The Sea Shepherd Society names ship "Steve Irwin"

[Sarapva]

This is a news story about the Sea Shepherd Society naming one of their ships "Steve Irwin", from the "Crocodile Hunter", who was killed last year by a stingray near Australia. The Japanese whaling fleet is getting ready to kill humpbacks and minke whales, and the Sea Shepherd ship "Steve Irwin" has left Australia to track the Japanese ships.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22111742/

[bruno]

The aussies would better go to s.korea for help to clean
the sea-borders from oil-disaster !!

[Rose Selavey]

Hopefully a change of government will help change what is happening in the Southern Ocean this season. Go Peter Garret and the Steve Irwin!

[bakaKanadajin]

A very good friend of mine has two brothers on the Sea Sheppard I think. At least one, they're all New Zealanders. Pretty cool ship.

What happened in S.Korea is horrible.

[Astroboy]

As far as I know, Japan has started to catch whale in line with IWC agreement. But some of Europeans, Americans, and Austrian & NZ have started to threaten Japanese boats.
To me, they looook like a child telling "Because I don't like, You shouldn't do".
In Japan, those activist boats are called "Terrorist".

[Rose Selavey]

With fifty Humpback whales (an endangered species) in the firing line, Australians are very upset as the majority of those being caught will be caught in Australian waters off Antarctica. These whales migrate past the east coast of Australia every year from warm tropical waters to the Southern Oceans to feed with new calves. The Humpback whales interact with the tourist boats and have no fear of people. This is the problem, large females will be targeted (most pregnant) and the population will suffer for it.
The Japanese Fleet are the ones which should be called eco terrorists not the 'Steve Irwin'!

[Sarapva]

Originally Posted by Rose Selavey

The Japanese Fleet are the ones which should be called eco terrorists not the 'Steve Irwin'!

I agree - animal rights groups get the reputation of being "terrorists" when they're just trying to stop the terrorists of animals.

These whales migrate past the east coast of Australia every year from warm tropical waters to the Southern Oceans to feed with new calves. The Humpback whales interact with the tourist boats and have no fear of people. This is the problem, large females will be targeted (most pregnant) and the population will suffer for it.

This is terrible - the Japanese ships are taking advantage of a natural cycle in the whales' lives, as well as that they don't fear humans. I understand Australia's feelings about this. May the "Steve Irwin" succeed!!

posted by BakaKanadajin:

What happened in S.Korea is horrible.

Yes, it is. When will we humans stop destroying this beautiful world and the creatures in it? Much good luck to your friend's brothers on the "Steve Irwin", BakaKanadajin!

posted by Astroboy:

To me, they looook like a child telling "Because I don't like, You shouldn't do".
In Japan, those activist boats are called "Terrorist".

Though the Japanese fishermen might see it this way, they don't realize that they're causing terrible pain and suffering for whales, as well as for other people who are distressed by this, and harming the planet. It's not just an "authority" telling them not to do something - it's people who are very upset that the Japanese aren't listening and don't seem to understand the harm they're doing.

[Rose Selavey]

I too understand that the Japanese fishermen are just making a living but sometimes it takes people with conviction to engage in extreme action to stop what is going on.

[Taiko666]

Originally Posted by Astroboy

To me, they looook like a child telling "Because I don't like, You shouldn't do".

To me, and I think to a lot of people opposed to whale slaughter, the Japanese position looks like "Because you don't like it, we will do it, so there!"

With whale hunting, and especially the immature, cynical decision to kill humpbacks, Japan is just trying to provoke international outrage to foster a 'poor little Japan versus the nasty foreigners' scenario. This feeds xenophobia, which is a sure-fire vote winner for J-politicians. (Ditto fingerprinting.) I think this policy is succeeding... international anger/revulsion with Japan seems to be rising. おめでとうございます。

Originally Posted by Astroboy

In Japan, those activist boats are called "Terrorist".

The people who say that obviously have no idea what a terrorist is.

[Astroboy]

So there are many terrorists in the world, arn't there?

- Australian definition is opposite to Japanese one because they are located in South Hemisphere.
- Others, being opposite to Japanese definition, are all located at other side of this planet from us.

Either way, the world must follow the IWC agreement as well as international law. When the activist boat attack Japanese boat, they are "terrorist".

[centrajapan]

I'm waiting eager for the day Sea Shepherd starts attacking Native Americans who hunt whales. Australia does not have much of a point really and they know it. There is not much they can do to deny Japan carrying out a sustainable hunt of a natural renewabel resources.

Australia should stop killing millions of kangaroos each year.

