Sea Shepherd gone high tech!

[oakranger]

Japs will have to invest in drons just to shoot down The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society dron's.   

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hardline whaling opponents attempting to stop Japan's annual whale hunt in the Antarctic said Sunday they had intercepted and photographed its whaling fleet using pilotless drone aircraft.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it located the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru off Australia's western coast Saturday using the drones, the first time this season it has made contact with the whalers.

However, other Japanese ships shielded the vessel "to allow it to escape," Sea Shepherd said in a statement.

"We caught them due west of Perth," founder Paul Watson told Reuters by satellite phone from the ship Steve Irwin. "For the next few days we will be chasing them. We are heading south."

The two drones are equipped with cameras and detection equipment and allow Sea Shepherd to monitor the whaling fleet from a distance, he said.

Watson said Sea Shepherd's three ships were well outside Antarctic waters when the Japanese vessel was seen. The Sea Shepherd waited for the Nisshin Maru after hearing from fishermen it had sailed through the Lombok Strait in Indonesia on its voyage to Antarctic waters.

The Sea Shepherd society's annual attempts to stop the Japanese whale hunt by "direct action" have been widely criticised by other environmentalists and governments, particularly Japan. However, it also has influential supporters.

Watson said sympathisers in New Jersey in the United States contributed to the cost of the two drones.

An international moratorium on whaling has been in place since 1986, but Japan exploits a loophole allowing whaling for scientific purposes to justify its annual hunt.

[Tec]

Did they rig up an extra channel to drop sssssssuper stinky butter bombs on them?

[Tupac]

Did they rig up an extra channel to drop sssssssuper stinky butter bombs on them?

 

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

That southpark episode....

[Scherf]

Those drones going to have a rough time in the southern ocean.

As will the support ship for Watson's ego.

[Scotch]

Those guys are retarded.

[AHTbolt]

Lets go buy a Fletcher class destroyer from Argentina and go mess with the sea cows.

[tmetal]

Now thats not nice. These anti whaling hippies might not be that smart, but there is no need to refer to them as drones

[Meatwad]

One of them drones would make a nice target for a stinger 

[Penguin]

I think the drones are a good idea as long as they don't try to impose their brand of vigilante justice with the data that the drones gather by performing raids.  In fact, if they sold the boat and used the money to go the extra mile and buy a drone with solar panels and a very high power camera, then they could constantly monitor the whalers.  Using the drones, they would act as a Neighborhood Watch for the Antarctic Ocean, and alert the proper authorities when trouble arose.  If help didn't come in time, then the photographic evidence would be good evidence for a lawsuit or later report.  Though I agree that Sea Sheperd is putting themselves and others in danger, there is no reason that they can't watch and report wrongdoing (provided that they do it correctly).

-Penguin

[Rob52240]

As a hunter / conservationist, from what I can tell whales have been over harvested for countless generations.  I'd like to see their numbers come back up some more before we go back to dining on whale meat.  I'll make the assumption that the only reason the Japanese whalers have to operate all the way down in Antarctica is because they've harvested nearly every whale near Japan already.