Hysterics on the high seas will never halt whaling

[Bonobo]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/hysterics-on-the-high-seas-will-never-halt-whaling/story-e6frg71x-1225817131876

Journalists and politicians must stop encouraging activists

MAYBE it's all Johnny Depp's fault for making high seas hooliganism so popular in his Pirates of the Caribbean films. Whatever the reason, anti-whaling activists in the Great Southern Ocean are carrying on like piratical polemicists, assuming that their belief that whaling is wrong empowers them to do what they like. Thanks to a sympathetic media and a common belief in the community that whales should have the same rights as humans, the protesters' propaganda provides the better broadsides. There is no denying the passion of the Sea Shepherd organisation's opposition to the Japanese whale hunt now under way, nor the bravery of the crew trying to stop the whalers. But courage and commitment does not give anybody the right to masquerade as martyrs when the people they are harassing refuse to be bullied. We do not know who was at fault in the sinking of the fast craft Sea Shepherd used against whalers and their escort. The activists allege the Japanese set out to sink the boat, using a much larger vessel to hunt it down. The whalers argue that their attackers set a course that made collision inevitable and closed too fast for the bigger craft to manoeuvre out of the way. Whether the sinking was due to intent or ineptitude on either side will not matter much to most of the media, where anti-whalers are receiving the sympathetic sort of hearing reserved for the innocent underdog.

The Sea Shepherd crew does not deserve such assistance. Whatever the emotional appeal of its anti-whaling advocacy, its behaviour is arrogant and unreasonable. For all Sea Shepherd's talk about acting to defend Australian law, its applicability on the open ocean adjacent to the Antarctic territory we claim is not widely accepted. If anything, it is Sea Shepherd which is sailing very close to the law of the sea. There is no doubting Sea Shepherd has a right to shadow whalers and to denounce their actions by every available means. However, the activists have no authority to interfere with the right of the whalers to sail unimpeded, as they do by harassing Japanese vessels. And it is a bit rich of Sea Shepherd's spokesman to complain when the Japanese defend themselves by firing their water cannon.

Yet while the activists appear to delight in the drama, they are not doing their cause any good. The more they attempt to intimidate the whalers, the more the Japanese will decide to demonstrate they will not be bullied. Understandably so: imagine Australian anger if Japanese activists harassed freighters carrying cargoes of kangaroo meat on the grounds that they were watching Skippy on TV and thought it was cute. It is about time the Sea Shepherd's impassioned activists got the message that diplomacy and debate is the only way to end whaling, that high seas harassment is counter-productive. And to ensure they hear, politicians should stop opportunistically encouraging them. When in opposition, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said Australia should take legal action to save the whales; now he has come over all statesman-like and says safety at sea is essential, while his Liberal opponent, Greg Hunt, is thundering about sending a ship to keep an eye out for the whales. He should stop spouting. It only encourages obsessed activists who have lost all sense of proportion.

[Bonobo]

1. Another excellent editorial: "Balanced approach more likely to sway Japan"

This is only for those who are interested in STOPPING whaling, not those who are merely enjoying the spectacle put on by Mr. Watson.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/balanced-approach-more-likely-to-sway-japan-20100107-lwlx.html

Would a difference of opinion between Australia and the US or Britain be referred to as a ''war'' in a respectable newspaper? If the disagreement is with Japan, how easily headline writers reach for the word (''Whaling war set to worsen after crash'', January 7).

If one side in a dispute sets out to create an incident, while the other hopes to conduct its unpopular activity with a minimum of fuss, whom do we believe when the incident happens? If it is to do with whaling, the Australian media (especially the ABC) unfailingly defers to Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson.

Following the most recent incident, his account of events - protest vessel ''rammed'' and ''cut in half'' while stationary - has been disproved by video evidence. It is about time the media subjected Mr Watson's statements to normal journalistic standards of verification. If they had been doing so before now, his credibility would be low.

Japan should stop whaling: it makes a minimal contribution to its food security and constitutes a minor part of its cultural heritage. Australian politicians and journalists should also take a more responsible approach to the issue - one, in the end, that is more likely to be respected by the Japanese leaders who will decide their whaling policy.

[catbyte]

5. Bullshit. Diplomacy hasn't worked in the past,

what makes anyone think it'll work now? Japan hasn't stopped whaling or "scientific research" :puke: because whale meat is a luxury food and they make a fortune off of it. It's all about money, money, money. It's mildly encouraging that there is new leadership and a potential change in attitude about whaling, but until I see them taking concrete steps away from whaling, I'm not going to budge an inch.

I suppose Capt. Watson should also stop interfering with the slaughter of seals in Canada too...NOT.

