Mate, c'mon, Green Peace has been pissing around for over a decade and got nowhere with the Japanese "don't tell us what to do" resolve. It is clear that political options don't work with these people. Anyone who is against Japan whaling in the southern ocean should support Sea Shepard's efforts simply because they are doing the job that no government has the guts to do. Yes, they are taking dangerous actions and yes, they have been called eco-terrorists, but they have also saved over two-thousand whales from ending up on Japanese dinner plates over the last five years and cost the whaling company millions of dollars (yen) in lost revenue from the sale of the mercury tainted meat. The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research just laughs at Green Peace. I live in Japan and can tell you for a fact they don't give a fat rat's about anything Green Peace has to say. If you haven't seen The Cove I recommend you do. It will give you a greater insight into the mind set of these people. The thing that pisses me off most is, they are hunting whales using a loophole in the IWC legislation and calling it research, which is just rubbing shit into the faces of the rest of the world. Give 'em hell Sea Shepard! Sea Shepard got my twenty bucks this year.

So what! Killer whales and Great Whites kill 00's time as many whales and they don't do it quickly with an explosive harpoon, if you have even seen a KW pod drown a calf over 8 hours you will know what I mean. Life in the ocean is hard and merciless: you are just food for some other species and that includes when we surf there!

Can't hurt skinning the cat from both ends :)

I say good on em both.

Congrats on Greenpeace for taking a differnet line.
Good things take time, and pressure needs to come from different angles. For people to say "greenpeace is doing nothing" is a total cop out. Their expertese in areas other than "direct S-Ocean action" does cost money, and it is being well spent.
Working for an environmental organisation myself, i sometimes cop the good old "gee *insert org* has been quiet, it has pretty much fizzled out". Well it is far from the truth. Often the people who criticise the precieved lack of work, have not bothered to look into what IS actually happening, and the headways being made.

What i do not understand is the 'tension' between Sea Shepard and Greenpeace.... they are both after the same outcome... just attacking from different angles.

PS. Please excuse typing/spelling.

Good one Walrus, you're a funny man...

Walrus, fair enough that the natural food chain takes care of itself, but we, the human race, are going in an over fishing so many species of fish from prawns to whales that it's simply not sustainable. Look at the Southern Blue Fin Tuna for example, its on the verge of collapse but we still keep taking from the ocean.

I think if the Japanese weren't going under the guise of "Scientific Research" there would be a lot less anger and confrontations. But until they do how are we supposed to manage the killing of whales so that they are sustainable if at all?

Craig, your suggestion of sustainable whaling is an interesting one and will no doubt open a moral debate. If we can sustainably harvest whales is it OK, or are they on too high of an intelligence level?

And Nuckenfutz, I think Japan hunt baleen whales, so the mercury levels would not be very high, unlike other toothed cetaceans (i.e. no bioaccumulation through the food chain). I agree though, The Cove is definitely worth a look. The dolphin meat they pass off to the masses as whale meat would have some very serious health implications. Furthermore, the intelligence of those animals is astounding - makes you wonder how anyone can condone their slaughter.

Good on you for having the courage to speak up Stuart. Unfortunately the majority of your readership falls into the category of 'politically naive' and the reaction from the young and dumb gun-slingers will be predictable.

Read the first comment for a sterling example of political naivety and why surfers are political (and environmental) stooges.

enjoyed your article very much, and liked how you compared to other conflicts, however i think there is alot more at stake there than polictical power. admore that peopel can have such passion for a cause they believe in but it can be misguided.

It is all a tiny drop in the ocean..Paul Watson and the methods of sea shepherd seem only to distract the media for a second ((and the people)). there are bigger fish to fry (pun intended) taking aim in fight with japanese 'research' boats will not stop whaling, it just polarises the arguement further.

