Stop Your Bitching And Stop Your Whale Slaughter

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Fuck the Japanese and their protest, you carry on lads.

The Japanese Government says anti-whaling protesters have hurled butyric acid onto a Japanese whaling ship off Antarctica, hurting four crew members.

The whalers responded by spraying the activists with water from four hoses.

The whaling ship Nisshin Maru and the Sea Shepherd vessel, Steve Irwin, came within 10 metres of each other during the exchange, which lasted over an hour until the activists had run out of missiles.

Japan's top Government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura says it is an unforgivable act and Japan strongly protests.

"This is an act that tries to unfairly harm the safety of a ship and crew that is acting within the law at sea," he said.more

Talking of whales I should think this big bugger putting in an appearance would get the old paddles moving a bit. story

Japanese Whaling Fleet Located At Last

It's a pity it was by the wrong organisation, Greenpeace being the organisation that cares more about it's PR than the whales they are supposedly trying to protect.

When I say the wrong organisation I'm talking about Sea Shepherd, they're the boys, they don't ponce about when it comes to tackling the nasty nips.

BBC reporter Jonah Fisher, of all the names to have on an expedition like this, has been aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza trying to locate the whaling fleet, but having located the nasty little fuckers they do not share the information with Sea Shepherd.



It becomes apparent when you read the story, but here's a sample of Sea Shepherd skipper Paul Watson talking to Jonah over the radio.
There is some good footage of Sea Shepherds encounters with the whaling fleet at the above link and lots more under the whales label.

Stressing his willingness (Watson) to co-operate "for the good of the whales", he's offered to share his helicopter and promised to publish the co-ordinates of the whaling fleet when he finds them. But for the most part his offers have been simply ignored.

Watson believes that Greenpeace has lost touch with the ideals of direct action which he says it stood for while he was an active member in the 1970s.

"If you want a story, I mean a real story, not about hanging banners and making whale snuff films then I would encourage you to follow our progress," he told me. "We are not down here to protest these killers - we are down here to stop them."

Greenpeace's strategy, when and if they find the whalers, is to deploy inflatable boats between the Japanese harpoons and the whales. It is a tactic which they call "protecting individual whales rather than targeting the whalers".more

Here's a short clip of Watson in action.

Nasty Nips Won't Target Humbacks (For Now)

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I'm far from being xenophobic but I could make an exception for these pricks.

A controversial Japanese mission to hunt humpback whales in the Antarctic has been temporarily abandoned, a top government official says.

Nobutaka Machimura said the humpback hunt would not go ahead - although the fleet will still hunt about 1,000 other whales in the area.

The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Tokyo, says Japan is now unlikely to chase the humpbacks for at least a year.

The move comes after pressure from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Japan is regularly condemned for its annual whaling missions.more

I will be posting this daily, or otherwise.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher is on a Greenpeace ship tracking the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. You can follow his travels for the next two months on the Ten O'clock News, and in this diary.

Japanese Resume Whaling, Slaughter To Include Humpbacks

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The evil little shits are at it again, I suppose it would be too much to ask for divine intervention or the wrath of Neptune to visit on the fleet the fires of hell, although with better timing than last year.
There is plenty in the archive, search whales in the nav bar.

A Japanese whaling fleet has set sail aiming to harpoon humpback whales for the first time in decades.

The fleet is conducting its largest hunt in the South Pacific - it has instructions to kill up to 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks.

The humpback hunt is the first since a mid-1960s global ban and has drawn strong protests from environmentalists.

Commercial whaling was stopped in 1986 but Japan is permitted whaling in the name of scientific research.

Four whaling ships, including the lead craft Nisshin Maru, set off from the southern port of Shimonoseki on Sunday.

The 239-man mission plans to kill more than 900 minke whales as well as fin whales and humpbacks, in a South Pacific whale hunt that will run until mid-April. more

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Founder and President of Sea Shepherd, Captain Paul Watson, will soon embark with an international crew on the ship, the Robert Hunter, to enforce international conservation law and prevent the illegal slaughter of endangered species by an outlaw whaling fleet. As the relentless Japanese whalers seek to hunt down and kill Migaloo and his family, Sea Shepherd will be hunting the whalers with the firm objective of intervention against their illegal activities.

"I did not establish the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as a protest organization," said Captain Watson. "I have not gone to sea over all these years to simply bear witness to the atrocities that whalers continue to inflict upon the most gentle and intelligent beings in the seas. We are sea cops-operating legally under the guidelines of the United Nation's World Charter for Nature, which allow for the enforcement of international conservation law by non-governmental organizations in international jurisdictions."Sea Shepherd Operation Migaloo

Sea Shepherd home page, these lads do a great job, they really are front line warriors.



