NEWS: Sea Shepherd attacks the whalers "Death Star"

There is a real battle brewing in the Southern Ocean between Greepeace protesters trying to halt the slaughter of whales and Japanese ships intent on killing whales for "scientific" purposes.
After the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru struck a Greenpeace ship the renegade Sea Shepherd ship is vowing revenge.



Way to go Guys! The Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd activities have finally turned world attention on the debased fishing activities of the Japanese.

Great to see that in this cynical age there are still idealists out there risking their lives for a great cause.

Related News Links:
weblog.greenpeace.org
www.seashepherd.org


[edit on 9-1-2006 by Netchicken]

good article...
I voted yes, but would still like to see a little more history of this incident... maybe some specifics regarding the ramming of the greenpeace vessel.

I love the japanese culture, and people... but why do they have to eat such nasty wasteful stuff...

some food choices are just downright wasteful, and dangerous to our environment.
whale is not a major food group... but much of what depends on whales is... (fish)

I would like to see the proof please that the Japanese Ship rammed the Greenpeace ship, as both sides are saying the other did it. It's not that i belive the Japanese goverment but i belive Greenpeace even less. I consider Greenpeace nothing more then a legal terror group, if the could use bombs and get away with it, they would. They are a reckless groupe who put many people at risk, like fouling the propeler of that boat, which could have caused a seriouse incident, and they should be delt with by the goverment of Japan. There is other ways of doing things then putting people at risk, having said that i will still vote 'yes' as it does make for intresting reading.

I just wish the US coast guard could get in on this like they did when Watson and his idiots tried to stop the Makah from legally hunting whales to which there were allowed by the IWC.

They got arrested then and really should be arrested now, what they are doing is illegal. Japan is not breaking any laws if they were the IWC and world leaders would make them stop.

Well it is important scientific research.

I mean, we all want to know which whale tastes the best, don't we?

Thank you Japan for all your hard work!

So if I understand correctly, the "punishment" for possibly hitting a Greenpeace boat (which might have actually been the culprit, and likely was) is to have your ship attacked by buffoons who want to destroy you propulsion system on the high seas?

That’s pretty harsh. I’d think they’d only have to pay about $7,000 dollars.

That’s all Greenpeace had to pay when they accidentally rammed their stupid ship into a protected coral reef.

MORONS!

Ohhhh…. It’s all too funny, and I love the nod to Empire Strikes Back. Not just in the “Death Star” reference, but in the way they tried to take out the boat. Imperial Walkers much?

Shots sometimes the law is an ass. And in the case of the Japanese whale fishing, they have made a mockery of it by stacking the whaling commision with their own bribed countries.

The only reason this is still legal is because Japan has bribed other countries to support their actions.

Under these situations I support Greenpeaces actions as a form of social activism that counterbalances an abuse of power and corruption of international law. The real benefit of this is that it makes Japan look really bad, when you see their actions and film them killing whales.

[edit on 9-1-2006 by Netchicken]

If it's part of their culture, the Japanese should be allowed to take whales, but only using traditional methods like the Eskimos/Inuit.

I don't really support what these environmentalists are doing per se, but I certainly don't like the Japanese whalers either...

Not so many whales species are actually in danger of getting extinct, you know. How much fish does a whale eat per day? I wish Greenpeace would spend their energy on fighting polution instead of fighting these whalers.

[edit on 2006/1/9 by Hellmutt]

These guys clearly have no right to attack a ship at sea, regardless of their being hit.

Technically that'd make them pirates no? Thats odd to think of.

And looking at the two ships, I honestly can't imagine that the japanese ship actually tried to ram that dingy and its still floating (though I am by no means an authority on that sort of thing).

I think the dingy is from sea shepard, not from greenpeace...
maybe i read that wrong, but it seemed that this was a reprisal from a non affiliated sympathetic group...

and I support the previous contention...
if they want to hunt whales from a cultural perspective, then let them do it in canoes, and with spears... as the ennuit do

now that is fair, isn't it?

deep sea fishing/whaleing has a detrimental effect upon the oceans... we are just now learning the effects of a butterflies wings here...
the large net fishers are the worst... no matter from what country...

