We had to wait an extra week to find out what happened in the small boats, and frankly I’m still not sure. The boats were picked up but we only see the event from the perspective of the crew of the Bob Barker. Two small boat crew members are suffering from hypothermia but there’s no mention of anyone having frostbite problems or any other lingering effects. It will be interesting to see how many of them volunteer to go again when the remaining small boat is next used.
Meanwhile, the crew of the Gojira found the bunker ship and did some gratuitous hassling before they broke their remaining engine.
It will be interesting to see if the SS people actually get to interfere with the refueling operation. I didn’t get to see the previews for next week so I don’t know if the whalers show up or not.
They get involved in a search and rescue attempt that has nothing to do with the whalers. At least one crew member seems irked they have to suspend their quest of saving ceteceans to try to help some mere human beings.
I always remember Scylla’s classic post on the Sea Shepherds from awhile back (before the thread got de-whaled).
My Dad and I have had a couple of brainstorming conversations about these guys, too. One of topics was how they could have more effectively spent the millions the used on the Steve Irwin. I suggested two options: the first was to commission Hayao Miyazaki to create an epic animated masterpiece about whales, one that was truly breathtaking and would lure in children and families from all over…and in the last 15 minutes of the film, which would be kept secret until the premiere, all the whale characters are graphically slaughtered onscreen by Japanese whalers. Maybe have some of the whalers express some regret or reservations about what they’re doing, only to be shouted down by his bosses, saying that as long as the public supports whaling, they have a job to do…::looks menacingly at audience:: We’re talking Mega-Old Yeller/Bambi’s Mom material. A generation of traumatized children might just have more effect than one boatload of hippies.
The other option was to spend the money on buying some Silkworm missiles from Iran, and going factory ship hunting.
Don’t forget South Park’s rendition: Whale Whores. Probably NSFW with all that animated blood and gore. But much more satisfying to watch than Admiral Captain Kangaroo.
I admit to never watching this show, because I think it’s manufactured reality tv.
Based on this thread, the folks on the side of the whales sound like bumbling idiots, so I doubt I would enjoy this show at all.
For those of you that watch it, question:
Does it seem contrived at all? I think I’m asking if the protesters are on any legal footing, or if their ship were rammed, there wouldn’t be a damn thing that anyone could do about it?
This just doesn’t seem like something you could make a legitimate series about unless you controlled the real risk involved. Almost like the Japanese are getting a check to not squish the boat of do-gooders.
In fact, one of their ships was rammed and sunk. There was some sort of inquest into it and it was found that both parties were at fault, so there really was nothing done about it.
I’ve only watched maybe to episodes and I truly feel for the plight of the whales. I’m glad these people are putting up a fight in order to save them. That being said, how is it that the whale warriors aren’t arrested for piracy? Seems to me the Japanese whalers have every right to try and take them out because they are directly threatening their ship and it’s crew.
The Japanese whalers are in what Australia claims as its own waters, and I guess the rest of the world mostly considers open water. Or something like that. Nobody really likes what the Japanese hunters are doing so nobody really cares what the Sea Shepherds do, as long as no one starts shooting lethal weapons at each other. They call themselves pirates, but it’s not like they capture Japanese ships and crew or something. Most of the world has agreed to quit commercial whaling, but countries like Japan and Norway etc. basically tell the world to fuck off and keep whaling, calling it “research.” Australia is anti-whaling, so they’re not keen to protect those poor defenseless and innocent Japanese just doing their “research.”
Ah. So the powers that be just look the other way in regards to the activists. I guess the next logical question is how come the Japanese don’t suffer any sort of sanctions for not abiding by the anti-whaling treaties. Is it simply a matter of it being an agreement by nations that has no teeth if it’s ignored or are they using some loophole? Lastly, what the he’ll do we need whales for anymore anyway? Please don’t tell me it’s one of those weird Asian aphrodesiacs or something. I need to do some reading on this. It’s a fascinating subject.
