Better watch out!...

[JOACH1M]

hehehe I thought you would say that. They are activists, do you see how long it takes to get things going to make an international law, specially when it has been a tradition and way of life for many people for decades?

It's their belief to go and do something that matters, maybe pioneer future legislation or groups.

When you say that "they aren't really doing anything" it is completely wrong. They are finding a legal way to defend the whales. If they went in with guns and shot the place up, they wouldn't even make it to the harbor.

Ok you win, but why couldn't they cut back in whaling allowing the population to grow and they can go out again...

[Melvin]

Oooooh I think I found some. Alas, I don't speak Japanese.

Any Japanese speakers wann help a fella out and translate this for me? Whale eating party at Melvin's!!!

http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/kuziran/

[BoilerDown]

The show is entertaining in how utterly incompetent most of them seem to be.  Lack of discipline, barely practice doing basic tasks which makes them barely competent to do the basic tasks.  Its amazing that no one has gotten themselves killed yet.  Unsurprisingly the helicopter pilot seems to be the only one to take anything with the seriousness it deserves.  All that said, they have gotten somewhat better at actually doing stuff, in last season, but then they collided with other boats, twice, resulting in the loss of their speedboat.  If you're the speedboat, how you can get caught out of fuel like that is inexcusable (if the Sea Shepherd point of view is believed, if they actually were under power and got rammed that's even worse).  They should have never been in any position to get hit in the first place, just by being much much faster.

Now what I'm going to find interesting in this season is how they take the Japanese earthquake/tsunami disaster into consideration.  Some Sea Shepherds were in Japan when it happened and helped with humanitarian relief there.  I found that strange after they routinely paint the Japanese as a people as immoral for their acceptance of whale hunting and eating whale meat.  Why were they in Japan?  Were they not afraid of being arrested?  Were they preaching vegan diets or anti-whaling?  Just vacationing among the enemy?  On the other hand, how much did they assist in rescue operations?  There's no black and white goods and bads here, and could make the show interesting.  I'll be watching.

[F22RaptorDude]

Ok, sorry, but I find it redicukes they spend millions of dollars to just go about te arctic and sit in their thumbs! They ran that speed boat thing into their huge boat! How much more idiotic could they get! The japanese took a way more aggressive approach with that Lrad thingy an all the sea shepherds did was throw stinky butter at them!

I agree, I was just annoyed how people complain about wasting money when they had nothing to do with how it was spent. The only reason I watch that show is because I get bored sometimes. 

[TwinBoom]

leave the whales alone or that big cigar looking spaceship will attach earth like it did on the star trek movie

[Penguin]

Yes, they are incompetent, but they're doing more to save those whales than most people on this planet.  If you want to call them incompetent, go out into the Arctic ice and do a better job.  The cynicism people show here is sickening.
Keep going Sea Sheperd!

-Penguin

[icepac]

They're gonna need a bigger boat.

[tmetal]

correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't the interference of a commercial vessel's lawfull actions (especially when that interference isn't backed by any government mandate) basically modern day piracy?  These sea going hippies may be doing what they think is right, but they are also causing problems for people who are just doing their jobs and trying to make a living; and doing it in such a way that is dangerous for themselves and the people/companies/vessels they target. I would bet that if one of the workers on a whaling ship was severely injured in some way by their "save the whales" actions they would all rejoice and call it a righteous victory for the whales.  It just makes them world class d-bags in my opinion.

[JOACH1M]

correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't the interference of a commercial vessel's lawfull actions (especially when that interference isn't backed by any government mandate) basically modern day piracy?  These sea going hippies may be doing what they think is right, but they are also causing problems for people who are just doing their jobs and trying to make a living; and doing it in such a way that is dangerous for themselves and the people/companies/vessels they target. I would bet that if one of the workers on a whaling ship was severely injured in some way by their "save the whales" actions they would all rejoice and call it a righteous victory for the whales.  It just makes them world class d-bags in my opinion.

Thank you!

[Tigger29]

correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't the interference of a commercial vessel's lawfull actions (especially when that interference isn't backed by any government mandate) basically modern day piracy?  These sea going hippies may be doing what they think is right, but they are also causing problems for people who are just doing their jobs and trying to make a living; and doing it in such a way that is dangerous for themselves and the people/companies/vessels they target. I would bet that if one of the workers on a whaling ship was severely injured in some way by their "save the whales" actions they would all rejoice and call it a righteous victory for the whales.  It just makes them world class d-bags in my opinion.

I haven't seen the show but I've been thinking the same exact thing.  I almost have to believe the entire show is staged!  Heck, just from watching the previews alone I see multiple counts of illegal actions - on both criminal and civil levels.. I don't see how these activists (And the Discovery Network) wouldn't be prosecuted or at the very least sued for their actions!  ESPECIALLY considering that it's all captured on film.

