Animal Planet, Daryl Hannah Join Sea Shepherd Crew For More Whale Wars
As seen on TV, the Sea Shepherd Society is once again readying their boat in order to thwart the efforts of Japanese whalers
Just earlier this week the Japanese whaling ship called the Nisshin Maru left port to begin hunting and slaughtering an expected 1,000 whales. Luckily enough, the Sea Shepherd Society has the whales’ backs…er, fins? It’s an annual confrontation between the society and the whalers, one that I’m enormously grateful for!
It’s been estimated that last year the tactics of the Sea Shepherd saved around half of the whales targeted by the Japenese fleet, approximating in a $70-million dollar loss. It wasn’t easy Watson says, as he was shot during one of the forays. “I was wearing a bullet-proof vest, ” he told an Australian newspaper, “but the bullet hit my badge (an anti-poaching badge) so I had this bullet and I jokingly gave it to the guy who played Grissom in CSI (actor William Petersen) - he’s one of our supporters - and said ‘Hey, take a look at this because no one else will.’
I admit, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to interact with whales off the coast of Baja. That’s me petting one in the picture above. I’m far from religious but the experience is like that of seeing God. It’s beautiful and utterly unreal. If only the Japanese were Mexican.
Let me give a shout out to my motley crew of whale watchers. We’re a gang of engineers, a Brit, a Sea World veterinarian, and some Asian guy - none of us really know what John does. We’re just a movie star short of being a Gilligan’s Island spin off. It’s the perfect blend.
But make no mistake, it’s not my interaction with these creatures that fuels my interest in their plight. I find them majestic, yes, but the actions of the Japanese are inexcusable and just plain lame. Luckily, I believe in karma and that there is a special version of Hell just for whalers.
In the meantime, we have Daryl Hannah. Yup, Daryl Hannah — actress, activist, and part-time mermaid — is joining the Sea Shepherd crew this time around, headed by Captain Paul Watson. The crew itself is made up of over 40 volunteers and a Animal Planet film crew. Animal Planet will document the adventures for their hit television series Whale Wars.
The boat — the Steve Irwin — leaves port from Australia on December 1st. Wish them luck.
[Via: Ecorazzi]Photo: Jerry James Stone, San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California Sur
Dear Whale warriors, Great Job!! Keep it up and don’t stop untill you put these guys(Japs) out of business. We all need a happy ending and many are with you on the Steve Irwin (in spirit, including Steve, himself)
How in the hell do they come up with that “estimate”?
And to Candy, do you think Steve Irwin would approve of calling Japanese citizens “Japs”?
These people aren’t “warriors” and even remotely referring to them as such is a slap in the face to real warriors.
An aside: how does one blimp up like Watson on a vegan diet anyway?
Mule he is indeed a warrior .. he fights for what he believes in
as for the estimates, it is my understanding the whalers have a certain time period which they can whale hunt which you can sorta break down how many whales can be killed and processed per day when you figure in time constraints .. if the Sea Shepherd can harass even one of the harpoon boats, thats less whales killed .. last season they even stopped the main slaughter/packaging boat from doing its job for a couple days which is the key boat to the whole operation as the harpoon boats just harpoon the whale and then transfer the line to the slaughter boat for processing
Anyone read the ISCS reports for the stink bombs they use (Butyric Acid)? Environmental Data notes:The substance is harmful to aquatic organisms! Now thats ironic..lol, note that there are 17 subcategories of aquatic organisms, 4 of which are marine mammals, this includes whales and dolphins, according to Wikipedia.( food for thought)http://www.inchem.org/documents/icsc/icsc/eics1334.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Aquatic_organisms