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

External Since: Jul 01, 2003 Posts: 632

Saving Leviathan
By Captain Paul Watson
Thursday, June 15, 2006 10:45 PM

They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all,
and the wildest, the most urgent.
-- D.H. Lawrence, "Whales Weep Not"

The hot blood of the great whales may soon flow freely into the cold
frigid waters of the Southern Oceans as harpoon cannons roar and
the long flensing knives reduce the world's largest intelligent beings
into slabs of toxin-laden meat and fat to be served in sushi bars on
beds of rice, force-fed to children in schools, and marketed to the
public in fast food restaurants.

The fate of the world's whales may be fatally decided this week as
the International Whaling Commission meets in St. Kitts & Nevis in
the Caribbean beginning June 16. Delegates from the Pacific islands
of Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, and Palau, from the West African
nations of Senegal and the Ivory Coast, and from Cambodia will
be soaking up the sun and sipping tropical drinks on the expense
account of the Japanese whaling delegation.

For these delegates, all expenses are paid by Japan, including the
membership fees to the International Whaling Commission. All
that Japan requires of these nations that they have recruited is
their vote to resume commercial whaling.

Japan has succeeded in bribing enough nations to take control of
the 70 member international whaling regulatory body. They don't
yet have the two-thirds majority required to overturn the global
commercial moratorium on whaling established in 1986, but they
will have the votes to give some legitimacy to their desire to
increase the number of whales they intend to slaughter in the
world's oceans.

The nations that make up the majority are small, but they each
have a vote equal to the larger and more populous nations.
Thus, tiny Tuvalu with a population of only 8,000 negates the
conservation vote of the United States with 300 million people.

In 2001, the IWC adopted a resolution calling for "complete
independence of sovereign countries to decide their own
policies and freely participate in the IWC without undue
interference or coercion from other sovereign countries."

For Japan, a nation that has for years flagrantly disdained the
rules governing whaling, this is just another resolution to be
ignored as they influence the direction of the IWC to go where
they wish to take it.

Last year there were 66 members of the IWC. This year there
are 70 members. Each year Japan recruits additional members
in exchange for foreign aid packages thereby weakening the
conservation efforts of nations that seek to protect the whales
from commercial slaughter.

If Japanese whalers cannot be stopped from pirating the world's
whales, there is a real and present danger that the whales and
humanity may suffer the loss of these magnificent minds in the
water, these largest of living Earthlings.

For over three decades I have fought illegal whaling on the
high seas. These have been dangerous and difficult campaigns
in which we have placed ourselves between the harpoons and
the whales and directly intervened against powerful ships in
hostile whalers that have shot at us, rammed us, and threatened
our lives. We also have been aggressive in our defense of the
whales, all the while exercising the greatest caution to not injure
the killers of the whales while we have attempted to rescue their
victims.

If Japan succeeds in compromising the IWC, there will be an
escalation of confrontations at sea with the inevitable result that
whale defenders may fall victim to the deadly harpoons they are
trying to stop.

But we have no other choice. If the world's governments cannot
overcome Japan and Norway's deceptive and hostile attempt to
take over the IWC, the battles will escalate on the high seas and
conservationists will be forced to risk their lives more than ever
in the quest to save Leviathan from the ruthless extermination at
the hands of humans intent upon their exploitation and destruction.

The slaughter of the great whales has no place in the 21st Century.
It must be ended.

Captain Paul Watson was a co-founder of the Greenpeace
Foundation and the founder and current President of the
International Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

http://seashepherd.org

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External Since: Jun 17, 2006 Posts: 6

bs1999bs.DeleteThis@yahoo.com wrote:
> I would like to think that, over time, the World community can bring
> change in the attitude of the Japanese community. The question,
> obviously, is do we have the time and the whale numbers to headoff the
> whale demise.

Umm, wakey wakey, but Japan is not the only nation in the world that
wishes to utilise whales sustainably. And even then, many nations that
have no direct interest in utilising whales sustainably respect the
volition of whaling people's to do so.

And again, we are talking about *sustainable* whaling.

No one wants to see the demise of the whales. That is the reality. If
you believe otherwise you are a fool for having bought the propaganda
that Sea Shepherd or some other lying NGO told you.

> The sheer weight of World
> opinion must begin to have significance.

"World opinion" consists largely of developed anglo-saxon nations.

Let's stop being so facist about this and give other cultures the
respect that we would demand for our own.

> It is time to get a World campaign going which will see greater and
> more targeted weight put on the most effective place - it can be done,
> no question. Any moves could complement the brave actions of people
> like Captain Watson of Sea Shepherd.

He is a racist, a liar, a terrorist, and just plain insane.

If you want the world to follow him then there is no hope at all for
this planet.

> Any thoughts good people?

Yes, plenty. But is your brain receptive to anything other than what
you want to hear?

Regards,
David
ex New Zealand