Prior to Friday’s premiere of the new Animal Planet series Whale Wars, Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research has accused Animal Planet of ecoterrorism.
The show will chronicle the exploits of an anti-whaling group who takes their quest directly to the front lines, trying to stop Japanese whaling vessels from succeeding in killing whales.
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Planetsave editor and contributor Alex Felsinger recently previewed the exciting series. In short, it chronicles how the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society stopped Japanese whalers from killing at least 300 whales last winter by using harsh, combative tactics.
The Society is not afraid to unleash their fury. The show depicts hostage situations, gunfire, the attempted destruction of whaling boats, and the throwing of powerful smoke bombs on board ships. It’s not surprising given that the leader of the group, Captain Paul Watson, co-founded Greenpeace. Supposedly Watson left Greenpeace because they weren’t aggressive enough for his tastes, although other sources claim he was kicked out.
So whether or not Animal Planet is being rightly accused of supporting eco-terrorists is unclear. In addition to accusing Animal Planet of supporting ecoterrorism, the Institute of Cetacean Research has also accused them of helping the crew of the Sea Shepherd to “stage” an attack on the crew’s boat with gunfire, an event they claim never really occurred.
Personally, I find Japan’s defiance and disregard of the international whaling ban to be the true crime. They claim that they do whaling for scientific purposes, even though whale meat is sold and consumed in Japan as a delicacy, even in schools. This occurs despite recent evidence that whale meat contains toxic mercury levels.
Japan doesn’t even want to play nice after other countries tried to do so at this year’s annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Their response after other countries tried not to take any offensive actions was to say: “We are witnessing the death of the International Whaling Commission.”
If you are reading Planetsave, then you are probably as fired up as we are to watch the premiere of Whale Wars. Feel free to leave your thoughts about the show in our comments section.
Photo Credit: Animal Planet
A bunch of hippies, who can and will fuck up the simplest of tasks.
@ Janky, How can you call ignoring the International Whaling Commissions law in deliberately fishing in a declared international SANCTUARY, in Australian territorial waters, “legal”, before commenting, check your facts, the Japanese whalers are the ILLEGAL ones here, by 1) ignoring the law created by the International Whaling Commision, Banning hunting the whales there, 2) Intruding in another nations territorial waters without permission 3) deliberately fishing in a specifically created SANCTUARY created for the PROTECTION of the Whales. I strongly recommend that YOU think before you post, when you have no real idea what the facts are.
I like the sea shepperds, they’re not scared –
to fight for what they believe in
to protect the helpless and innocent
to uphold moral standards
to stand up to a nation that disregards the rest of the worlds demands
to do something truly courageous
p.s.
according to your line of thinking the U.S.of A. is a terrorist state from its inception – think boston tea party, think revolutionary war – terrorist is current term, and will b obsolete eventually.
eco-terrorist is an oxymoron if i ever heard one – how can you associate people trying to save the planet which sustains our lives, with a destructive organization – CORPORATIONS are DESTRUCTIVE ORGANIZATIONS – think WALMART
research is what they say,well for the people that think they are telling the truth would be the people of japan,wy is the catch so many,its called KICKBACK,for the ones that dont know what that means,well im going to tell you,its called making a deal with japan,give us this much money and we will let you have this many wales,come on people do you think for one second that one country would let anybody go in to there waters and take with out kickback (NO)its like this (you pay us this amount and call it research and then its legal)the fight aint with japan its with the country leting them do it and getting paid ,we all know japan will eat anything,and if the sea shepard is done well who can blame them,i say if the wales are all going to get killed over profit then figure out a way to poison there meat but so they can still live with the poison in there system and then the profit goes out the window,here in the us we research them and they live after were done,remember people its only for money for them and the people that say they own the water that there in.
you guys are simply retarded. go to japan and see if anyone eats whales there. NO. in school? are you fucking kidding me? you must be retarded. i personally attended school there, and never have i been served whale. i have never encountered whale meat in my life. so please, check your sources before you make such accusations.
Have most the sick people who think that the japanese research is good lost your mind. it is sick and degrading. i am 100 percent behind what the the sea shepherds are doing. personally the people who agree with this BS about the japenese research should be put in a psyc ward and seriously analyzed. Sick minded and obviously have no heart or morals. And those who say that supporting animal planet is supporting terrorist, hmmmmmm….. are you crazzzzyyy? what do you think is really going on. have you ever seen what those idiot supposid reasearch boats are doing. enough said, these japanese crew members and the organizations they represent are the REAL TERRORIST.
I say the Japanese should protect their whaling operations with the few naval ships they posses, providing convoy escort against these clear acts of terrorism. Any attack (in this case physical and chemical attacks) on a nations shipping by a group such as this is piracy/terrorism. Animal Planet needs to be warned and forced to take the show down, or fined/seized. If these ecoterrorist ships still try to mount attacks on Japanese shipping, fire upon them and sink their ships. Then search for and capture/exterminate any survivors. Those captured then need to be deported, imprisoned or shot. It may sound brutal, but in these type of situations, brutality is needed.
When are you people going to open your eyes and do something for the real victims here, DINOSAURS! none of you ever campaigned to save them from extinction, or had a fundraiser to save them, why not? are the DINOSAURS not good enough to be saved? oh yeah,they died off naturally just like all the animals including us will do overtime
As a New Zealander I object to Japanese whaling near our waters. If the japanese have a traditional whale hunt near Japan thats fine. I have no objection to that. But if they have killed all the whales near Japan so they have to come halfway around the world to fish in whale sanctuaries then you can understand people would object and take measures to enforce the UN mandates.
As for the discussion on veganism, partyless argument that killing other animals and cruelty is natural and so they have no problem with it. I find that argument horrible. Are you really arguing that we should take the natural world as a guide for our moral behavior? Animals kill and rape each other regularly, so do you advocate that we do that also?
Is there anything regular people can do to help stop the Japanese whalers. ie: writing to senators or something of that nature? Thanks
The crew of this ship do not know what there doing. They are going to really screw up and hurt them selves or others. If the whaling was illegal wouldnt the UN do something. Oh yeah, and when they throw the stuff to ruin the whale meat, dont they realize they can just throw that one over and get another for there research. There are boats out there that drag nets destroying the sea floor and lots of fish that get throw back into the ocean after being crushed in the nets. where are they then?
The show is very well done and I enjoy it.
But these so-called “Sea Shepherds” are terrorists, plain and simple, and should be dealt with as such.
Their self-righteous and messianic delusions, and clearly criminal tactics, have me rooting for the Japanese, no matter how reprehensible their whaling may be.
The French knew how to properly deal with ecoterrorists like the “Sea Shepherds”.