Mob Gnarly and the Whalers

Protesters converge on Japan's whaling fleet; Aussie court rules Japan hunt illegal

Posted at 7:02 AM on 15 Jan 2008

It's been high drama on the high seas the past few days as the unpopular Japanese whaling fleet has been at the heart of legal action and a target of direct-action protest. Earlier this week, Greenpeace successfully tracked down Japan's whaling fleet in Antarctic waters and has been chasing them around, disrupting the hunt. Today, a federal court in Australia ruled that Japan's whaling was illegal and ordered the fleet not to hunt anywhere near its waters nor in its Antarctic territory. Just hours after the ruling, two protesters from the militant anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boarded one of the whaling vessels to deliver a letter of protest; the two were then taken into custody by the crew. Sea Shepherd has accused the crew of kidnapping and abuse of the activists. And just when you thought it couldn't get any more interesting, a ship that Australia sent to monitor the whaling fleet is set to arrive in the area soon to gather evidence against the whalers to present to an international court. Japan has said it aims to land up to 900 whales this season; no word yet on its captured-activist quota.

sources: BBC News, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News, Agence France-Presse, The Age

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Comments: (2 comments)

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proud of the legal and personal actions.

As sad as it, often the only way people stop doing horrid things is through legal and "militant" actions. Of course telling the Japanese whale hunters, in a kind and gentle way has not worked, as they have killed thousands of whales. So sometimes stronger actions have to be taken.

For those positive stronger actions, - thank you to all the people that are trying to bring about a positive change and to the Aussi government! - now lets stop killing the joei's!

I only have this one life, so I am going to try my very best to make a positive change. --- The Happy & Healthy Vegan ---

by javaearth at 8:05 AM on 15 Jan 2008

Sea Shepherd Was Chasing The Whaling Boats

The whalers were not running from Greenpeace. They never have and there is no reason they would. They were running from Sea Shepherd's boat, because Sea Shepherd has sunk whaling ships and caused other damage to them. (NO ONE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE ISSUE HAS EVER BEEN HARMED OR KILLED IN A SEA SHEPHERD ACTION, and those of us who value life above property don't consider property destruction per se to be violent.) Check out Sea Shepherd's website (http://www.seashepherd.org/) and donate if you can. Your money will do a lot more for the whales than a donation to Greenpeace.

Disclaimer: While I was working for Greenpeace in the mid '80s, I met Paul Watson over pizza and beer after an Earth First! sponsored talk he gave (I was also working with Earth First!, but Greenpeace was my paying job). I know from personal experience that his complaints about Greenpeace are totally right on, unfortunately, but we do need groups like Greenpeace also.

by Wolverine at 7:42 PM on 08 Feb 2008

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