Sea Shephard's anti Whaling achievements

[Malbec]

Two reasons:
1. Sea Shepherd operates from Melbourne and Hobart. I would make little sense for them in particular to operate near Norway.

I was referring to the general thrust of the anti-whaling campaign of which Sea Shepherd is only part. The head of Sea Shepherd has at least paid lip service to Norway where he was arrested for trying to damage a whaler while in port.

Is it also not the case that Sea Shepherd is an international organisation that has chosen Australia as a base to attack the Japanese whalers rather than being a homegrown Australian group? If so why has it not sought to build a European base to cover Norway?

2. Japan's whaling ships mainly operate south of 60°S which are waters covered by the Antarctic Treatys, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources and specifically within Australian Antarctic Territory. Japan's whaling vessels operate within waters which are supposed to have no whaling vessels in them at all.
The Royal Australian Navy is too busy blowing up people in the Middle East to enforce anything that far south. I suppose Sea Shepherd assumes that it does a job it lieu of them.

This is the kind of superficially impressive argument that anti-whaling campaigners use that has no substance whatsoever.

The Antarctic treaty does not cover commercial fishing or whaling. It does however protect the right of signatories to scientific research in Antarctica and its waters which is what the Japanese are doing (however cynical it may be). Most importantly however the Antarctic treaty in article 4 makes clear that the signatories do not recognise territorial claims on the continent and its waters. Australia and Japan are both signatories. The consensus is that Australia's territorial claim is not recognised by the vast majority of the countries on this planet.

The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources does not cover whaling. It regulates and monitors fishing specifically for krill and toothfish. Visit their website and check out what they have to say about whaling (or not, since that lies outside their mandate).

Australian Antarctic Territory is a unilateral territorial claim that, as per the Antarctic treaty, is not recognised by countries other than those that also have similar territorial claims on the Antarctic. Since Australia is a signatory to the very same treaty I don't understand how they can both claim that land and remain signatory to a treaty that forfeits it.

Your claim that the RAN is too busy elsewhere to deal with whalers is amusing but inaccurate since Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters predates the Iraq war. The true reason is that any attempt by the Australians to exercise sovereignty in Antarctic waters is likely to result in a swift legal challenge which will almost certainly confirm that Australia's territorial claims are invalid. That would be rather humiliating wouldn't it?

What I understand the Japanese are doing that contravenes some treaty is bringing heavy fuel oil into Antarctic waters and that should be challenged through legal processes rather than what Sea Shepherd tried, which is to ram the ships while they were refuelling and trying to provoke a fuel leak.

[anthonyvop]

Sea Shepard practices Piracy and anyone who endangers a human life for the protection of an animal is scum.

There are times I wish there really was a Hell because if there was it would have a special, even nastier place for them.

Everyone I know who has spent any time at sea agrees with me.

[Joey Zyla]

Sea Shepard practices Piracy and anyone who endangers a human life for the protection of an animal is scum.

There are times I wish there really was a Hell because if there was it would have a special, even nastier place for them.

Everyone I know who has spent any time at sea agrees with me.

You, sir, are an extremely large bag of scum.

I've seen some of your other posts and have no clue as to how you have not been perma-banned yet.

[anthonyvop]

You, sir, are an extremely large bag of scum.

I've seen some of your other posts and have no clue as to how you have not been perma-banned yet.

Why? Because the truth pains you so? Because I dare question the dogma beaten into you?

Are you so afraid of what I have to say that you wish I was silenced?

I value the life of a human over the life of some animal that isn't even endangered. I value the Japanese crewman who is just trying to provide for his family over the Self-promoting, a-holes trying to kill him.

Don't like it? Too bad!

[call_me_andrew]

I wouldn't perhaps wish death and destruction on them, but killing huge numbers of species whose populations have been dwindling in recent centuries is certainly a disgusting thing to do.

And in recent decades, their populations have been growing. Let the Japanese eat their whales, and let Paul Watson eat my feces!

[Joey Zyla]

Why? Because the truth pains you so? Because I dare question the dogma beaten into you?

Are you so afraid of what I have to say that you wish I was silenced?

I value the life of a human over the life of some animal that isn't even endangered. I value the Japanese crewman who is just trying to provide for his family over the Self-promoting, a-holes trying to kill him.

Don't like it? Too bad!

You really do need mental help.

[Joey Zyla]

And in recent decades, their populations have been growing. Let the Japanese eat their whales, and let Paul Watson eat my feces!

You sicken me, although I'm sure that was your intent.

[EuroTroll]

You, sir, are an extremely large bag of scum.

I've seen some of your other posts and have no clue as to how you have not been perma-banned yet.

It's actually stuff like that that are not allowed, Joey. Personal insults..

[Joey Zyla]

What an absolute joke of a "forum".

How is the disgusting stuff that anthonyvop said any better than what I said?

[EuroTroll]

What an absolute joke of a "forum".

How is the disgusting stuff that anthonyvop said any better than what I said?

You're free to call his views disgusting, but you're not free to insult him. That's just how it works here. "Discuss the post, not the poster."

So when you get a moderator's warning for your efforts on this thread, I hope you won't take it personally. A chill-pill is, indeed, in order.