Anyone watching it?

It’s all out war!

Sea Shepherd

what channel?

most of the crew and especially the captain seem like total asshats. the south park episode dealing with sea shepard is vv funny.

asshats is the best possible description for them

I must admit there are often times that getting seriously mediaeval on the ass of whaling fleets slaughtering beautiful intelligent creatures just so that rich people can carry on following some supposed cultural ‘right’ to eat whale meat, while feeding most of the animal to their pets.
Personally, I’d happily torpedo every factory ship and whaler I could find, after giving the crews fifteen minutes to man the lifeboats. Destroy the fleets and bankcruptthe owners, nobody would waste money building new ships.

asshats, just what the whalers deserve I would have thought or something along the lines of CountZero above.

+2 for CZ

Sea Shepard lost all credibility when they rammed the Japanese boats putting lives at risk, they just come across as larger versions of Elmyra Duff now.

Coming from a marine background some of the actions and decisions they make are frankly rediculous and not only put the entire crews lives at risk but also those of the rescuers that would inevitably come to their aid should the worst happen.

They are no more than a bunch of squatters on a completely inadequate vessels… Albeit for a good cause.

I assume those supporting them here are vegans and take no part in the senseless slaughter of other intelligent beautiful creatures. Your belief that whales have a higher value than other animals is simply a cultural belief in the same way that the Japanese believe that eating whales is ok is a cultural belief. 😈

I assume those supporting them here are vegans and take no part in the senseless slaughter of other intelligent beautiful creatures. Your belief that whales have a higher value than other animals is simply a cultural belief in the same way that the Japanese believe that eating whales is ok is a cultural belief

And the oil that their ships run on comes from the fossilised remains of intelligent beautiful creatures …

I assume those supporting them here are vegans and take no part in the senseless slaughter of other intelligent beautiful creatures. Your belief that whales have a higher value than other animals is simply a cultural belief in the same way that the Japanese believe that eating whales is ok is a cultural belief.

Let me know when cows and sheep become persecuted to the point of near extinction, and I’ll think about it

Let me know when cows and sheep become persecuted to the point of near extinction, and I’ll think about it

So if any particular species of whale were not under threat of extinction you’d be happy for it to be hunted I take it. You have also stopped eating tuna and cod I hope.

magowen100 – Member

Sea Shepard lost all credibility when they rammed the Japanese boats putting lives at risk, they just come across as larger versions of Elmyra Duff now.

I thought the Japanese rammed them?

I thought the Japanese rammed them?

If you constantly run out in front of cars, eventually you are gonna get ‘rammed’ aren’t you?

+1 for asshats

-1,000,000 for Whalers.

Really sad tonight…4 whales gone.

In the name of science…my @ss

Someone I know has just left port with Sea Shep. All I can say is good luck girl!!!

You have also stopped eating tuna and cod I hope.

Yes, actually.

So if any particular species of whale were not under threat of extinction you’d be happy for it to be hunted I take it.

I wouldn’t say happy, but if it were done in a manner proven not to affect the stability of the population or wider ecosystem, it would probably be acceptable. Clearly there would also have to be a demonstrated ‘need’ for the hunting too…

^ exactly what zokes just said. i haven’t eaten tuna or cod for years either. in my book its ok to take food from the wild but not to destroy populations to the point of collapse. it is very un-natural to do that. no other animal does that. its instinctively abhorrent to anyone who actually has contact with the processes of food collection

good luck to the sea shepherd lot, if i had any skills they wanted id go and join them

So if any particular species of whale were not under threat of extinction you’d be happy for it to be hunted I take it. You have also stopped eating tuna and cod I hope.

There is no need to hunt whales for food, unless you’re Inuit.
I eat very little meat, no Tuna, and only occasionally cod. I certainly would never, ever eat Whale meat.
Ambergris, Spermaceti oil and baleen strakes for women’s corsetry have all been superseded by more acceptable
materials in the 21st Century. Slaughtering animals to feed rich members of one society, and feeding the majority of the catch to their pets is unacceptable.
I have no issues with cattle, pigs, sheep, whatever, being bred in large numbers for food when the by-products are used in many other things so that nothing is wasted. Leather is a much better, sustainable material for clothing and footwear than synthetics made from finite fossil fuel sources.
Killing Whales is like killing Birds of Paradise just to make some rich woman’s hat look a bit more swanky, or killing a leopard or ocealot to make a rich person a coat to ponce around in.
My attitude reflects that of Native Americans; take from nature according to your need, but do so with respect and without waste or selfishness.

have no issues with cattle, pigs, sheep, whatever, being bred in large numbers for food

My attitude reflects that of Native Americans; take from nature according to your need, but do so with respect and without waste or selfishness.

But the large scale production of meat is destroying the nature you respect. I understand you eat little meat and are therefore not part of the problem but you can’t really believe that mass production of meat is compatible with a respect for nature.

jonah tonto you’d do a lot better to start by looking closer to home and the practises that go on all around you in modern farming if you want to make a difference to our attitude to the planets natural resources. You don’t need to wait for the call from the Sea Shepherds you can start next time you go shopping.

