Whale Wars

My guilty pleasure. While I admire their passion, they are portrayed as a rather inept bunch. Anybody else watch?

I love whales and don't think they should be hunted like they are, but I also think these people are misguided idiots who are lucky that the Japanese Self defense Force doesn't declare them pirates and blow them out of the water.

I understand and respect civil disobedience, but didn't their mommas ever tell them that two wrongs don't make a right?

For full disclosure I've only seen 1 episode and part of another. I didn't like rooting for the whalers.

I'm not familiar, is this on the Fit Channel?

I'll get me coat

I would have to go with TJ on this one. A noble cause poorly executed. The show seems to make them look like the lunatic fringe no one wants to be associated with.

Im more a fan of "Animal Cops" Show persuded me to set up a monthly donation to the ASPCA. Cant wait to move out of the dorms and get a rescue dog.

As a former US Coast Guardsman I would have arrested and/or shot every one of those damn hippie whale hugging bastards. They break so many international laws it makes me sick. I'm all for not fishing the whales to extinction but if I had a call of a ship being rammed your ass is getting .50 cal.

They are so dumb it cracks me up. Inept, self-righteous do-gooders who have no business cruising the Antarctic Sea. Watching other peoples' stupidity is entertaining though.

All that money spent on the ship, supplies, etc. would be better spent raising awareness in a more positive way, no?

My $.02

I completely agree with P71. All I see in that show is an old crazy guy leading a bunch of college hippies that havent completely burned through their trust funds yet and have no concept of what real life is and what it takes to have a job and a place to live. I feel bad for Steve Erwins relatives for having his name on their boat.

Yep, watched a few episodes of last season and was shocked at how much I hated the activists, particularly the dumb berkeley "leader." If that guy ever had a kid of mine in his "care" and I learned what idiocy he'd been sending them into, I'd plug his ass on sight.

My favorite moment was when they tried to call a Greenpeace ship to get a fix on some whalers they'd lost through pure stupidity and poor seamanship; Greenpeace hung up on them!

Margie

They do seem disorganized on the show, but if you read up on what they've done in the past it's more impressive.

To sum up: the international whaling bad was put in place by the hippies. A few countries continued whaling by using the research loophole in the ban. (while Japan officially claims that they are whaling for legit research, there really isn't disputed that they are whaling for primarily commercial purposes).... so there was a ban, but some countries where allowing illegal whaling and claiming the right under the loophole.

Paul Watson was originally a member of Green Peace, and they tried to educate people and bring attention to the practice. People around the world thought it should stop, but the countries involved ignored them and kept on whaling.

Green Peace wouldn't take direct action against the whalers, so Paul formed a more militant group. They have been credited / blamed for sinking whaling boats in harbors (no people hurt).

They admit that in other circumstances their actions against the Japanese would be illegal, but there are provisions in the ban that allow them to enforce it. (basically using the same type of loop hole argument in their defense that the Japanese use to defend their commercial whaling.)

They are more highly regarded in some countries than they are here, including in Australia. I'm not sure what, if any, connection they had to Steve Irwin, or if his heirs approve, but it's possible that they consider it an honor, not an insult.

A quick Google search on the naming of the ship =

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-071205-1.html

They also showed Terri Irwin christening the ship last season.

No problem with the message Sea Shepherd is trying to deliver, but they might want to remember the lessons of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, both of whom moved mountains without violence. We need less of that in our world, not more.

Margie

edit: ironically, although I'm preaching nonviolence here, the very sight of Mr. Sea Shepherd makes me want to hurt him. Maybe that's proof his methods don't work.

Yeah, I'm with Margie. We should bust-a-cap on dem hippies. That'd teach 'em. I mean, give them a stern talking to and send them back to Washington so they can fix our healthcare.

I don't understand, throwing stink bottles and oil on a deck is not eco-terrorism. Now a bottle of Thermite and a few well placed holes would be different. I mean they have a helicopter and a huge black frekin pirate ship.

They just seem so inept. For all the money and time they spent on the boat they have wasted it on inept people with no common sense.

I put 'em about where I put PETA. Nice idea, horribly executed.

Isnt it funny that they cant even find real sailors to "man" their ship?

I don't think any "Real" sailor would step on that boat.

RossD wrote: I completely agree with P71. All I see in that show is an old crazy guy leading a bunch of college hippies that havent completely burned through their trust funds yet and have no concept of what real life is and what it takes to have a job and a place to live. I feel bad for Steve Erwins relatives for having his name on their boat.

