“This whaling fleet belongs to us now – lock, stock, and smoking harpoon gun.”

What a great header and what a great, and undoubtedly the best season so far, for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. As ever, tireless in its efforts to stop the slaughter of innocents in the South Atlantic. Could this be the last of the season ever? Read more of Captain Paul Watson in the second article. …hopefully it will be the last.

This latest report from 70 Degrees South. - At 70 Degrees South there is no God*

Sea Shepherd News

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Sea Shepherd Successfully finds the Nisshin Maru Position: 70 Degrees 45 Minutes South 171 Degrees 45 Minutes West

After a 26-day pursuit covering over 4,000 miles, the Steve Irwin caught up with the Nisshin Maru at 1800 hours on January 25th, 2011 AEST.

“We finally have this serial killing death ship where we want them, and from here on in, we intend to ride their ass until the end of the whaling season,” said Captain Paul Watson from onboard the Steve Irwin. “This whaling fleet belongs to us now – lock, stock, and smoking harpoon gun.”

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ships the Steve Irwin, Bob Barker, and Gojira originally found the Japanese whaling fleet on December 31st, 2010 before the whalers had an opportunity to kill a single whale. Unfortunately, two of the harpoon vessels blocked the approach to the Nisshin Maru and the factory ship was able to flee with the faster harpoon vessels tailing the two larger Sea Shepherd ships to relay Sea Shepherd movements to the fleeing Nisshin Maru. The Gojira was prevented from immediately pursuing the Nisshin Maru due to risky ice conditions.

The Gojira shot ahead of the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker as the Nisshin Maru fled westward. On January 10th, the Gojira encountered the refueling and supply ship the Sun Laurel. On January 12th, the Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin caught up with the tanker and began to tail the Korean-owned vessel allowing the Gojira to continue westward in pursuit of the Nisshin Maru.

The Sun Laurel headed north and east to put as much distance between the factory ship and themselves as they could. The Sea Shepherd ships followed knowing it was essential to cut off the supplies to the whaling fleet. Two of the three harpoon vessels followed and for 23 days we had confirmation that these two vessels had not taken a single whale. More Sea Shepherd News

A more comprehensive report of the situation as of Sunday 23/01/11

Sea Shepherd News
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Halfway Through Operation No Compromise
Report from Captain Paul Watson

This is Day 54 of Operation No Compromise and Day 25 since Sea Shepherd Conservation Society intercepted the Japanese whaling fleet. We are about halfway through the campaign, with approximately another 54 days to go until the Antarctic winter begins to evict the whalers from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and another season of slaughter will be over…hopefully it will be the last.

Despite that this is going to be the most successful year yet for Sea Shepherd’s mission and whale kill quotas will be lower than ever before, the fact remains that this is a very difficult and complex campaign taking place over hundreds of thousands of square miles in adverse weather conditions, amidst icebergs and floes. It involves coordinating three vessels, a helicopter, and 88 crewmembers. It also involves complex logistics like refueling, provisioning, repairs, aerial and ice surveys, communications, and numerous other details.

It is never an easy task and not quite as simplistic as many of our detractors seem to think it is. Our campaigns are major Antarctic expeditions in every possible way. They are grander in terms of ships, crew, and equipment than any of the famous Shackleton, Scott, or Amundsen expeditions of nearly a century ago.

On the very positive side during this campaign, we were able to locate the Japanese whaling fleet before they killed a single whale. We were able to intercept the Sun Laurel refueling vessel to cut off supplies and fuel to the Nisshin Maru and the rest of her whaling fleet. Most importantly of all, we have kept two of the three harpoon vessels out of whaling operations completely, while the third continues to run along with the Nisshin Maru.

We have chased the whaling fleet for over 4,000 miles for the last 24 days. Are whales being killed? Possibly, but not many.

We have not yet located the Nisshin Maru, but we usually do not do so until February of each campaign. Last year we did not find the factory ship until almost mid February, and we were still able to save more whales than the whalers were able to kill. More Sea Shepherd News

*Pedro Monteiro, far right.
At 50 Degrees South there is no law.
At 60 Degrees South there is no hope.
At 70 Degrees South there is no God.
One laid back bugger if ever there were.

Teddy Joins Sea Shepherd For a Bit of Direct Action

We've seen a few campaigns together have Teddy and I. He first joined me when the batshit crazies were clamouring to chop the head off that poor old Doris for calling a mate of Ted's, Mohammed. What was it the Old Man said, "As a species we are insane" And some!

Updated below, as and when.

Peter Hammarstedt. I have much respect for this young fellow-me-lad, from what I've seen of him.

Pete Bethune, he can have a bit too.

