Sea Shepherd Scores One for the Whales, Gets Terrorist Status
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan 
on 12.27.08
(Photo from Hokkaido Shimbun)
Sea Shepherd, the international conservation organization and focus of Animal Planet's Whale Wars, has managed to stop the Japanese whaling operation in the Antarctic Ocean. For now. No whales have been killed yet this season, according to several news sources, including IBTimes.com. While that's good news for the whales, the way media is reporting about Sea Shepherd, calling it a "terrorist organization," makes me doubt if the general public here in Japan is going to suddenly start supporting the actions and steps taken by Paul Watson and his compatriots.
NHK World is reporting that Japanese research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean "has been sabotaged by the radical US conservation group Sea Shepherd."
Japanese fishery officials say activists hindered the whaling ship Kaiko Maru by throwing bottles of strong-smelling liquid into it and banging a boat into it over about 3 hours on Friday. They say the ship was only slightly damaged and that no one on board was hurt. Sea Shepherd last disrupted Japanese whaling ships on 4 occasions from January to March this year, injuring 3 crew members.
The Japanese page on Wikipedia for Sea Shepherd is also heavily edited by writers who prefer to stick the tero (terrorist) label on their actions, making it difficult for Japanese people to understand what the organization is actually trying to achieve. Sea Shepherd's official website has no information in Japanese.* Time Magazine named Paul Watson one of the environmental heroes of the 20th century in the year 2000, but that kind of detail tends to be lost in the acrimonious whaling debate here in Japan.
*Update: Sea Shepherd has translated some information about its campaign and methods here. Now I'm more impressed.
Brought to you by Martin Frid at greenz.jp
More about Whale Wars and Sea Shepherd
Survey: Is Paul Watson a Hero or an Extremist?
TreeHugger Forums • View topic - Whale Wars - Series
The TH Interview: Anti-Whaling Warrior, Captain Paul Watson
The New Yorker on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Sea Shepherd Ship Captured By Canadian Coast Guard
High-Stakes Duel on the Sea Pits Environmental Ships Against Japanese Whalers
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I would think the guy would want Native-born Japanese people taking over the ship instead of him and he's group. I mean the general Japanese public must just think he's a crazy American trying to take over what ever he wants. Surely Japan has some more radical groups that could be called upon and even trained if need be.
I would rank the gaff of not having a Japanese version of their site right up there with Gore not doing the solar panel thing on his house BEFORE he became Mr. AGW.
Sometimes you just gotta wonder...
I love these guys! Real heros in my book. A lot of us talk- Sea Shepherds walk. I think that despite the comments of the author, a lot of folks prefer this sort of direct action to the neutered politically "correct" approaches taken by other organizations. I think Sea Shepherd has a great deal of potential in reaching out to middle america in the least, and perhaps much much farther.
The Japanese can try to pin the "terrorist" label as much as they want- the whole world knows the "scientific whaling" program is a crock. And Sea Shepherd is actually doing something about it.
On a parallel note, the cable TeeVee show "Whale Wars" has had the dubious effect of portraying the Sea Shepard as a crew of idiots led by a self-serving megalomaniac.
When the Shepard crossed from "infowar" to real war, they lost me. Pirates are pirates after all.
Under international law it's perfectly legal for the japanese to detain or destoy their ship, I just hope they keep pushing their luck.
Petty terrorists can't force a sovereign nation to do anything and you're going to make a lot of enemies(me included).
Under "international law" those whales are protected too... If the Japanese try to sink the Steve Irwin they'll end up martyring the Sea Shepherds- and you can bet that every school kid in the world will respond to that.
The Japanese whalers and the Japanese government are BREAKING INTERNATIONAL LAW. Their 'research whaling' is nothing but a LIE, the whale meat is then sold to restaurants. WTH ?
I'm glad someone is standing up and actually doing something. Politicians sign agreements and then don't enforce them, so what should we do? Wait till the Japs fish our oceans dry?
Good evening Nick
The folks from China are fishing the oceans dry. Japan is that island NEAR China. The Japanese are very respoinsible in their fishing.
The Japanese take the whales legally under a UN agreement. Call it a loophole, but thay are legal.
You want to make a difference? Boycott all Japanese products, get your friends to do the same.
Resorting to violence (priracy) could result in an early departure- that is to say, the Japs might actully have had enough and do that the French have done - sink the crazy dolt and his crew of misfits - being a martyer matters only to the living.
Don,
Whales are mammals. To equate the Japanese sham "research" to overfishing (of which China is not the only guilty party) is missing the point. Boycott whale meat? C'mon. That's like saying "boycott murder." You think that will end it?
So far, the Sea Shepherd Terror Cell has sunk ten ships to "save" the whales. Do you have any idea how many whales were killed by the Sea Shepherd Terror Cell as a direct result of the millions of tons of toxic fuel being dumped right into the ocean, spilled from the whaling vessels sunk by the Sea Shepherd Terror Cell? The way I see it, they do far more harm to the whales in one tour than the entire fleet of Japanese whaling vessels could do in ten years. They're like PETA and HSUS. They kill animals in an effort to save them. It's like they prefer the concept of animals over the animals themselves.
Put that little nugget in your hookah and smoke it!
Now, I wholeheartedly support wildlife conservation and oppose what the Japanese are doing to the whales, but eco-terrorism is NOT the way to stop whaling! It's counterproductive and an unequivocal disgrace to REAL conservation societies that actually help animals. I sincerely hope that someone takes the Sea Shepherd Terror Cell, its captain, and his lemming cultist vegan beatnik leprous followers down and takes them all down permanently before they end up killing themselves via their own stupidity. I swear, it's people like that who give real hippie tree hugging animal lovers a bad name.