These two photo's in response to comment. And no, they're not photoshopped, in fact there is a better image of a "we are conducting research" but it must be in a movie clip linked somewhere in the archives. Photographs from Greenpeace photo gallery.
Google result Japanese whaling

Whale Hunters V Wife Beaters: Cancelled

I just love this kind of story, they give me a smile and endorse a lifetimes view of human nature.
I wouldn't be holding me breath then on the Middle East, not at all at all.

It would appear that the whale hunting Christians of Norway and the dark forces of the Islamic wife beaters*** couldn't quite get it together to kick a ball about.
***A ten minute film by Theo van Gogh that resulted in his murder, in English after the opening subs.

Unholy row at clergy soccer game.

A friendship-building football match between Muslim and Christian clergy in Norway was called off after a row over the participation of women players. more

Pacific Grey Whales in Some Distress

Grey whales in the eastern Pacific appear to be in some trouble, with the cause far from clear, scientists say.

Researchers with the conservation group Earthwatch found
that whales are arriving in their breeding grounds off the Mexican
coast malnourished.

The same thing happened just after the 1997/8 El Nino event, which warmed the waters and depleted food stocks.Scientists are not sure whether the current decline is climate related or part of a natural predator-prey cycle. more

This little fellow don't look too happy at all at all.

The friendly whale featured in previous posts is a grey whale.

'Save the Whales' Likely to Attract 2008 Swing Votes

Presidential candidates who take a firm stand against Japanese whaling practices are more likely to gain support from swing voters, a new poll has shown. The poll conducted on behalf of the International Fund for Animal Welfare showed that six out of 10 swing voters would be more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who opposed the Japanese practice of killing whales for research. "A stand against whaling could help candidates in the primaries and in the general election," said Fred Steeper, a principal polling consultant to President Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. He conducted the poll for Market Strategies. More.



How I wish, as much as I would like it to be true, I think it might be more a case of who loves Jesus the most. Or says he does. I think what we see here is another example of an agenda driven poll.
Years ago I came across a title in a bookshop, "How to lie with statistics" and really it is so easy, and graphs,! don't even think about them, the same stats can be made to look like a steady incline or the side of a mountain, all depending how the scales are calibrated.
You will find various "Whale" posts throughout this blog.

H/T Salon.com story. Stippy.com graphic

Troubled Japan Whaler Back Home

Ship Of Shame Sulks Back Into Port.

Japan's main whaling ship has arrived back in port after an Antarctic hunt hit by setbacks including a fatal fire.

Do everybody a favour, keep it there
and come and join the human race.

Post 100: I would like to dedicate to Paul Watson. Sea Shepherd

To Paul Watson. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. And Activists Around The World.

And Not Least Those That Need Our Protection.

A clip giving a brief overview of Paul Wilson, co-founder of Greenpeace and the present day mission of Sea Shepherd.

A harrowing clip of a whale kill showing the horror of the reality of "Japanese Research."

Successive short clips Sea shepherds 06/07 campaign. I have strung them in order as best I can.

clip1 clip2 clip3 clip4 clip5 clip6 clip7

And to finish on a nice note what better than this previous featured video.
Coincidently this rascal is the one in the photo header although drawn from different sources and quite unintentional, what an effect it must have on a person's life to experience that, magic!
H/T to all video posters.

No More Whales Will Die This Season

The Death Star Returns To The Land Of The Rising Sun

Finally, the burnt-out hulk of the whale killing floating factory called the Nisshin Maru is limping out of the Antarctic treaty zone, the stench of rotten whale meat lingering in its wake. The whale-killing fleet is now slowly heading north to Japan. There will be no stopping in New Zealand for repairs. A stop there will result in legal issues that could tie the ship up for years and the whale meat onboard would be confiscated.

The whaling fleet has a long way to go to reach Tokyo. The crew will be
mourning the loss of one crewmember and remembering
the opposition by Sea Shepherd that left their decks reeking of rotten butter and awash with the blood of the whales caused by Sea Shepherd crew sealing the bloody flensing deck outlet drains. It is a ship that reeks of death, burnt flesh, gore, and blood. It looks and smells like the Death Star that it is.

Our message to the Japanese whalers: “We hope your damages are so severe you will not be back next year but if you are, we will be there waiting for you and we will not be as polite as we were this year,” said Captain Watson.

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Whaling fleets are equipped with sonar, helicopters and long-range explosive harpoons. The whale is killed by a 6ft long iron harpoon shot from a cannon. The harpoon head contains a time-fuse grenade which blows the whale's insides apart seconds after impact, though this does not usually kill it immediately.Observer

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Officials in Tokyo conceded that the premature end to the hunt was a blow to its so-called research activities in the Southern Ocean. "This is the first time in 20 years that we have had to cancel our research," Takahide Naruko of the fisheries agency told reporters. "We are very disappointed." Guardian