[Rose Selavey]

Originally Posted by centrajapan

I'm waiting eager for the day Sea Shepherd starts attacking Native Americans who hunt whales. Australia does not have much of a point really and they know it. There is not much they can do to deny Japan carrying out a sustainable hunt of a natural renewabel resources.
Australia should stop killing millions of kangaroos each year.

Statements like these only confuse the issues. If Japan was proposing to hunt whales for food in their own waters and in a sustainable manner I would not have a problem. Japan is targeting endangered species (the Southern Humpback whale) for food consumption, this is not scientific research as they declare it is, because there has been no scientific report made by the Japanese in a peer reviewed paper for over 15 years. The IWC consistently distinguish between data gathered from lethal research and non-lethal research, they will not use the data from the lethal research because a dead whale is of no advantage to the population. Scientists around the world are using non-lethal methods of research to gather visual and genetic data on various species of whales to generate information about which populations are in danger of decline and which are making slow recoveries, it is time for the Japanese to follow suit, or convert to a traditional method of whale hunt to consume whale meat.
Australia does not kill millions of Kangaroos a year. Australia has over 60 species of Kangaroo, of these 4 species are harvested for meat. The number of Kangaroos killed depends on a number of factors and the populations (which have increased to massive numbers since European invasion) are not endangered or unsustainable. For more information about the harvesting and use of the four species of Kangaroo in Australia go to the federal government web site the department of foreign affairs and trade.

Indigenous cultures have every right to harvest traditional sources of food, but they must do it in a sustainable manner. Japan is not compiling to these guidelines and are dangerously close to losing any creditability in the scientific community. It is through action groups that radical change happens, the 'Steve Irwin' has every right to oppose the Japanese whaling fleet.

[Sarapva]

Yes - from what I understand, there is a very flimsy loophole through which Japan is whaling under the IWC terms, very thinly disguised as "scientific research". This was a compromise for Japan because of its whaling tradition.

[Astroboy]

Originally Posted by Sarapva

Yes - from what I understand, there is a very flimsy loophole through which Japan is whaling under the IWC terms, very thinly disguised as "scientific research". This was a compromise for Japan because of its whaling tradition.

YOU must remember that USA demanded Whaling for US native Indians at the last conference of IWC.

Most of European-based whites claim .... what Japan do/did is wrong, and what they do/did is right. I believe that this way of thinking is causing lots of frictions in the world. And because Europeans are similar to Islam (in terms of way of thinking), they never stop killing each other.

[Kyoto Returnee]

Originally Posted by Sarapva

This is a news story about the Sea Shepherd Society naming one of their ships "Steve Irwin", from the "Crocodile Hunter", who was killed last year by a stingray near Australia. The Japanese whaling fleet is getting ready to kill humpbacks and minke whales, and the Sea Shepherd ship "Steve Irwin" has left Australia to track the Japanese ships.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22111742/

Excellent Sarapva

[centrajapan]

When Conviction Becomes Extremism

By Jose A. Kusugak

Conviction is a quality I admire in people. I respect the conviction of many people in the Middle East who feel they are being encroached on by the values of outsiders, and who want to take back control of their destiny. But when that devotion blinds a person into pursuing their cause at any cost— when Osama Bin Laden orders the use of passenger jets as bombs—it can no longer be called conviction. It’s extremism.

And on April 30, Paul Watson and his Sea Shepherd Conservation Society used the tragic deaths of two young Yupik Alaskans as fully loaded jetliners to smash into the side of the whaling industry.

Eleven-year old cousins Yolanda and Leonard Nowpakahok, from Gambell, Alaska, drowned on April 27. The whaling boat Yolanda’s father Jason was captaining capsized, and Nowpakahok and James Uglowook also lost their lives in the accident.

Inuit know all too well that accidents happen. Our perilous existence in the Arctic means we face much misfortune, and the loss of many loved-ones. We even have a word to help in healing for these occasions—ajurnarmat: “It cannot be helped.”

Nowpakahok had been doing what he knew best. He was continuing the millennia-old tradition of hunting bowhead whales, a tradition that helped some of his ancestors to move east thousands of years ago to become Canada’s Inuit. And he was carrying out a basic duty: educating his young daughter and nephew about their ancient Yupik roots.

But just three days after their tragic deaths, Yolanda and Leonard were used by Paul Watson in a most appalling way. Watson’s society issued a news release headlined, “Alaskan Whalers Kill Two Children and an Endangered Whale.”

Watson’s blind conviction to “saving” the whales kept him from seeing that he was insulting not just the Nowpakahoks (Yolanda was already an avid hunter and an excellent marksperson), but an entire circumpolar community of Inuit who all struggle to maintain a connection with the ways of the past.

Watson and his society’s stated goal is to protect the world’s marine wildlife, not to protect children from accidents. But his at-any-cost strategy to attract funding permitted him to use this grave tragedy to advance his agenda.