That's pretty much the kind of people you get with any of the eco groups. I've seen it more than once with the greenie groups who tried to ban off road motorcycling down here. They are not above stretching the truth, cooking the numbers and just plain old lying. It calls to mind 'the ends justify the means'.

So I has GRM's permission to break all of their legs?

I'll help, P71.

+1 to what most are saying.

I'm all for saving the whales, but those guys have no business on any sort of vessel of any kind. I really have no idea how they haven't killed any of their crew members or sunk their ship.. yet.

I've only watched part of a few episodes and have to agree with most in that it seems like a worthy cause with terrible execution.

The first I had heard of these nutjobs was when I read a book about the Makah whaling up here in Washington. A Native American tribe literally at the end of a long road to nowhere (waaaay out on the end of the Olympic Peninsula) had a community which had long suffered in modern American society (alcoholism, violence, disease, unemployment, depression, etc.) A few people there woke the Reservation up by reviving their traditional whale hunt, and that in turn brought a resurgence of interest in the old language, canoe carving, old dances and songs, etc. They had a huge uphill battle just to relearn how to get in the water, not to mention that it took a long time of trying before they had a realistic chance at bagging a whale. We are talking about a half dozen guys on the open ocean in a canoe, in 50-degree water, trying to outpaddle a whale, harpoon it when it surfaces, and then hang on for long enough to quickly kill it with a high-powered rifle (a modern concession due to concerns about animal cruelty) and the Sea Shepards harassed them and tried their best to undermine the whalers the entire way! The tribe is legally allowed something like five whales a year, but to date they have only killed one or two!

I just can't support someone who is so principled about an issue that he is completely blind to any context or external circumstances. The world isn't so completely black an white that we have to strip a disadvantaged community of their traditional culture (and a strong positive force in their lives) for the sake of one whale. Not to mention that his ship probably burned more fossil fuel and produced more pollution than I will in my entire life trying to save that one whale (and failing, at that.)

"I'm On A Boat Lyrics

Aww E36 M3, get your towels ready it's about to go down (shorty, yeah) Everybody in the place hit the berkeleying deck (shorty, yeah) But stay on your motherberkeleying toes We running this, let's go

I'm on a boat (I'm on a boat) I'm on a boat (I'm on a boat) Everybody look at me 'cause I'm sailing on a boat (sailing on a boat) I'm on a boat (I'm on a boat) I'm on a boat Take a good hard look at the motherberkeleying boat (boat, yeah)

I'm on a boat motherberkeleyer take a look at me Straight floating on a boat on the deep blue sea Busting five knots, wind whipping at my coat You can't stop me motherberkeleyer cause I'm on a boat

Take a picture, trick (trick) I'm on a boat, bitch (bitch) We drinking Santana champ, Cause it's so crisp (crisp) I got my swim trunks And my flippie-floppies I'm flipping burgers, you at Kinko's Straight flipping copies

I'm riding on a dolphin, doing flips and E36 M3 The dolphin's splashing, getting everybody all wet But this ain't Seaworld, this is real as it gets I'm on a boat, motherberkeleyer, don't you ever forget

I'm on a boat and It's going fast and I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan I'm the king of the world On a boat like Leo If you're on the shore, then you're sure not me-oh

Get the berkeley up, this boat is REAL!!!

berkeley land, I'm on a boat, motherberkeleyer (motherberkeleyer) berkeley trees, I climb buoys, motherberkeleyer (motherberkeleyer) I'm on the deck with my boys, motherberkeleyer (yeah) This boat engine make noise, motherberkeleyer

Hey ma, if you could see me now (see me now) Arms spread wide on the starboard bow (starboard bow) Gonna fly this boat to the moon somehow (moon somehow) Like Kevin Garnett, anything is possible

Yeah, never thought I'd be on a boat It's a big blue watery road (yeah) Poseidon Look at me, oh (all hands on deck)

Never thought I'd see the day When a big boat coming my way Believe me when I say I berkeleyed a mermaid

I'm on a boat I'm on a boat Everybody look at me 'cause I'm sailing on a boat (woaah) I'm on a boat I'm on a boat Take a good hard look at the mothaberkeleyin' boat (sha-sha-shorty, shorty, yeah)"

I always laughed at Greenpeace. We're trying to save the planet, dude. All the while they're putting about the ocean in a old ass, inefficient, lumbering ship. Riiiight.