I think that if Watson or one of the other recognizable Sea Shepherds actually set foot in Japan, they’d be arrested immediately. But at sea, there’s not much you can do to arrest someone without boarding their vessel, which in itself is an illegal act. The whalers do defend themselves - they spray the Sea Shepherd boats with high power hoses, they’ve used an LRAD in previous years, etc.
Last year, one of the Sea Shepherds - Pete Bethune, actually boarded one of the Japanese vessels. He had been the Captain of the Ady Gil - the ship involved in the collision - and was planning to do a citizens arrest of the Captain of the Japanese ship. He was arrested & tried for various crimes in Japan. He was facing up to 15 years in prison, but wound up being convicted & given a 2 year suspended sentence.
Part of the whole fiasco was when Watson formally expelled Pete from Sea Shepherd, because there had been a bow & arrows on the Ady Gil, in violation of the Sea Shepherds laughable “non-violent protest” policy. The real reason, IMHO, was that Bethune was getting more press than Watson.
We watched the episode we taped earlier last night. My husband said something about how, if he weren’t married, maybe it’d be interesting to take some time off and work with the Sea Shepards for a season. My response?
Yours is a seemingly common attitude towards the SS. You’re kinda missing the point though. It would be extremely easy to find a couple whale-loving former Navy Seals to join the SS and teach them how to truly and seriously ruin the whalers’ day. Then they really would get labeled eco-terrorists or something and they’d quickly lose public sympathy and end up on Interpol watch lists, etc. By remaining the bumbling, untrained and inexperienced do-gooders they are, they can keep the moral high ground and the cameras focused where they want them: on the evil and cruel unfeeling whalers.
That is also why they cruise around in the Southern Ocean as opposed to trying stuff up near Norway, Iceland, and Japanese territorial waters. It has been made perfectly clear that the respective coast guards would not be having that shit. So they tool around in the one place they can get away with it and make a big show and damage property. They are pussies. Oh and I’m okay with limited sustainable whaling, because whales are delicious.
Pussies? No. Call them foolhardy if you want, but pussy they ain’t. The Antarctic is no place for pussies.
If Japan wants to conduct whaling off its own coasts, in its own waters, let them. They don’t have much business conducting their blatantly disingenuous “research” in someone else’s waters. If someone is being pussy, it’s Australia for being too chicken to kick them out because they conduct lots of lucrative business with Japan. Let Japan cruise into American waters and conduct some whaling “research” and see what happens.
Damn, they actually did it. The Bob Barker was on the factory ship’s tail, apparently trying to get away by attempting to circumnavigate the continent, only to be thwarted by the Chilean navy after the SS tips them off.
Then they get phone calls from the Japanese press, and later get the news that the Japanese whalers where ending their season early, giving credit to the “terrorist activities” of the Sea Shepherds. This was, by far, the worst season the whalers have ever had.
The Japanese tsunami happened while the whaling fleet was returning, and the Nisshin Maru was pressed into service as a relief vessel. Paul Watson said that was the first good work that ship has ever done.
This is true. But the very bumblingness of the crew undercuts this message, and makes most of the audience actively root for the whalers. (In my house, at least.) They’re certainly earnest, but dumb. And dumb makes me think your heart’s not really in it; that you’re just down there to get laid. I don’t agree with what the whalers are doing either, but right now the crew is messing with these poor people’s actual livelihoods, their jobs, while they’re down there on a lark on a break from college.
Yes, I know I’m mischaracterizing the crew, and badly. But very little of what they do engenders me to their cause, and badly damages their message.
I concur - I’m not complaining because they didn’t mount 50 cals on the boats & chopper to sink the whalers - I’m complaining because they can’t even run their boats successfully. Why not practice the refueling maneuver a few times while still in port to work out the bugs? How do you wind up with one of your fouling lines tied to your inflatable? It’s not that they need ex-SEALS, it’s that they get a bunch of idealistic morons with no nautical experience or skills, and give them critical jobs in the most unforgiving environment on the planet.
Now maybe idealistic morons are all that’s available to them. Fine. But don’t expect me to feel much sympathy towards them when Darwin finally catches up.