The all can in actual fact, every last one of them. To step on a boat like that, heading where it's heading, takes bottle. And to do so as a lubber, a lubber whose sum total of previous experience was perhaps an hour on the boating lake, takes a special kind of bottle. Respect to them all.

And no little amount for this fellow below, Chris Aultman, helicopter pilot, I hardly need spell out the dangers he faces flying a poxy little machine in those temperatures and over water to boot.
But if I say that of him, what can I say about the cameraman? Other than perhaps, "now that's what I call a passenger."

No doubt I'll get round to them all one by one, I wonder how Ted feels about flying, hmm....

Chris Aultman, helicopter pilot.

Never one to mince words.

He's a bugger is our Ted, he makes that Pete Bethune look like a pussy kit.

Teddy two swords, a slight hiccup in the design department.

Wiki Whale Leaks and The Obama Administration

I'm well aware this news isn't exactly hot off the press, but I want to establish a data base of my own here at Only in America.

For it is only in America that a sect of homophobic religious nutters, aka the Mormon Church, can form itself into a Political Action Committee, (PAC) and not have its tax free status questioned or rescinded. 1 - 2 - 3

And where Only in America can a bunch of brainwashing money grabbing thugs, can espouse the most ridiculous bloody nonsense imaginable, and have that nonsense accepted as a religion by the government of that country, and thus enjoy that same tax free status.

And it is only in America where the "yes we can" government of Barrack Obama, would consider, at the behest of a despicable bunch of little yellow fucks, would consider taking away the tax free status of an organisation, the only organisation I add, that thwarts the efforts of these same yellow fucks, as they go about there sordid business of killing the most magnificent creatures on the planet, for no other reason than commercial gain. Only in America.

There are seven billion people on the planet, and only seventy-seven of us down here in these distant waters actually saving the lives of whales, actually damaging illegal Japanese whaling activities and thus actually making a difference. Paul Watson Cyber Wars

WikiLeaks: Secret whaling deal plotted by US and Japan

American diplomats proposed Japan reduce whaling in exchange for US help cracking down on the anti-whaling activists Sea Shepherd, leaked cables reveal


Japan and the US proposed to investigate and act against international anti-whaling activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as part of a political deal to reduce whaling in Antarctic waters.

Four confidential cables from the US embassy in Tokyo and the state department in Washington, released by WikiLeaks, show US and Japanese diplomats secretly negotiating a compromise agreement ahead of a key meeting last year of the International Whaling Commission, the body that regulates international whaling.

The American proposal would have forced Japan to reduce the number of whales that Japan killed each year in the Antarctic whale sanctuary in return for the legal right to hunt other whales off its own coasts. In addition, the US proposed to ratify laws that would "guarantee security in the seas" – a reference to acting against groups such as Sea Shepherd that have tried to physically stop whaling.

The US proposal was eventually shot down by Britain and the EU in June 2010, but the cables show that the Sea Shepherd group had become a political embarrassment to Japan after stopping its whaling fleet reaching its annual quota of whale killed for several years.

The group, led by Captain Paul Watson, a co-founder of Greenpeace, has a reputation for physically confronting whalers, sealers and illegal fishing boats. Its flotilla of ships, which sport the skull and crossbones flag, monitors illegal fishing in the Galapagos islands and spends months each year following and harassing the Japanese whaling fleet in frequently dangerous clashes.

Yesterday two Sea Shepherd ships, the Steve Irwin and the Gojira were involved in cat and mouse skirmishes with two whaling ships. Activists reportedly hurled stink bombs onto the deck as whalers tried to use water cannon.

The US cables show how on 2 November 2009, Shuji Yamada, Japan's vice-minister for international affairs, asked lead US negotiator Monica Medina about an investigation of the tax affairs of Sea Shepherd. It is unclear whether the US government had already launched an investigation or which country had proposed it.

"Yamada inquired about an investigation into the tax status of the US-based NGO Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and repeated Japan's request for the US to take action against the organisation, which he said created a very dangerous situation on the seas," says one cable.

The US government dodged this request but the cable continues: "The DCM replied that the US places the highest priority on the safety of vessels and human life at sea, and added that if any violations of US law are discovered, we will take appropriate enforcement action".

But the Japanese diplomats then responded, "It would be easier for Japan to make progress in the IWC negotiations if the US were to take action against the Sea Shepherd".

One week later, the Japanese pressed the US to take action against Sea Shepherd again, saying that "violent protests by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) could limit the government of Japan's flexibility in the negotiations".

It appears from the diplomatic chatter that the US did look into the NGO's status. In the same cable, Medina is reported as saying that the US government, "can demonstrate the group [Sea Shepherd] does not deserve tax exempt status based on their aggressive and harmful actions".

