assumes an incredibly stupid whaler captain that didn’t see the other boat or couldn’t manage to avoid it or an incredibly malicious and prescient whaler captain that passed just so the other boat would hit him by moving at the wrong time when he was close shaving him.
The whalers just got sick and tired of the SS (or worried about the new boat) and decided to play hardball and damn the consequences. Luck just had it that once more the SS managed to look stupid and get injured in the process.
Consequences in this case come perilously close to attempted murder (there was a very real chance the SS crew could have been squished). I understand their annoyance with the SS but that goes too far.
Piracy is not an annoyance. Boarding a ship or damaging it’s propulsion is not an annoyance. Destroying property is not an annoyance. These are deliberate acts and the whalers have every right to defend themselves, their ships and their cargo from attack.
This isn’t some random boat in the harbor that drifted into their path, this is deliberate, provocative, and malicious behavior.
Exacully. I get the giggles thinking about all this. “They should be arrested! They’re terrorists! They deserve to die!”
Hahaha! The US already said if Japan ever managed to get INTERPOL to red notice these guys, we’d cooperate. I imagine most of the world would. Hasn’t happened. Terrorists, indeed. They’re not on “no fly” lists, and freely travel in and out of the US, Europe, Australia, NZ, etc. They got a TV show! Google up some of the famous names who support them.
These guys want to be arrested. If these people were really considered terrorists you’d think Japan, Iceland & Norway would have the balls to actually do something, but apparently the rest of the world is too busy laughing to take them seriously.
They may have just figured that even with a couple of casualties, they stand to gain from a day in court.
Here’s a more recent article, with a nice video included. Watson is threatening to arrest the Shonan Maru himself, if OZ & NZ don’t do it.
This is as stupid as when the SS decided to serve the whalers some sort of legal letter by boarding a harpoon ship. Then claimed the Japanese are holding them hostage. Genius.:rolleyes::smack:
It is genius. They do these things precisely to get the media coverage countries like Japan don’t want. Every article about this probably somewhere includes a blurb like, “Japan, which has been widely criticized for illegally engaging in commercial whaling under the guise of scientific research…”
Exactly what they want.