I should point out that although I may appear to be supporting whaling I don’t. The point I’m trying to make is that there are cultural differences and as far as I’m aware “declaring war” on another group doesn’t often do anything but entrench their culture. I don’t know how many of you have been to Japan but I’ve travelled over much of the world and Japan is still the only place I’ve been to where I feel I’ve landed on another planet. They really think very differently to how we do and many of their values put us to shame, while other values we find shocking. I haven’t eaten any meat or fish for over 25 years and barely any dairy products in that time either partly because I feel that the way they are produced is unacceptable, just as unacceptable as what the Japanese whalers are doing.

But the large scale production of meat is destroying the nature you respect

It’s not just the meat-eaters.

In some parts of the world they’re clearing swathes of rainforest to grow vegetable crops too.

But the large scale production of meat FOOD is destroying the nature you respect.

I refer you to Australia as a great example of a place that’s been well and truly trashed in almost every respect for food production well in excess of what its own population needs. Most of this is cereals.

The simple fact is that it takes far more land and resources to feed people on meat than on plants. We have to eat something so better that we eat mostly plants. Places may well be being destroyed by growing crops for human consumption but if you process those crops through an animal first to feed people then you will have to destroy even more land. Perhaps the real problem is population. With finite resources and if population continues to rise then at some point we have to arrive at the situation that Malthus predicted. We can only hope that the worlds population will become stable before we run out of resources.

Anyway the point I want to make about the Sea Shepherds is that they are not interested in trying to change the Japanese culture by trying to understand it and engage with them. They are angry people who need a cause which is high profile and makes them feel good to fight. If whaling were to end they would have to find something else to be angry about,it is the fight that drives them, to win would be a psychological disaster for them.

*vegan reads meat eaters ethics with interest*

but if you process those crops through an animal first to feed people then you will have to destroy even more land

Not necessarily the case. There are many areas not suited to grain or vegetable production where low-intesity grazing is viable. Hill farms in the UK, and the rangelands of Oz being two good examples. In the riverlands in Oz, most of the issues associated with the Murray-Darling basin wouldn’t be there if low intensity grazing was practices were followed, instead of high-intensity irrigated agriculture.

Anyway the point I want to make about the Sea Shepherds is that they are not interested in trying to change the Japanese culture by trying to understand it and engage with them. They are angry people who need a cause which is high profile and makes them feel good to fight. If whaling were to end they would have to find something else to be angry about,it is the fight that drives them, to win would be a psychological disaster for them

Interesting. The Sea Shepherds’s don’t really want whaling to end.

That explains why they keep conveniently “losing” 😉 the whaling fleet.

Hire some real Somali pirates with AK47 & RPG …

avdave2

Anyway the point I want to make about the Sea Shepherds is that they are not interested in trying to change the Japanese culture by trying to understand it and engage with them. They are angry people who need a cause which is high profile and makes them feel good to fight. If whaling were to end they would have to find something else to be angry about,it is the fight that drives them, to win would be a psychological disaster for them.

I have to say I don’t believe that at all

Zokes you are quite right that the most efficient use of land and resources is not to rely just on plants but the areas you mention can’t produce meat in the quantities in which we are currently consuming it. To produce what we are currently consuming we are using land which could grow crops for human consumption either to graze animals or raise fodder crops.

I know we’ve gone off at a tangent here, but from on Australia-centric angle, This country massively over-produces and exports a lot of food. The 20m or so Aussies could quite easily be self-sufficient on much less agricultural land, or much lower levels of intensive farming.

I’m guessing as sheep-farming in the UK is massively subsidised that there’s somewhat of an under-demand for sheep / goat meat there too.

To produce what we are currently consuming we are using land which could grow crops for human consumption either to graze animals or raise fodder crops.

As a global population, this is definitely the case. Though many of the largest meat exporters (oz and Argentina) grow most of their meat on land unsuitable for intensive ag.

I’m guessing as sheep-farming in the UK is massively subsidised that there’s somewhat of an under-demand for sheep / goat meat there too.

I guess that is right. The really stupid thing is that it’s sheep and goats we should be concentrating on in the UK because they can graze on land unsuitable for growing crops and on land that would be unsuitable for cattle and they require very little looking after. And we could be making use of pigs to eat all the massive amounts of non meat food waste we produce. Unfortunately the whole pig swill thing has come to a halt thanks to pigs being fed infected meat which led to foot and mouth outbreaks that stopped us all riding for a few months 10 years ago.

The problem with changing the model in Australia and Argentina and looking to be self sufficient on less land is that at present much of the rest of the world depends on the food produced there. The world wide shipping of food in mass quantities has allowed populations to grow in certain areas where otherwise they would not have. Obviously you can’t just stop exporting food to those areas and let people starve and the exporters are going to be pretty loath to give up the income.

Working in the marine environment, in the same highly dangerous sea areas that sea shepherd operate, me and my fellow crew mates used to watch this series with interest. Their working practices and procedures are nothing short of highly dangerous. It’s not long before someone is going to be killed. I know an engineer who used to work on the Steve Erwin and this is the very reason he left the vessel.

Paul Watson is not a Captain, he does not have a Master’s ticket (the vessel Steve Erwin does not require it). The shambles he operates does a great disservice to the image of the merchant navy, which already has problems with recruitment and retention of personnel as it is. Rant over..