The cables then suggest that the US had itself proposed the tax investigation of Sea Shepherd, saying in the same cable on 9 November 2009: "the Netherlands should have primary responsibly for taking action against the SSCS, but he [the Japanese diplomat] appreciates the US government initiative to address the group's tax exempt status".


The US attempt to compromise with Japan failed at the IWC meeting in June after a majority of countries, led by Australia, the European Union, and the Latin American nations rejected it.

In a statement made yesterday from the Sea Shepherd flagship, Captain Watson said: "The US government may have very well looked into Sea Shepherd's activities and if they did so, then they obviously did not find any irregularities or unlawful activities because Sea Shepherd was never contacted by any US government official in connection with this matter. For Sea Shepherd, the most important part of this document is the declaration by Japan that Sea Shepherd has been responsible for the whaling fleet not reaching their quotas for the last few years. This completely validates Sea Shepherd's actions as effective." Guardian



WikiLeaks: Sea Shepherd, Anti-Whaling Group, Tax Exempt Status Revocation Discussed By U.S., Japan Officials


TOKYO — Japanese and American officials discussed taking action to weaken a prominent anti-whaling group, with Tokyo insisting that Sea Shepherd's confrontations on the high seas actually hurt efforts to reduce whaling, U.S. diplomatic cables show.


The U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission, Monica Medina, discussed revoking the U.S.-based conservation group's tax exempt status during a meeting with senior officials from the Fisheries Agency of Japan in November 2009, according to the documents released by WikiLeaks on Monday.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's yearly protest campaigns – which chase Japan's whaling fleet in boats trying to disrupt the hunt by fouling fishing lines and throwing rancid butter at whalers – have drawn high-profile donors and volunteers, and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars." In Japan, the harrassment is seen by some as foreign interferance in national affairs, making politicians wary of getting involved.

Action against Sea Shepherd would be a "major element" in achieving success at international negotiations on the number of whales killed each year, the cables cite the director general of Japan's fisheries agency, Katsuhiro Machida, as saying.

Referring to Sea Shepherd, Medina said "she believes the USG (U.S. government) can demonstrate the group does not deserve tax exempt status based on their aggressive and harmful actions," according the cables.

Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd, said Japan has previously pressured foreign governments to take action against the group, such as revoking the registration of its ships. He said the organization had last been audited about two years ago, which is before the exchanges detailed in the cables.




"We have had our tax status since 1981, and we have done nothing different since then to cause the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to change that," he told The Associated Press by telephone from his ship.

The diplomatic cables, posted on WikiLeaks' secret-sharing website early Monday but dated Jan. 1, show Japanese officials repeatedly told U.S. counterparts the group's actions were making whaling a political issue and hurting any chance of a compromise on the numbers of whales killed each year.

Sea Shepherd vessels are currently chasing Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean in the hopes of interrupting its hunt, which kills up to 1,000 whales annually and typically lasts from December to February.

Japan hunts whales under the research exemption to a 1986 worldwide ban on commercial hunts. Critics say there is no reason to kill the animals, and the research program amounts to commercial whaling in disguise because surplus meat from the hunt is sold domestically.

Protest ships harass the whaling fleet, and clashes between the sides often take place. On Saturday, Watson said that whalers had shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists nearby.


Last January, a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling vessel and a New Zealand protestor was later arrested after he boarded a Japanese whaling ship. He was taken to Tokyo and later deported.

The cables are dated before an International Whaling Commission meeting last year that was seen as a major chance to end a decades long stalemate. They show the U.S. worked with Japan in late 2009 to reach a deal on the issue, calling it an "irritant" in international relations.

The meeting ended without a major agreement.

"Action on the SSCS (Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) would be a major element for Japan in the success of the overall negotiations," a Japanese official said, according to one cable.

Watson said Monday that his group was against anything less than a complete stop to Japan's whaling program in Antarctica. The activists hope to block whaling activities for the Japanese fleet so it incurs deep financial losses.

"I don't think a solution is going to come through politics, it's going to come through economics," Watson told The Associated Press by telephone from his ship while pursuing the Japanese fleet. HuffPo

And I saw something else in that eye – it was pity and not for himself but for us – that we could kill so thoughtlessly and so mercilessly and I realized that the reason the Soviets were killing Sperm whales was for spermaceti oil used for lubricating machinery and one of the uses was in the construction on inter-continental ballistic missiles for the purpose of exterminating mass numbers of human beings and that is when it struck me that we, the human species are insane. So from that day on I have chosen to serve whalekind and the species in the sea – they are our clients – not people. An Interview With Paul Watson

A Short Conversation With Paul Watson or, Mankind Is a Bollocks

The more I get to know this fellow, the more he is my kind of bloke. I particularly like his take on the Jesoids, if they worried about this life a bit more and not the next, the world might be a better place.
And the auld feller ain't too far behind the door either.

