Japanese whaling ships are currently being targeted by environmental activists aboard the Steve Irwin ship in Antarctic waters. The Japan Whaling Association (JWA) say they fear for the lives aboard the whaling vessel.
The activists group is called Sea Shepherd, and they are being filmed by Animal Planet on board the Steve Irwin for a show called Whale Wars on the actions they take against the Japanese whalers.
It is against an international moratorium to hunt whales commercially, but the Japanese do so under the guise of “scientific research”. Hundreds are killed a year. The meat finds its way to dinner plates still however.
President of the JWA, Keiichi Nakajima, said, “We expect more dangerous and criminal activity will be carried out by the Sea Shepherd-Animal Planet crew because they want to make an exciting television series and this fills us with very great concern for the lives of the Japanese crews and scientists.”
A Japanese government-backed whaling body claimed that the activists’ ship rammed into the left side of the Japanese vessel, damaging a bulwark, while the Sea Shepherd accused the whaling boat of steering into it.
“Paul Watson even orchestrated a fake event to make it look like he was shot, all of which was aimed at denigrating Japan and boosting the ratings of the Animal Planet un-reality TV series,” Mr Nakajima said.
Paul Watson is the captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Steve Irwin and says that despite the grumblings of the JWA, they have prevented the Japanese from killing any whales in the last nine days.
Mr Watson denies the claims that they are endangering anyone, “Our critics should just shut up because we’ve been doing this for five years, we haven’t been charged with anything, we’ve not broken any laws, we’ve not injured anybody.”
Mr Nakajima said, “Animal Planet will try to deny it has any influence on what Sea Shepherd extremists plan and carry out, but the fact is the very presence of the film crew on board is enough to provide a causal link between them and the events that occur in the Antarctic.”
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10 users commented in " Animal Planet endangers lives at sea: Japanese whalers say "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIf there was ever any substance to claims by the Japanese authorities that Sea Shepherd endangered lives we would long ago have seen legal action by Japan against the flag-state of the SS ship – and that has never happened. The charges are pure propaganda.
The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission reported last year that not a single one of the scientific objectives defined for Japan’s scientific whaling programme has been realised, over twenty years. So much for serious science.
It is significant that the Government of Panama has cancelled the flag of the vessel, Oriental Bluebird, that transports whale meat back from the fleet to the Japanese market and also refuels the whaling vessels. This happened because the auxiliary vessel broke the environmental safety refulations of the Antarctic Treaty.
Japan should stop whaling, but having said that, I don’t agree with the tactics that Sea Shepherd have adopted, such as throwing acid aboard the ‘villian’ ships, etc.
Act grown up, not like a child not getting what you want now.
The only thing that is saving the whales from being brutally slaughtered this year is the presence of Sea Shepherd because nobody else, including the very heavily funded Greenpeace group,have bothered to show up this year. The Japanese are the only law breakers here,illegaly killing and butchering whales in a sanctuary and refilling their tanks in such a fragile area. They are mad at Animal Planet because they are exposing to the world the enviironmental crimes Japan has been commiting unchecked for years in these protected waters!
Throwing rotton butter is nothing compared to the undescribable violence involved in killing a gentle giant of the seas.
I resent the fact that the Japanese must think the rest of the world is so stupid as to believe this is about “scientific research”. EVERYONE knows better. They are giving the world the finger when it comes to their commercial whaling.
Keep up the fight Sea Shepard!
I agree with sidneyholt, Penelope Caribe, sroyj all have said above. And I ask everyone to take it a step further. We (My family & friends a group of about 100 active consumers) contacted all the vendors we currently use that carry Japanese made products and have told them we will no longer purchase any products made in Japan or by a Japanese owned company. Let them keep their own cars and motorcycles in Japan for a while!
To Gabriel Pollard writing above,
There are humans who think that we are so intellectually gifted that they can make laws for nature. Nature makes laws for us, but boy in our attempt to make laws for nature have we done a great job, or what! Years of horrific wars, young men being gutted dead by corrupt governments, mass murders of human and animal life, suicide bombers, raping and murdering indigenous peoples, killing massive numbers of species to the point of extinction, humans building bombs that would obliterate our world in less than an hour; the list is endless, wouldn’t you say?
…and what have the whales done but enrich our world with their innocent beauty, the dolphins, turtles, seals — all these wondrous creatures of nature, what have they done? Nothing.
Someone asked a foolish question, like your statement about the tactics used for stopping the Japanese whalers from illegally killing mothers whales and their babies, He said, “which state has commissioned him (Captain Watson) to enforce his own interpretation of the law,” that would be the “laws of nature” that give anyone and everyone the right to stop the mass killings of ocean life, or any other life to the point of extinction.
Live a few more years.
Peter
The Japanese are liars. I have just lost a cell phone, pretty sure my next one won’t be Sony.
How many tissue samples do the JWH need! Why can’t the nation and are government can’t see this and stop the WHALE KILLING. It does take a genius to see animal planted shows and see that they are KILLING WHALES for SALE. Hello people help Mr. Paul Watson and his crew to stop them. Please these are very beautiful animals.
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. It is extremely useful for me.
I really love whale and want to see them live for a long time.
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