Japan Plans to Arrest Sea Shepherd Crew
The announcement by Japan’s Fisheries Agency that Sea Shepherd crew will be arrested if they disrupt Japanese whale killing operations has done little to stop the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The direct action animal rights organization, as seen on Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars”, says they are “undettered” by the threats.
“When you are willing to die for a whale, the threat of arrest is somewhat trivial,” said Captain Paul Watson. “It can only further our cause of defending the whales if the Japanese take Sea Shepherd crewmembers hostage and haul them back to Japan for prosecution. The diplomatic, political and jurisdictional issues will be profound.”
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If arrested by the Japanese coastguard, Japan has stated that Sea Shepherd crew will be charged with forcible obstruction of business under Japanese law. Sea Shepherd claims they are acting in accordance with the United Nations Charter for Nature, which calls upon individuals and non-governmental organizations to uphold international conservation law.
“We must never forget that Japan is targeting threatened and endangered whales in an officially established whale sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling and in defiance and contempt of an Australian Federal Court ruling prohibiting the killing of whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory,” said Sea Shepherd International Executive Director Kim McCoy.
The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin departed on the 7th of December from Newcastle in New South Wales. “Whale Wars” is currently showing on Animal Planet and has been renewed for another season, which will include Splash star Daryl Hannah as a crewmember.
Image Credit: René Ehrhardt on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
Whaling is as-been-seen on the show a very grey area internationally. Japanese say they’re right, Sea Shepherd says they’re right. However, on the contrast, EVERY nation and EVERY country and EVERY government are extremely clear that deadly force is neccesary and authorized to combat acts of piracy on the open seas, and without need for explanation or investigative inquiry. The fact that you call yourself a vigilante is immaterial. You’re a pirate, you can (and should) be killed…as has been done for hundreds of years. Its not new people. Sooner or later, the Sea Shepherd is gonna lose, and unfortunately lose big.
Talk about the epitome of “social misfits”!! Losers is too kind of a description of these loads. They should send boats out to harpoon the whales right in front of these enviro-fascists! The worst part is, they are really putting legitimate efforts to protect sea creatures (i.e.- Greenpeace,etc.) in a very bad light by association……
Sea Shepherd has been out on the oceans for MANY years doing this intervention. That some of you only know of it from a TV show is your ignorance.
Paul Watson was a foundation of Greenpeace, before they sold out and allowed “dolphin safe” labels on tuna cans in exchange for only killing half as many dolphins for the sake of a cheaper can of tuna. He parted ways with them when Greenpeace became more concerned about profiting from donations than doing the dirty work necessary to help these intelligent marine creatures.
Captain Watson and I share the hope that the rest of the world will do their job in stopping the whaling and killing of dolphins and porpoises, so that he can retire.
Australians and Americans have killed whales for centuries. They have killed far more whales than Japanese have done. Why is Sea Shepherd attacking Japan? SS looks just stupid.
While quite a few people blame Japanese for hunting whales, they shamelessly overlook their eating apetite for other animals for cows or chickens, and even our forcefeeding ducks to make foie gra.
That is hypocracy, and not fair at all.
I wonder…. People who say whales are noble creatures often discriminate against human beings by their race,religion and skin color.
Are whales nobler than other animals?
All creatures are equal. All creatures are noble.
Should white people be treated better than any other race?
Everything is equal. Let’s stop discriminating against animals according to species.
Kudos to japan for issuing arrest warraents for thes seashepard pirates they deserve life in prison for their crimes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG8_UWX6KzE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emilitaryphotos%2Enet%2Fforums%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Fs%3Df1b208639edbb86e43ee7efaf700b3e8%26t%3D146110%26page%3D5&feature=player_embedded
whales are sea cows like paul watson
The Sea Shepherd crew and captain are smoking something. They must be partaking in the herbs if they think that what they are doing is anything less than piracy.
They are all in awe of this paunchy captain retard and they will get nothing but jail cells or the morgue if they push countries as they are doing. Nothing new about lunatics like Watson. He seduces young people with stories of adventure and danger and then proceeds to ruin their youn lives with criminal behavior. It’s only a matter of time before Watson kills somebody or sends a crew down with their ship and then watch out!
Gee that’s a great idea - sink some ships in the middle of a pod of whales. Just imagine the oil spillage…