Hm. I watched the video of the collision between the Greenpeace ship and the Japanese ship. The Greenpeace ship struck the Japanese ship twice in the aft starboard section. If these were cars, the Greenpeace ship would be at fault. With waterborne craft, the slower ship has the right of way; excepting sail boats, which have different rules because they're dependant on wind direction.

As for the Sea Shepard, what happened to the heavy ropes they were using? Did they bring the ropes back aboard? Or did they drop them in the ocean?

And I agree that the Japanese Government uses a loophole to hunt whales for food.

waaah waaah waaah the whales are being slaughtered. if it was up to these greenpeace people they would drop 2 more a-bombs on japan. they are very dangerous terrorists that must be stopped.

If the Green Peace boat struck the whale boad at the aft then they are at fault because any vessal comeing up from astern has to give way to the vessal in front, so in that case Green Peace are in fault and should be prosacuted to the highist exstent of the law. This was a very stupid and danseriouse act and could have resulted in people dieing. I stand by my statement thatr these people are nothing more the Terrorists and should be stoped.

They make me sick.

they are very dangerous terrorists that must be stopped.

derogatory comment removed.

Greenpeace is a well respected (subjective) protection group...
not to say that they dont get a little obsessed once in a while...
but even the conervative media was laughing at the governments assertation that they were a "terrorist threat" and were being watched as such... thanks Hannity...

They should be sued if they were at fault... and they have been before...

But not religated to the term "terrorist" since they hardly ever have an injury, and most assuridly never try to harm anyone, whether they are innocent or guilty...
remember... we in america take the term terrorist pretty serious... and usually stomp someone within a nanosecond, if they claimed themselves as such.
remember the poor crazy guy on the plane recently...

well my friend, if you yelled "terrorist" at a greenpeace member who was then eaten alive by a mob, then you would be guilty of murder by mob incitement...
and YOU would be the terrorist...



[edit on 10-1-2006 by LazarusTheLong]

[edit on 10-1-2006 by TheBandit795]

So you don't care about the Whales then, Yetichi??

And I highly doubt they would do anything like nuking a country, if they hypothetically had the chance to do so. That's purely assumption of your part.

The slaughtering of the whales is what's fact.

Congrats to you for bieng blind to what they realy are doing. Just because they come under the banner of enviromentalists does not mean they are right, and if you look at this thread you will see that it is only you who agrees with them. So who is the brainwashed one.

Also dont ever call me a name or brand me again. Do not presume to know me through what you read on here, if i'm not mistakin it also breaks the T&S of ATS.

I will claim my right to out regurgitators of the worst government propaganda since mcarthy, as I see fit...

and considering that greenpeace was and is, the foremost leader in grass roots (often, the only kind that actually does something) protest of environmental violations... we all should thank them...

this world would already be long gone if not for them... and you and i would be dead from toxins, or radioactivity, or bad water, or lack of safe food, or lack of air to breathe...

really people... before you go running to the defense of Japans whaling fleet, look at the case first...

and again... greenpeace seems to be at fault... they should be sued...
only fair...
but not executed as terrorists ... that is by far, the most "out there" statement I have read here for some time...

Greenpeace is a colection of maniacs with good intentions..
I love the photo that accompanies the story!

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong
I will claim my right to out regurgitators of the worst government propaganda since mcarthy, as I see fit...

and considering that greenpeace was and is, the foremost leader in grass roots (often, the only kind that actually does something) protest of environmental violations... we all should thank them...

LTL, on most everything else you are correct...But, in claiming the above right, you must be prepared to be outed yourself as a “regurgitator” of Greenpeace propaganda. Tsk Tsk. McCarthy indeed…

According to Dr. Patrick Moore, CO-FOUNDER OF GREENPEACE, the organization is no longer an "environmental activist group." Instead, it is an anti-corporate, anti-capitalist, anti-globalization group, masquerading as an environmental group. That’s why he left.

en.wikipedia.org...

Why should we thank them? Maybe we should be pissed at them for taking the money we all thought was going to help the environment and throwing it into these other ventures.

In any case, the terrorist charge is pretty stupid. How about the maritime version of reckless endangerment instead?