Sea Shepherd do not deserve our protection, sympathy, and increasingly arguably, the ability to freely operate in NZ. Their latest blog post makes it clear that they are not playing by the rules:
They will have to kill us to prevent us from intervening once again,” said Captain Watson. “Are the Japanese people ready to take human lives in defense of this horrifically cruel and illegal slaughter of endangered and protected species of whales? Do we have to die to appease Japanese honor? If so, my answer to the Japanese government is “hoka hey” (Lakota for ‘it’s a good day to die’), and we will undertake whatever risks to our lives will be required to stop this invasion of arrogant greed into what is an established sanctuary for the whales.”
Indeed it sounds like a declaration of war. Stuff reports more:
A radical conservation group says it is going to launch “dramatic” attacks on Japanese whalers south of New Zealand later this year.
and goes on to report:
IFAW’s Patrick Ramage said Japan’s whaling industry was out of gas and crashing..
“This move is more about pride than profit, more about politics and prerogatives of the Japanese Fisheries Agency than it is about public support.”
I contend that Sea Shepherd should also look to their motives. It seems to me that their motivations are about shit-stirring in the Southern Ocean and having fun playing mock-war with boats, rather than the cause itself.
These guys are nuts, and we should not let them embroil NZ in a horrible sea rescue operation or degrading diplomatic relations with one of our biggest trading partners.
As for the whales – they don’t need the radical idiots from Sea Shepherd actually turning people against the otherwise overwhelmingly positive anti-whaling campaign.
Lance Wiggs 
Sure, wackos, but carefully consider your primary source and don’t add to the polarization language of MSM. http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2011/10/shoddy-hatchet-job.html
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I did go to the source – as linked. I agree with NRT about Stuff’s headline, but the main hatchet job happening here is the one Sea Shepherd are doing to themselves. L
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Saw that, but seriously, that’s about as close to a ‘declaration of war’ as LOLcats are to real lions. Your choice of language only exacerbates the problem of wackos on all sides; it doesn’t help. Hatchet job on themselves = okay, declaration of war = not so accurate. Hyperbole obfuscates validity. (never thought I’d get to type that….)
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“Stop the terrorists” – nice headline, almost as good as the overly-dramatic and clearly biased Stuff headline.
“…the otherwise overwhelmingly positive anti-whaling campaign.” – pity the anti-whaling campaign you talk of is clearly not working. Perhaps these guys wouldn’t feel the need to risk their lives if our government actually did something constructive to prevent whaling in the Southern Ocean. Would be great if NZ could be as proactive with anti-whaling as they were with the anti-nuclear campaign. The Nuclear-free campaign wasn’t popular with foreign governments, but at least it gave us respect as a nation that was willing to stand up for it’s beliefs.
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Stuart said…
Perhaps these guys wouldn’t feel the need to risk their lives if our government actually did something constructive to prevent whaling in the Southern Ocean
The primary role and the moral justification for the existence of a government is to protect its citizens’ rights violations from each other. That means to protect you from violating mine and to protect you from me violating yours. It is not there to declare war on a foreign country in order to protect the misguided beliefs of its citizens.
What rights of yours (or NZders in general) that the Japanese Govt research ships violate by being at the Southern Ocean to hunt whales? None whatsoever. Besides, it is absurd that you advocate that our Govt interfere in the operation of a foreign government. That’s almost asking for a declaration of war and you don’t want us going to war with Japan do you?
Lance’s blog post title is correct. Lets call them (the appropriate label) of who they are.
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The Japanese don’t listen, don’t care, and don’t deserve
the “freedom to reasonably operate” anywhere in the Southern Ocean.
A hyped-up media release is designed to attract the attention this one has..
Point is if Sea Shepherd don’t make a solid stand over whaling, nobody
else will and the corporate Japanese whaling business will just continue on their
way blithely saying all the right things at iinternational conferences etc.
Until you get in their face they just regard their freedom to do
whatever they like as god-given and immune from sanction.
Stop whaling in a whale sanctuary, and go home. End of story.
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Geoff said…
The Japanese don’t listen, don’t care, and don’t deserve
the “freedom to reasonably operate” anywhere in the Southern Ocean.
Why should they? In your own world view, who should they listen to? To you? To the UN? To the US? To the citizens of the world? Japan is a sovereign country and so as NZ. We don’t run our foreign policies according to the wishes of residents in the African continent or from anywhere else. It is based on our self interests. All governments act in this way and Japan is no exception.
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Self evidently, all Govt’s do NOT act in this way – thats the bloody point.
And its not “foreign policy”, its commercial fishing disguised as “science”.
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Most here will not agree with me. If it is OK for the indigenous peoelps to hunt whales, I see no reason that sustainable whaling is wrong, morally or otherwise.The Japanese, however, are thumbing their noses on the authority in this situation, as are the Norwegians for all I know (for the record I am 3rd generation Norwegian along with a lot of other recent illegal immigrants). I would have no real problem if somebody lent the authority a couple of cutters.Arthur C. Clarke (he who thought of the communication satellite) has a novel, The Deep Range, based on sustainable whaling. Well worth the read if you are into Westerns (disguised as science fiction).
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