Thanks Stuart for your thought provoking articles. I have recently been looking into the issue of the Japanese whaling fleet operating in the Southern Ocean and have the following to add to the thread…

Firstly I don’t think that either Greenpeace or Sea Shepherd are doing the wrong thing. When you see a problem and you believe in fixing it you roll your sleeves up and get stuck in. Is that not the Australian way too? I used to think so until I read / remembered that in August 2003 the Australian Government sent a Navy vessel to the Southern Ocean to give chase to a vessel registered in Uruguay suspected of illegally fishing for Patagonian Tooth-fish in the Australian claimed territories of the Southern Ocean. The chase lasted three weeks and the ship was eventually bought in to face charges after a massive co-operative operation from the Australians, South Africans and British Navies. Given the fact that Australia has policed illegal fishing in its Antarctic territories before and that other nations recognised our right to police these waters by joining in our efforts to catch suspected poachers surely we can do the same to police the hunting of whales in the same waters, which along with the Patagonian Tooth-fish we list as protected. The simple answer to this is that Uruguay as a trading partner to Australia falls into insignificance compared to the Japan.

So the responsibility of stopping the Japanese from whaling should lie with the Australian public. We should be the ones pressuring our politicians into action over this issue. By this I don’t mean ‘voicing our concern’ at trade conferences. I mean sending a Navy vessel to the Southern Ocean to put an end to the poaching. It is up to the Australian people to vote into parliament representatives that we think will have the spine to stand up and make these decisions. (Yes, I also thought we did this by voting for Peter Garrett. Remember ‘The Power and the Passion” Mr. Garrett?)

Or perhaps the Japanese continue their whaling and the Australians continue to ignore it because it keeps the media occupied and hides a far larger problem associated with overfishing in general. The Japanese have the largest fish markets in the world. Perhaps it is worth some bad publicity for them on the whaling front to keep the medias attention from the destruction that overfishing is causing on a far greater scale.

P.S. Thanks Swellnet for the soap box.

People generally respond better to incentives than over zealous aggressive tactics with no conservation merit and, just perhaps, whaling is sustainable...

Nice surfpolitik but :world of difference between smashing your ship into a whaling boat and "war" - the intention is not to kill lots of people (or any people). More agressive than Greenpeace but still a step away from randomly invading countries and bombing civilians USA/Bush-style.

In WW11 it was young aussie prisoners wrapped in barbed wire for live bayonet practice,now its whales on the recieving end. If it hadn,t been for good ol USA style then we,d all have geen fucked.The Japanese never really learn,t anything other than the hard way.Don,t be fooled by individual politness,as a nation they don,t give a shit about what you and i think.Beside,s wether it,s sustainable or not these are our whales not theirs. Don,t their whales live in the northern hemisphere or have they already depleted them along with every other natural resource they can get their hands on.

The Japanese never respond to force?

Bring on Little Boy and the Fat Man!

Don,t worry stunet Paul bethune won,t need his toothbrush. The Japanese will sidestep the circus and just let him go in a show of magnanimity. Last thing they want is a martyr.

Both Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd both want the same things they are just going about it in different ways. Sea Shepherd gets the intial shock but there isn't much follow up in the media. Greenpeace are doing work that will have a longer lasting impact. However why hasn't Australia stood up at the UN and said, that the loophole Japan is constantly exploiting should be shut. If this happened then Australia and other major players in Antractic waters would be able to send navy ships down there and have the backing of the law.

I think a deep breath and a quick count to 10 could be in order. Greenpeace are smart and the times are a changing over there. We'll see...

Whales in international waters are common property. But really, what is the difference between killing whales (an open resource that has been hunted for 1000s of years by indigenous people) and killing (or using) other species for research or food?

As for australians having responsibility for stopping japanese whaling - that is crazy talk. Australia has so many other "real" marine and terrestrial conservation issues that need Aussie public and Govt support and energy (think biodiversity loss, coastal change, coastal marine wildlife, sharks, etc etc etc). Scientific whaling is not likely to lead to whale extinctions, and IS Japan's responsibility to manage.

Who is this atticus dork? Drops in and condemns other people's posts without offering any sort of comment other than he is a self-proclaimed wanker!

Have to agree with Hammo, our Navy is already stretched not to mention undermanned. Whales just don't rate that highly on the Government's agenda.

Excuse me Hammo,but i never heard of indigenous locals paddling bark canoes into the the great south ocean and hand spearing whales. Anyone with the balls to catch a whale using traditional technique,s is probaly hungry enough to deserve it.I do agree though that we do have our own marine conservation issues .As a fisherman i can tell you our fisheries are about to collapse and whaling does seem to be a popular distraction.

