UPDATE #2: Japan Probe has news and pictures that the Sea Shepherd eco-loons attacked the Japanese whalers with an acid attack. That may explain why the whalers are so pissed off and holding the two eco-loons.
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UPDATE #1: The Japanese reversed their decision and are not going to release the two eco-loons now:
Sea Shepherd founder and Steve Irwin captain Paul Watson said today he had received an email from the Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) which said a halt to protests by the ship was a condition of returning his crew.
“They are saying that we have to agree to not take any action against their whaling activities, not to video or photo their whaling activities and want us to send a boat – a small zodiac – 10 miles over the horizon to pick up my crew, which I am not going to do,” Mr Watson said.
“It endangers the life of the crew, to put them out in these waters in a small boat, 10 miles out of view. So I am not going to meet these demands.
“When you hold hostages and make demands, that is the definition of a terrorist organisation, and that is the way they are acting.” [News.com]
Paul Watson would know a thing or two about being a terrorist organization considering his own bombing campaigns and arrest warrants for him in multiple countries. This could turn into a very interesting diplomatic battle if the Japanese take the detained intruders back to Japan. I doubt it would get that far but who knows if these Sea Sheppard loons keep causing trouble.
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Things are heating up in the high seas of the southern ocean as the eco-terrorists from the Sea Shepherd Society are claiming the Japanese have taken two of their members hostage:
TWO anti-whaling activists from a protest ship, an Australian and a Briton, are being held hostage aboard a Japanese whaling vessel in an escalation of the whaling wars in the Southern Ocean.
Benjamin Potts, 28, of Sydney, and Giles Lane, 35, from Britain, crew members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Steve Irwin, boarded the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No 2 about 5pm (AEDT) yesterday to deliver a plea to stop killing whales.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society international director Jonny Vasic said the two men were tied to a radar mast in freezing conditions for up to three hours after their capture, a claim denied by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which is running the whale hunt. [AFP]
These eco-terrorists must have read the handbook of fellow terrorist group Al Qaeda and claim torture when you are captured because the media will echo it enough that people will eventually believe it. The Japanese had every right to restrain them and lock them in an office because remember these are the same people who rammed their ship and threw acid at the Japanese whalers last year and lied about it. Plus the boarding of the ship is can be construed as piracy especially when the ship they are on flies a pirate flag.
It is interesting that Sea Shepherd even found the Japanese whalers because they were having a little inter-anti-whaling war with the Greenpeace that would not help them with the location of the Japanese fleet. Fortunately a whale decided to show them the way:
Greenpeace declined to comment on Esperanza’s position, but the western location confirmed Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson’s belief that the whalers were likely to be working north of Prydz Bay, in the Co-operation Sea, where he was headed.
He also said a whale showed him the way. Yesterday a large humpback whale surfaced beside the Steve Irwin and seven times raised his long flipper into the air, and seven times brought it down pointing in a direction due west, as if to say go this way.” [The Age]
Folks, I can’t make this stuff up. So the next time you see a whale raise his flipper in the air you know he must be pointing at a Japanese whaler somewhere. The Sea Shepherd crew isn’t the only ones providing high seas eco-loon comedy:
The only smell that turns me on is the smell of diesel. This is why, especially at night, I used to go down to the Engine Room, stroke my engines, then dip my hands into the diesel. Unfortunately, I was caught in action one night, so I had to think of other ways to make it look more natural. This is why every now and again, I start breaking engines into pieces, only to reassemble them again. Not that there is anything wrong with our propulsion system on board, or because of lack of maintenance, but this is the only way for me to get my hands dirty in diesel oil.
This is a personal blog entry from a member of the crew of the Greenpeace ship named Bent. If his picture isn’t the definition of a eco-loon I don’t know what is:
Australian blogger Tim Blair says, maybe the whale was really trying to warn the Sea Shepherd crew to stay away from Greenpeace’s Bent. That might be a good idea. Anyway the two Sea Shepherd members detained by the Japanese are going to be released. After a call from the Australian Foreign Minister to Japan the Japanese have agreed to release the two and hopefully not to Bent.
Some more interesting information coming out of Australia is that they passed a law banning Japanese whaling in the Australian Antarctic Territory. There is only one problem next to no one recognizes the Australian Antarctic Territory. Australia claims 42% of Antarctic territory, yes I said 42% they are claiming! Only Britain, New Zealand, Norway, and France recognizes Australia’s claim because they have big claims themselves:
Is it any wonder why the vast majority of the world does not take their claim seriously? It is also why the Australian government will not send the Royal Australian Navy to arrest the whalers because they know that in an international court they will lose. So the court decision by the Australian court is nothing more then empty rhetoric.
Some more empty rhetoric from the Australian government is the customs ship they were going to send to monitor Japanese whaling and make a case at an international court against the Japanese. Like I said before they won’t take a case to international court because they would lose and that might explain why the custom ship has not even arrived yet in Antarctic waters and the Japanese are about ready to head back home. Like I said empty rhetoric, but the press and the public continue to buy it.
Another blow to the eco-loons is that the leading environmentalist and Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has come out and said Japanese whaling is not a environmental conservation issue and that the hunted whale populations are sustainable:
ENVIRONMENTALIST and 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has declared his support for the hugely unpopular Japanese whaling program.
As Australia prepares to monitor the whaling fleet in Antarctica amid rising diplomatic tensions with Japan, Professor Flannery says there is nothing unsustainable about its annual cull of up to 1000 whales – particularly the common minke whale.
“In terms of sustainability, you can’t be sure that the Japanese whaling is entirely unsustainable,” Professor Flannery told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s hard to imagine that the whaling would lead to a new decline in population.” [The Daily Telegraph]
The next time anyone brings up whaling as an environmental conservation issue I will direct them to this quote from Flannery even though I have repeatedly linked to whale populations compared to the numbers hunted as evidence. So since it is not a territorial issue and it is not an environmental conservation issue than what is the remaining reason for attacking Japanese whaling?
The only reason left is that the whales are smart and cute which is what the anti-whaling people believe. They literally think whales are the people of the sea and it is cannabalism to eat them. However, such reasoning does not motivate the public at large to come out and support the anti-whaling campaign. The anti-whaling groups know this and thus have to rely on spreading disinformation that the Japanese are hunting the last whales into extinction and violating Australian territorial rights.
I have long said that negotiations with the Japanese that would allow them to catch a quota of whales every year commercially at numbers probably lower than what they are whaling now through the IWC could be reached. However, when one side is against whaling period and sends ships to attack the Japanese it has caused the Japanese to make this issue one of nationalism that they will not back down from which is making any agreement impossible. This is an issue in need of statesmanship but when your statesman is someone like Bent expect only more comedy and idiocy to continue.
