In a surprising twist to the ongoing and very sad saga of Sea Shepherd - officers in Hobart, Tasmania boarded Sea Shepherds vessel Steve Irwin this morning.The ship was met dockside by a party of Federal Australian Police officers with a 40 page search warrant.
The warrant authorized the seizing of "all edited and raw video footage, all edited and raw audio recordings, all still photographs, producer's notes, interview transcripts, production meeting minutes, post production meeting minutes as well as the ship's log books, global positioning system records, automatic radar plotting aid, purchase records, receipts, financial transaction records, voyage information and navigational plotted charts."
In short, the sum total of Animal Planets Whale Wars season two. Exactly why this raid happened remains a mystery. For the money we think it had a lot to do with Watsons pathological inability to tell truth from fiction and the repeated ramming of Japanese whalers last week - done expressly for the film crews of Animal Planet.
This is blow back for Wagging the Conservation Dog. With Watsons second vessel the Farley Mowat owing close to 2.2 million dollars in fines and sitting at a dock in Canada for serious regulation violations we will once again point out that your money is best sent to organizations that effect real and lasting change.
Watson and Sea Shepherd have been attempting to stop whaling for 31 years. This years entire anti whaling effort culminated in the storming of his vessel by Federal Australian Police officers with more downside to come.
Is this what you want from your eco group? Demand more than just hysterical media.
11 comments:
This is already the second comment from the "sharkdiver" which is full of blatant lies. Sea Sheppard did not ram the Japanese in order to act for cameras. They are interfering with illegal whaling activity, and in fact it was Japanese that rammed Sea Sheppard when they were trying to interfere with whale killing. Australians seized the video footage because it is shows reveals appalling Japanese tactics, and cruel killing of whales. If Sea Sheppard was such a pirate ship, why would they like to show it all around the world? The reason Sea Sheppard has a TV crew on board is because they are not doing anything illegal, they have not injured anybody (in contrast to Japanese). As regards the two million dollar fine to Sea Sheppard in Canada - their ship was seized for documenting the cruel killing of baby seals... well, there is enough information on that for those who are interesting in truth. I wonder if sharkdiver is supported by Japanese? Yes, the whaling has not been stopped, but a few hundred whales are saved every year, and everybody knows about it. Perhaps sharkdiver knows a better way to stop whaling?
Ahh yes, another misguided Sea Shepherd person. Glad to see you read our blog.
Nice conversation redirects "sparky" but not only do you get an F on reality, but you failed the "obvious point" for all our posts.
If you want to stick to SS web page talking points you may but they are so tiresome.
Perhaps someday you too will become enlightened or not. Keep reading the blog it may help;)
Lies? YOU accuse the guys at UT of Lies?
What is it with SS? YOU claim after seeing the video of the Steve Irwin ramming the hunter ship that the ramming was the other way around?
YOU remind me of the Flat Earth People. Nothing anyone says or shows them will change their narrow view of life.
The post was correct in one thing. You guys have had 31 loooong years to try and stop whaling and you have failed, over, and over, and over, and over again.
Obviously what does not work works for Sea Shepherd. Go home, take stock, and come up with a new plan because this 1970's sea pirate crap is getting old, really old.
Hey, do you guys know a better way to stop whaling? Have you done anything for that cause, except for being cynical? The site says you are working on shark conservation. Well, most sharks are on the brink of extinction. You have utterly failed.
Welcome back "Sparky". Our eco record with sharks is quite admirable in terms of both local efforts and with the eco goals we have set forth.Unlike Sea Shepherd with it's millions of donor dollars we are a little company who self fund or enable funding for shark projects close to home.
About 30K and counting.
So we also know what we're talking about when it comes to Sea Shepherd - it's called a moral high ground Sparky, look it up sometime.
Here's the thing. For 31 years your sad little org has set about trying to stop whaling and failed each and every year.
31 years think about that one Sparky.
"We" did not send a press release out this year saying that we were going to arrest Japans entire whaling fleet it was Sea Shepherd who did that:
http://sharkdivers.blogspot.com/2008/08/sea-shepherd-issues-arrest-warrant-for.html
Here's the thing. When we see video(s) of whales being killed we get as angry as you do. But that anger has now turned on the one front line org that claims to be doing something about it.
Millions of dollars (some of them ours)have been misspent by Sea Shepherd who in 31 years have failed to stop anything they set out to.
Whales? No. Seals? No. Sharks? No.
31 years is a long time Sparky to get nothing done. Cry all you want, blame others all you want. In the end they, Sea Shepherd, must start delivering the goods or get out of the game. They have had 31 years at it you think they would have come up with something by now.
Demand real action Sparky, not media sound bites and perhaps something will change.
Or just continue sending emails to others and your hard earned money to Sea Shepherd. We'll even make you a bet - next year Sea Shepherd will not stop whaling either and that will be year number 32.
Uh, I am not Sparky...lol.
Just to let you guys know. What I like about Patric is that we have civilized conversations. That is why I know that one day we will party...and we will party fairly hard...and them we will swim. And then we will identify fish...and shoot some guns...uh,...sorry...seriously though, I what I like about Patric is that we don't agree about everything but we essentially agree, dig?
We'll always see eye to eye on the big stuff Sharky!
So after burning up two tanks of fossil fuel in the high seas, Sea Shepherd has enough footage for another season of Whale Wars, and decides to go home. New season of the show should get enough gullible people out there to donate enough money so he can burn through a few more tanks of fossil fuel in the next few years.
With Watson leaving, the whales are screwed for the rest of this whaling season. I guess I'll be enjoying whale meat in the sushi bars on my next trip to Japan this year.
What's so "evil" about whaling?
It definitely doesn't look like japanese whaling industry is over-fishing whales like the Europeans and Americans did when whaling was an essential part of the western economy.
To me, if whales can be harvested in a sustainable manner, I'm OK with it. If "research" is needed to assertain what level of commercial whaling can be sustainable (i believe that's what japanese mean when they say "research" which I also think is consistent with IWC's original intention.) If you think "research" only means publishing papers in scientific journals, I guess it's waste of time to convince you otherwise.
I'd be interested to know though, on average how many people in the US actually care about this. (that is having a strong opinion one way or the other)
With all of that said, I guess I don't really care whether they ban or continue whaling. It would be sad though, if whales actually go extinct (or any species for that matter, intelligent or not)
Sorry for the random rant. Have fun :)
Hi,
I think the Sea Sheppards should be treated like the Pirates they are and imprisoned.
It is an insult to Steve Irwins good name that they have named their boat after him.
The Steve Irwin was actally named with the blessings of his widow. Now I can't claim to have known the man, save from watching Crocodile Hunter (All those dangerous animals and a STINGRAY kills him? Forget the crocs, those are the buggers you want to avoid) I highly doubt he would advocate throwing acid (Non-toxic or otherwise), soap or ship ramming as ways to stop whaling.
Now while I agree the idea of harvesting the whales for meat is sound and logical (We kills cows for meat as well, who's ramming ships for them?) there is a consern of two big factors. One: alot of the whales are on the endagered or threatened species lists (Although I don't belive the Japanese's main target, Minkis, are) and two: Over hunting is a serious consern. Whale may be considered by some as a resource, but what happens if they are hunted to near extention like other whales.
Perhaps whaling for meat will become an accepted way to provide food for the world, and substanable. But that's not going to be for generations at least.
Just ask the Dodo Birds. Oh, wait...
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