And Teddy is back.

A short conversation between Farley Mowat and Paul Watson at Cape Breton Island Nona Scotia.
From the documentary A Pirate For The Sea.


FM: I’ll tell you what I think is going to happen, I’m convinced of this. I don’t like to be convinced of it because I’m a living organism, I’m full of optimism of life, but I see the next great extinction which will then be the sixth in line since life appeared on this planet. We will be the cause and the recipient of this extinction. But in the process of course, everything else is probably going to get screwed up. How do you feel?

PW: No, I agree with that completely, that we are the last surviving species of hominid and we haven’t done too well so far, and now we are about to take down hundreds of thousands of species with us. We have created this mythology where everything revolves around us. That we are the centre of creation, that it doesn’t really matter what we do to the rest of the world. The other problem of course is, a large percentage of humanity is living this pie in the sky fantasy where they believe real life begins when they die and they go to some afterlife somewhere so that….

FM: It doesn’t matter a hell of a lot what you do here.

PW: Yeah, the planet’s expendable.

FM: Yep yep.

PW: In fact I’ve actually had some Christians come to me and say, you know you’re interfering with God’s plan. That God has ordained that these resources are here to be used while we’re here, and Jesus is going to be upset if we don’t use these resources he’s provided for us.









FM: Individuals must be relatively selfish, err in order that their species will survive, and the species must be selfish, but these things are very very relative and must be coordinated, must be taken into context with all other forms of life. If you separate them out as we have done and say, we are the only animal, the only form of life that is entitled to this self interest, we may pursue it as far as we choose, we must pursue it as far as we choose, then that is the recipe for suicide.

PW: As a species we are insane we’ve…

FM: We’re not insane a political? sense, we are out of control; in my opinion. Our whole structure is out of control, we don’t know what the hell we’re doing but we’re doing it as fast as we bloody well can.

PW: Right.

FM: Ah well, perhaps there’s hope for us in heaven.

PW: Laughs

Now That's What I Call Blogging

Blogging with attitude, blogging with a fuck you attitude, and unapologetic with it.

I've been wanting to up a link to this site for a few days now, particularly after availing myself of a link or two that I found there. But I knew if I upped the thing without first putting my hand in my pocket, then the odds of Sea Shepherd Org. actually seeing a donation might have got a bit longer. (See new banner)

When you take a look at this site and read yer man's words, in truth I couldn't for shame not have sent a few bob, to what is after all, a cause close to my heart.

This is a mighty resource for anyone with a social conscience, and undoubtedly the result of an equally mighty effort. Activism on this scale makes me feel quite humble, my hat off to you Sir.

Click to open.

Radical Video Library

(EN) Radical Video Library is a non-profit D.I.Y. project, that has put as its goal to spread the word in form of "the video". We will try to bring here various genres from different perspectives and subcultures. We try to focus especially on anarchy, protests, riots, ecology, animal liberation, peak oil, antifascist struggle, human rights and other liberation struggles - in the form of film, documentaries, music, presentations, pictures, zines,...for Download.

Do you like something you downloaded from this library? It can happen that the DLL links get deleted so I encourage you to UPLOAD these films or documentaries to other servers, so it will be available for download as long as possible.

Remember! The main purpose of this library is not to keep you in front of the computer screen!! The struggle is out there in the streets and forests of this lovely Earth!!!

Hey folks, write me if you have something on your heart:)
E-mail: anticopyright@moose-mail.com

http://www.fuckcopyright.blogspot.com/

And how could you not admire a man who names his blog such.

Click to open and then click image for full size.

An Interview With Captain Paul Watson

And I saw something else in that eye – it was pity and not for himself but for us – that we could kill so thoughtlessly and so mercilessly and I realized that the reason the Soviets were killing Sperm whales was for spermaceti oil used for lubricating machinery and one of the uses was in the construction on inter-continental ballistic missiles for the purpose of exterminating mass numbers of human beings and that is when it struck me that we, the human species are insane. So from that day on I have chosen to serve whalekind and the species in the sea – they are our clients – not people.

As a species of beings that reflexively and unequivocally identifies itself as “superior,” we human animals have taken self-deception to a level of inimitable brilliance. And we Americans who have self-servingly cast ourselves in the role of moral beacon to the world (while engaging in industrialized wholesale violence against humans, animals, and the Earth on a breath-taking scale) are the living embodiments of the word hypocrisy.