Keep at it, Sea Shepard. I've been on your side for 30 years and will remain there. I wish I had his guts...

Diane

Anishnabe in MI

[Bonobo]

6. What diplomacy? When?

Japan would be ready to give it up.

I know of no Japanese people that would be unwilling to give it up.

At this point, the process is being driven more by the obnoxious bullying than it is helping to stop it.

[catbyte]

8. You're kidding, right?

Do some research on the history of the IWC. Groups and countries have tried diplomacy for YEARS to get not only Japan to stop whaling, but Iceland, Norway, and various indigenous groups.

Who told you Japan would be willing to give it up? If they were willing to give it up, they would have years ago! That statement is absurd. I too know Japanese people who want whaling to stop, but they have no influence with the powers that be. Where are you getting your information?

I've been involved in helping save cetaceans for 40 years and Japan has been the biggest offender and obstacle by far.

Diane

Anishnabe in MI

[Bonobo]

9. I need to study more on the history of negotiations.

But my guess is that the real truth is that even if the Japanese would agree to hunt and eat only NON-endangered whales, they would find no willingness to compromise.

That does not lead to true negotiations. Their must be a dialectical resolution.

[GodlessBiker]

2. Fuck that. You can say that about any protest. People don't like to be bullied.

Yeah. I'm sure the owners of the lunch counters who would not let African-Americans sit there thought the demonstrations against them were counter-productive, since they didn't like getting bullied either.

And I guess all those demonstrations against South Africa were counter-productive since the government there did not appreciate being bullied.

[Bonobo]

3. Whoah, yet another from the Aussies: "When protest becomes hoonery"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/when-protest-becomes-hoonery-20100107-lwuu.html

Even those strongly opposed to Japan's revival of its whaling industry, as this newspaper is, must feel uneasy at the latest antics of the Sea Shepherd protesters in the Southern Ocean. Thankfully no one was killed in the collision between a Japanese security vessel attached to the whaling fleet and Sea Shepherd's boat, the Ady Gil, but that could easily have occurred with only a slight variation of the bigger and slower ship's course.

The Ady Gil is or was a black, futuristic trimaran reminiscent of the sort of gleaming, lowered and turbocharged utes favoured by hoons, and employed a sort of version of their highway tactics. It cut across the bows of the Japanese ship, then apparently cut speed to force a sudden turn, shone a kind of green laser at the Japanese crew, and dangled ropes in the hope these would entangle the ship's propellers. This was a high-risk game of chicken on the high seas, verging on the illegal.

The Japanese protective moves in their latest hunting season show a defiance of the world in shielding an obnoxious and hypocritical activity, but have been quite legal. They are entitled to use fire hoses, to hire aircraft for observation, and to employ publicists. Calls for Australia or New Zealand to send naval or other ships to somehow keep order are disingenuous.

Without suggesting that Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace or either government alter their opposition to whaling by Japan, or stop recording and exposing the brutality of the massacre, it is probably a time to cool down the physical interference, maybe too for the activists to show their own lack of hypocrisy by taking on the Norwegian and Icelandic whalers as well.

The current Japanese whaling expedition is the last that will be mounted under a budget allocated by the former Liberal Democratic Party, whose neo-cons were susceptible to the ''Showa nostalgia'' in the symbolism of whale meat to the shared hardships of war and defeat last century. The new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has stated he doesn't like whale meat, a signal that this revival is over. His Democratic Party of Japan has been going over the government books to eliminate the kind of subsidies and perks for retired bureaucrats that sustain the whaling activity.

[catbyte]

4. Sorry, don't agree

Japan and other nations who are illegally whaling need to stop their deception, but it won't happen any time soon because of the money they smear around to smaller nations that are part of the IWC. Civil disobedience is a perfectly acceptable course of action when confronted with illegal, immoral activity, and I fully intend to continue supporting Sea Shepard. The Japanese routinely violate the Southern Ocean Marine Sanctuary and, if you ask me, THEY are the arrogant and unreasonable party. Paul Watson may be a little over the top at times, but he's put his life on the line for this planet 30 years, and I admire him for it.

Diane

Anishnabe in MI

[endless october]

7. i see only one realistic solution.

the "harass the Japanese boats" technique does not work unless you want to bring in real weapons, which even i have to admit is not going to happen.

trail and lead the Japanese ships at all times, focusing energy on scaring whales away with whatever frequency noise repels them. hard to fish legally or illegally when someone is doing that. this seems to be the most likely solution.

[Wonderboy]

10. Wow

I'm surprised that Paul Watson is Canadian, the way he wants to police the world I would have thought he was an American.

[proteus_lives]

11. Kick and Recommend.