Watson used the Gambell accident not to shed light on local safety concerns, but to cast a pallid gloom on international whaling, and to blind others into helping his cause.

In his release, Watson drew a comparison between the reaction to the Gambell accident and the explosive reaction we would see if two 11-year olds died on a commercial Alaskan crabbing boat.

But a more informed parallel would be to consider the reaction to a child dying in a school bus crash. Jason Nowpakahok did not take his daughter and nephew on a boat to kill them anymore than a British Columbian father puts his daughter on a school bus to kill her.

Despite all safety measures, despite the training of drivers, despite the checking of brakes and fuel-lines and nuts and bolts—despite all of these precautions, school buses carrying children to their education sometimes crash. We don’t blame the father for having put his daughter on the bus in the morning. Ajurnarmat.

For Watson to use such an accident to further his mission is odious extremism. What he did is despicable, and may have caused irreparable damage to his organization and, unfortunately, to the worldwide effort to “save the whales.”

Meanwhile, our thoughts are with the families of the children who passed away, and the community. This column and a letter was sent in May to the community of Gambell, Alaska.

Jose Amaujaq Kusugak was born in an iglu not far from Naujaat, known today as Repulse Bay, Nunavut. He is currently the President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national organization representing Inuit in Canada.

www.itk.ca

http://www.worldwhalers.com/world_whaling.htm

[Sarapva]

This answers your question, centrajapan, about why anti-whalers would "target" the Japanese and not other whalers like natives. Obviously, Paul Watson doesn't see any nationality or culture in his opposition to whaling.

[centrajapan]

But you do. You said you did.

Watson's most memorable contribution to the debate was to shout at the Makah through a megaphone.

"Just because you were born stupid doesn't give you any right to be stupid."

http://www.maninnature.com/Watson/antijapan.html

These dumb Indians.

It speaks volumes that you would support such a fanatic like him.

I am glad Makah and other various Indegenous people of North America supports Japan on whaling. And you support Watson. What does that make you?

[Sarapva]

It makes me just a regular person, not any nationality or other label, except maybe environmentalist. It doesn't matter to me the it's the Japanese hunting whales- whatever nationality they were, I'd be against it. I won't go against indigenous cultures, though - hunting whales is how they survive.

[kame]

Originally Posted by Sarapva

It makes me just a regular person, not any nationality or other label, except maybe environmentalist. It doesn't matter to me the it's the Japanese hunting whales- whatever nationality they were, I'd be against it. I won't go against indigenous cultures, though - hunting whales is how they survive.

I am surprised to hear that you support violent tactics of certain anti-whaling organizations and people that have actually resulted in multiple deaths. It's equivalent to the religious pro-life citizens who synpathize with those that bomb abortion clinics and environmentalists that applaud ELF maniacs that burn down Humbee dealerships. Well, now I can see what kind of people you are.

By the way, in this day and age, do you really think anybody need to hunt whales to actually SURVIVE? The US can take 0.01% of what they spend in Iraq on those indigenous people to let them farm some fish or shrimps or start a whole new industry to support themselves. What they want to preserve is their pride and their culture, which people of the small whaling villages in Japan have already been deprived of.

[centrajapan]

I won't go against indigenous cultures, though - hunting whales is how they survive

.

The whaling culture in Japan is indigenous. The people of Taiji are the indigenous people of Taiji. So one needs to prove that they need whaling for survival? Should beef eaters have to prove that they need to eat hamburgers for their survival?

Is the only reason why Inuits in Alaska can hun whales due to the reason that they will starve if they don't hunt whales? Does this mean that once they have access to super markets they should stop hunting whales then? Right.

How do you think the Inuits in Alaska would feel about that kind of views?

[kame]

Originally Posted by Sarapva

I won't go against indigenous cultures, though - hunting whales is how they survive.

I am confused. You think whale-killing is inhumane but you allow that if indigenous people kill whales some of which are actually endangered? Some people argue that Japanese should change their whale-eating culture. Why can't indigenous people change their eating habits too?

[Sarapva]

Okay, you're convincing me that maybe indigenous cultures need to stop whaling too. Let's have a complete stop to all whale hunting!

[centrajapan]

You are a a raicst imperialist then. Very sad. The disrepectful attitude you have of other cultures and people is shocking. I didn't think that about you.

http://www.icrwhale.org/eng/GPAS9.wmv

Here is a video clip of Sea Shepherd ramming their vessel into the Japanese whaling vessel then they get stuck in ice. Its funny. Japan is not their worst enemy it is their own stupidity.

[Sarapva]

I thought I was a racist imperialist before - so does this mean I'm a double racist imperalist now?