Need proof of the systemic rot eroding the very cores of our souls? Look no further than the meteoric rise of the grossly under-qualified, hyper-ambitious, morally retarded narcissist who still has a realistic chance to be one heart-beat away from ostensibly ruling the most powerful nation in the world. Palinesque tendencies to “drill, drill, drill,” exploit obscene technological advantages to “cull predatory species,” employ our “justice” system to accelerate the extinction of yet another species (to advance the interests of Big Oil no less), and perpetuate the murderous “sport” of hunting with the intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt justifications of “necessity” and “cultural tradition” serve to shred our ridiculously thin façade of humanity and reveal the truly barbarous nature of Western “civilization” and the “American Way of Life.”

While the speciesism and capitalist obsessions with property, growth, and profit that contaminate nearly all aspects of our cultural and social modes of being are not unique to Western industrialized nations or the US, we wield the most power in the world, and hence inflict the most pain on other species. And while our economic and technological advantages endow us with the potential to shift the paradigm and significantly reduce the unnecessary suffering our non-human animal brethren experience as a result of reification, greed, and exploitation, we choose to fight tooth and nail to preserve our “right” to dominate, torture, and slaughter for profit and pleasure, while portraying those who dare to take direct action against our murderous system as ‘eco-terrorists.’

Frightening and dangerous as it may be, let’s get inside the head of a leading member of the radical environmental defense and animal liberation movements, which the FBI continues to target as America’s “number one domestic terror threat.”

Here is the back and forth between Captain Paul Watson (animal defender extraordinaire, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and courageous practitioner of extensional self defense on behalf of marine animals) and Jason Miller (associate editor of Cyrano’s Journal Online and founding editor of Thomas Paine’s Corner): more

Happy Whale Story

As yer man says, "I don't speak whale and I don't speak dolphin," Mr Smith told the BBC, "but.....

A dolphin has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand.

Conservation officer Malcolm Smith told the BBC that he and a group of other people had tried in vain for an hour and a half to get the whales to sea.

The pygmy sperm whales had repeatedly beached, and both they and the humans were tired and set to give up, he said.more and a short video.

Here's a three minute unrelated vid of a very friendly whale, how wonderful would it be to experience this?

Shots Fired In Whale War and Japanese "Research"

Unashamedly I can say I loath these despicable little fucks and their goddamn whale hunting.

At 1545 hours (0445 GMT), a clash between the crew of the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin and the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru turned violent when the Japanese Coast Guard began to throw flash grenades at the crew of the Steve Irwin.

Captain Paul Watson was struck by a bullet in the chest. Fortunately, the bullet was stopped by his Kevlar vest. The bullet struck just above the heart and mangled Captain Watson’s anti-poaching badge, which was worn on his sweater underneath the Kevlar vest.

Dr. David Page was videotaped prying the bullet from Captain Watson’s Kevlar vest. “You have been hit by a bullet,” he said.more Sea Shepherd

And how inane is this bullshit masquerading as research?

A review of the controversial scientific research conducted by Japan and its whalers has uncovered a list of "bizarre" and useless experiments, including how to cross breed cows with whales.

Scientists have analysed 43 research papers produced by Japan over 18 years, finding most were useless or esoteric.

The scientific research included injecting minke whale sperm into cows eggs, and attempts to produce test-tube whale babies, News Limited newspapers report.

For years Japan has continued its whaling program under the guise of scientific research, to the disgust of anti-whaling nations such as Australia.more

But the bitterest of ironies is that whale meat is not all together popular with the general population and the hunting lobby are trying to push it's revival.

For all of Japan's success in winning support from other countries for its campaign to ease the restrictions on whaling - especially smaller countries which receive Japanese aid - the Japanese people are losing interest.

Whale meat is only served in a few specialist restaurants, and occasionally appears on supermarket shelves. Younger people almost never eat it.

So why does Japan exert so much diplomatic effort on this issue?

The official line is that whaling is an integral part of Japanese culture, a practice dating back hundreds of years.

That isn't quite true. A few coastal communities, like Wakayama, have been hunting whales for centuries, traditionally with hand-held harpoons.

But the rest of Japan only became familiar with eating whale during the 20th Century, as modern ships with harpoon-guns became available.

Whale meat was especially widespread in the difficult years after the Second World War, when it was seen as a cheap source of protein.

But as incomes rose, people switched to imported beef, or fish like tuna and salmon. With such an abundance of high-quality protein available these days, few Japanese see the point in eating whale, which doesn't taste that special.more

Stop Your Bitching And Stop Your Whale Slaughter

.


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