Tis a very different thing rescuing a threatened species from extinction and a small, sustainable number of an abundant species because you think they are intelligent.

One desperate, one indulgent.

Nice one stu. I live in a town with ever second car having the SS bumper sticker , right next to the fading NO WAR FOR OIL sticker. Violence to enforce a belief everything that is wrong with the world today. Prop fouling in southern ocean is equivalent to cutting a fellow surfers leggy in big surf. Shows a total lack of respect for the ocean let alone what's in it. Its time RASTA denounced Watson and his archaic tactics and became the new face for the "battle" to save the whales.

I find it interesting that no one seems to be protesting against the fishing vessels that are plundering the oceans Blue Fin Tuna reserves(a threatened species), while they seem to be overly concerned with sustainable whaling of whale species that are not threatened or endangered.

@ lawless The southern bluefin tuna industry is now heavily regulated and there is a catch quota system in place. the introduction of catch quotas sent many fishing fleets bankrupt back in the day. a massive research effort has been going for years to close the life cycle of SBT so that they can be farmed in South Austrlia (currently young fish are caught and fattened up for market, they are not bred at the aquaculture facility). This will eventually reduce our dependance on wild caught tuna but we need the technology to do it (google cleanseas tuna for more info). as long as there is a demand for species like tuna there will be a problem unless we can farm them. perhaps it's peoples attitutes towards foods that need to change? we need to make better food choices, not many people know where their food comes from.

and on to the whales. I think groups like sea shepard are needed (even though i think they aren't going to achieve anything because whaling is technically legal) because they keep the issue of whaling in the front of everyones mind and in the media. But we do need to bring about change in a different way. By chaning the way people think so it's no longer socially acceptable to hunt whales. If there's no demand we won't need a supply. I don't think there is any humane way to kill a whale.

P.s. where are our scientists??? they should be weighing in to publicly question the 'scientific method' of the Japanese. Discredit them! (i know they have done this in the past but I haven't heard anything about the scientific validity of what the Japanese are doing for a while, and after all this is supposed to all be in the name of science)

To all you do-gooding anti-violence peaceniks (including you Stuie) ...
The Australian Government have just begun negotiating with the Japs over whaling in the Southern Ocean. This is a direct result of the Whale Wars and the Sea Shepperd going for broke and nothing to do with Greenpeace and their softcock negotiations in Japan. To put it bluntly the Aussie Government are suddenly concerned about the level of Aussie support for the Sea Shepperd and need to act in what is becoming an election year. Thanks for everything Sea Shepperd, thanks for sweet FA Greenpeace. And get busy Andrew I'm a sellout Garrett, do something with ya bald head for a change instead of tucking into being another useless politician.

Bob you need to check youtube and follow the anti SS sentiment growing around the world. This is a fact. This forum is evidence. SS are discrediting anti whale protest. You can bet your bumper sticker dollar SS actions will hinder any negotiation. Reread stus articles and try present us with something relevant to this debate other than your blatantly selfish grandstanding bullship .

Google Ad Robot says this...

Ah, images not working in comments I see /makes note to self.

Okay, so its worth remembering that the edict of Sea Shepherd is not just against illegal whaling but it is against shark definning and pirate fishing (so illegal culling of baby seals, patagonian toothfish etc)The reason you don't see speedboats being cut in half and people throwing flash bangs around those issues is because local goverments have a vested interest in coming onboard with organiations such as Greenpeace / Sea Shepherd as far as protecting their own resources and fishing stocks from poachers.

The Southern Ocean is a different story. Sea Shepherd actually doesent have a problem with whaling for scientific purposes. Technically Sea Shepherd doesen't have a problem with hooking up electrodes to a monkeys brain to test toothpaste either. The main inconsistency here is that the amount of carcasses Japan states they require for 'scientific resources' far outweighs what a a respected council of international peers believe it should be (order of 10 carcasses).

