Japan Declares Bloody War on - and Sea Shepherd Prepares t..

Japan Declares Bloody War on - and Sea Shepherd
Prepares to Defend - the Whales

Japan has been ruthless in their pursuit and massacre
of the world's great whales. It has become a matter of
honour according to some Japanese to kill as many
whales as they can in order to assert their dominance
over the world's oceans.

According to Joji Morishita of the Japanese Fisheries
Agency who spoke on the Australian program 60
minutes, the killing of whales is a part of Japan's
identity and a question of national pride, and he asks
what is a nation without pride?

But surely they would not exterminates the whales.
Or would they?

Back in 1997 Captain Paul Watson had the opportunity
to sit down and speak with members of the Japanese
delegation in Monaco.

Captain Watson asked whaling delegate Tadahiko
Nakamura directly if he was concerned about the
survival of the whales and would he like to have his
children and grand-children see the whales.

His answer was shocking. "No," he said. "My duty
is to my family, mu country and my company and
that duty is to make as much profit as I can for them
today. I am not concerned with future generations.
They will have to find ways to survive just as we
must find ways to survive today."

Captain Watson then asked if he was concerned that
the whales would go extinct? "They may go extinct
but that is not my concern. My concern is to realize
the maximum profit from them before they do."

This echoes the sentiments of Andrew Behr, the
owner of the pirate whaler Sierra that Captain Watson
rammed and disabled on July 16, 1979 and sank on
February 6th, 1980.n the Sea.

Behr said that he was aware that whales could be
driven to extinction and if they were going to go
extinct then why not make as much profit from them
before they do.

The Japanese hold whale conservationists in contempt.
They see anyone opposed to whaling as standing in the
way of their illicit profits.

Since 1986, Japan has been killing whales in violation
of the global moratorium on whaling. Each year they
have illegally upped the kill quotas and during the last
two decades that the whales have been "protected"
more than 17,000 whales have been slaughtered.

The International Whaling Commission has done very
little to stop the carnage. The IWC has great regulations
but non-existent enforcement. The member nations of
the IWC like Australia and the United States have been
reluctant to enforce sanctions for fear of trade retaliations
by Japan.

The fact remains that Japanese and Norwegian whaling
is illegal and if nothing else the regulations of the
International Whaling Commission have served to give
legitimacy to Sea Shepherd efforts to oppose outlaw
whaling since 1986.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been the
only enforcement agency government or non-governmental,
defending the whales over the last 20 years beginning with
our sinking of half the Icelandic whaling fleet in November
1986 to the scuttling of illegal Norwegian whalers dockside
in 1992, 1994 and 1998. This year we harassed and pursued
the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary.
We did not commit any crimes with our intervention because
we were enforcing international conservation law in accordance
with the provisions of the U.N. World Charter for Nature
which allows for non-governmental organizations to intervene
to uphold international conservation law.

For this reason there have been no criminal charges brought
against Sea Shepherd crew for these interventions. Criminals
are reluctant to retaliate with the law especially when such
retaliation would further expose and provide documentation
and evidence of the illegal activities that Sea Shepherd is
intervening against.

Japan is now seeking to change the laws protecting whales
by working to overturn the IWC global moratorium on
whaling. And they are succeeding.

For the last few years Japan has been using foreign aid to
seduce and then recruit small poor nations to join the IWC.

These nation then have their IWC memberships paid by
Japan and like little Japanese fiefdoms they vote as they
are told and they are being told to vote for the resumption
of whaling and to back Japanese objectives 100%

Last year, Japan succeeded in recruiting an equal number
of votes as the whale conservation nations. This year they
have surpassed that number and they now hold the majority.

In a sneaky move reminiscent of the cowardly attack on
Pearl Harbor, Japan just this week announced that the
Marshall Islands and Cambodia have been bought and will
vote with Japan at next weeks IWC meeting in St. Kitts.
(June 16-20).

Japan now has 36 votes among the 69 member nations
of the IWC.

The first thing Japan intends to do is call for a vote to
scrap the IWC's conservation committee.

The conservation committee was set up in 2003 to
study measures to preserve whales.

In other words Japan and their 35 puppet nations are
opposed to taking measures to preserve the whales.

Japan also intends to call for a vote on a resolution
supporting its "research" whaling in the Antarctic Ocean
and anywhere else in the world it decides to kill whales

What does this mean for the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society?

It means Sea Shepherd must stop the Japanese fleet in
Antarctica this year while the moratorium is in effect.
In addition to violating the moratorium, the Japanese
fleet will be violating the Convention on the International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) by targeting 50
endangered Humpback and 50 endangered Fin whales.

Japan will also be violating the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary
and the Australian Antarctic Territory Economic Exclusion
Zone. In addition Japan will be in violation of United Stated
Department of Commerce regulations.

This means that despite whatever gains Japan wins at the
IWC meeting in St. Kitts, their whaling operations will
continue to be illegal and thus Sea Shepherd can continue
to legitimately intervene against illegal whaling operations.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is presently
recruiting volunteers and preparing a ship to intervene
once again against illegal whaling in the Southern Oceans
in December 2006 and January 2007.

Last year the Japanese fleet was opposed by the Sea
Shepherd ship Farley Mowat and Japanese whaling
operations were documented by the Greenpeace ships
Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise.

Greenpeace will not be returning to Antarctic waters this
year leaving the Sea Shepherd crew to tackle the whalers
alone.

"These whalers are criminals," said Captain Paul Watson.
"They are no different than ivory smugglers and drug
traffickers. We must once again intervene against their
illegal operations and our objective must be to stop them
from their plans to slaughter these magnificent and
endangered creatures."

Captain Watson expects the campaign to be expensive,
and dangerous and he expects the Japanese whalers to
be hostile to any interference.

"pearl" <lesley DeleteThis @foot.rub> wrote:

> Japan Declares Bloody War on - and Sea Shepherd
> Prepares to Defend - the Whales
>
> Japan has been ruthless in their pursuit and massacre
> of the world's great whales. It has become a matter of
> honour according to some Japanese to kill as many
> whales as they can in order to assert their dominance
> over the world's oceans.

Why do you support this overtly racist smear campaign of a known terrorist group like Sea Shepherd? You make me sick.