I just can't be quite convinced that it's real.  Kind of like Tru Tv's shows.. especially  "Operation Repo".  Entertaining?  Yes.  Real?  NO!  It even says at the beginning "The stories that are portrayed in this program are based on real events."  I wonder if Discovery has that kind of disclaimer somewhere as well...

[tmetal]

Oh man, don't get me started on "operation repo". My dad and uncle use to repo for a living, no real auto repo man would EVER pull up to a car and sit there aurguing and fighting with the deliquint owner. A good auto repo man waits untill the car owner isn't around backs up the truck untill he can hook under one bumper then raises the car and pulls away (done in less than a minute, all without getting out of the truck) took hook up the car properly farther down the road. It leaves the delinquint owner with a real "WTF!?!?" moment when they realize the car is gone.

[Raptor]

correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't the interference of a commercial vessel's lawfull actions (especially when that interference isn't backed by any government mandate) basically modern day piracy?  These sea going hippies may be doing what they think is right, but they are also causing problems for people who are just doing their jobs and trying to make a living; and doing it in such a way that is dangerous for themselves and the people/companies/vessels they target. I would bet that if one of the workers on a whaling ship was severely injured in some way by their "save the whales" actions they would all rejoice and call it a righteous victory for the whales.  It just makes them world class d-bags in my opinion.

The Japanese fleet in the arctic ocean contained no commercial vessels. International law has banned commercial whaling in the southern ocean. The Japanese have been getting around this by doing "research" which killed the whales and processed their meat for consumption in Japan. Now the claim that it has been research is the cause of conflict, how many biologist studying a species kill 10,000 and collect their meat?

In the international law, there is a clause stating that if the ban on whaling was violated, and no acting nation stepped in to regulate this, that a third party could act independently to enforce the ban.

So in a nutshell, the Japaneses were breaking an international ban on whaling, the Sea Sheppherd has been trying to draw attention to this and stop the whaling. What most people find amusing about the show is how incompetent the crew of activists has been. Legality has been on both party's side from time to time.

[tmetal]

Ok, so what your saying is that even though the Japanese aren't doing anything illegal or in violation of the international law, they are still somehow violating the law.  Yeah its a loophole, but loopholes are plugged with addendum's to the law, not with acts of piracy. Personally I can't force myself to watch anymore than the commercials for the show, so I have no idea how competent these people are. What I do know is that lawful, responsible hunting isn't a bad thing when it is done for a reason, such as a food source.  Is what the Japanese are doing responsible? dunno, not my decision; is it lawful? absolutely. The same can't be said for what the crew on the sea shepard are doing.

[Yossarian]

correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't the interference of a commercial vessel's lawfull actions (especially when that interference isn't backed by any government mandate) basically modern day piracy?

Yes, it may very well be a form of piracy.  But even though the actions of the whalers may be 'lawful', if there is a valid reason why the whalers' actions are immoral, then I'd say they have a right to be interfered with (i.e. there is a moral justification for trying to throw a spanner in the works of the whalers.  However, the catch in this is that what you consider 'moral' may very well clash with what someone else considers 'moral' - so you'd better be damn sure that your logic about why your morals are correct is flawless, before you go out and criticise/obstruct someone else for doing what they consider to be moral) .  Morality trumps legality any day of the week.

These sea going hippies may be doing what they think is right, but they are also causing problems for people who are just doing their jobs and trying to make a living; and doing it in such a way that is dangerous for themselves and the people/companies/vessels they target.

Valid point about posing a danger to the people, but just because some peoples' livelihoods come off the whaling doesn't mean they should not be accountable for their actions.

I would bet that if one of the workers on a whaling ship was severely injured in some way by their "save the whales" actions they would all rejoice and call it a righteous victory for the whales.  It just makes them world class d-bags in my opinion.

You're judging the activists by making an assumption about how they would react if something were to happen.  Unless you've got a previous example of them reacting to a similar situation in this way, then this is groundless and unfair (and if you do, why didn't you just mention that example instead of some hypothetical situation).

[tmetal]

Yup, it was a hypothetical example to illustrate my opinion of these pirates. That is why that sentence started with "I would bet..." and the next sentence ended with "...in my opinion."

Morality does trump legality, until you're in court for your moral actions. There are plenty of moral actions through out history that are horrible acts against humanity. (just helping illustrate your point about moral decisions/actions being subjective)

"Valid point about posing a danger to the people, but just because some peoples' livelihoods come off the whaling doesn't mean they should not be accountable for their actions."

Does this mean that you think coal miners should be looked down upon or suffer some kind of punishment for what they do because some people believe the burning of fossil fuels is destroying the environment? Or that loggers should be held accountable for the impact their jobs have on the world?

Please keep in mind here guys that I am not trying to pick a fight or make anybody look stupid. I am just really enjoying a decent debate with people who have a different point of view than mine and can make valid and respectful counter points.  Keep it up Yoss, I'm having fun here.