So it is very clear that Japan is operating outside of the intent of the 'scientific resources' understanding but because this fishing is being conducted in International Waters, they are breaking no law. Greenpeace manages most of it's success by engaging the governments of developing countries to assist in remedying problems of excessive clearing, deforestation, strip mining etc to solve most endangered animal scenarios but again, in International waters there isn't a government body that is going to help you.

But, how about the UN I hear you ask?

Since its formation post WWII, the UN has never been able to achieve anything that requires some level of force without the backing of the US - things like Colin Powell's little powerpoint show of weapons of Mass Destruction on his x486 laptop.

Unless you secure US backing, nothing is ever going to happen. This is why Sea Shephered is securing the interets of film stars, US celebrities, Biggest Looser contestants etc, to start this process.

With no laws outlawing what Japan is doing, meaningful dialogue long since failed, raising ongoing awareness through media stunts is pretty much all that is left. It's a fairly bleak outlook though. Whales are one of the most successful mammals on the planet which is why their stocks have bounced back so quickly post the era of major commercial whaling. It's a case that Japan will continue to use to justify that their own 'research' has helped to achieve this. The good of the multitude at the price of the sacrifice of the few.

Don't expect Japanese Whaling to cease anytime soon

Big thank you Longy . I really appreciated that informative comment. While the crux of the discussion is to save the whales, my biggest concern with the ignorant support for SS remains , Violence to enforce belief. Call me a do-gooding anti-violence peacenik, but in my view there is nothing weaker than to cover your face and threaten peoples lives. Our everyday freedoms are being compromised , justified by the need to protect us from such ideology . Now Hollywood is selling it back to us as Heroes for a cause ? Maybe it's a different issue altogether , Maybe I should read a book about Ghandi because no matter which on line forum I encounter NO ONE EVER can justifies the violence? Thanks

Big thank you Longy . I really appreciated that informative comment. While the crux of the discussion is to save the whales, my biggest concern with the ignorant support for SS remains , Violence to enforce belief. Call me a do-gooding anti-violence peacenik, but in my view there is nothing weaker than to cover your face and threaten peoples lives. Our everyday freedoms are being compromised , justified by the need to protect us from such ideology . Now Hollywood is selling it back to us as Heroes for a cause ? Maybe it's a different issue altogether , Maybe I should read a book about Ghandi because no matter which on line forum I encounter NO ONE EVER can justifies the violence? Thanks

All good Jogg's, its a very complex issue and IMO listening to everyoenes opinion is the best path to solving the problem

I am a long term supporter of Sea Shepherd because they speak and act on behalf of all of us ordinary people that are continually frustrated and saddened by the inability of governments and corporations to act to protect the environment in a meaningful way.

There is no doubt Sea Shepherd have been highly successful in slowing the illegal killing of whales and raising public awareness of the issue here and elsewhere including in Japan. I am not sure what this latest move will do or mean in the long-term. My hope is that Sea Shepherd will go from strength to strength but I am also wary about what lengths the Japanese will go to stop their only effective opposition at this time.

Think about donating some cash to Sea Shepherd if you haven't already.

Damn those ineffective corporations.

http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?SearchText=38+123+339+499

Call me cynical but I'd probably feel more inclined to consider backing what appears from to be a quasi-military organisation hiding behind a corporate veil if it made its accounts publicly available on any of its websites.

http://www.seashepherd.org/australia/

Your point about about transparency is equally valid whaaat for organisations like Sea Shepherd and the IPA.

http://www.ipa.org.au

Representatives from this conservative lobby group/think tank are in our media and pressing flesh with our politicians on a daily basis and they refuse to reveal details of their financial backers e.g. big tobacco and mining. If you like Tea Party politics the IPA is for you.

While I disagree with your use of the words quasi-military organisation on many levels whaaat, I would be interested to hear what you might think of Japan illegally whaling in an internationally designated whale sanctuary.

@rattle
I've only a couple of minutes, so this will be brief. More later, if you wish.

1. Couldn't agree more that the transparency principle ought to be universally applied.
2. Don't get me started on the IPA - at least SS is reasonably upfront about its purposes, if not its revenue streams and expenditures.
3. On reflection, 'quasi-military' was hyperbolic. How about 'environmental militia'. Would you agree that the message put about by SS is drastically more violent and confrontational than any other NGO? Civil disobediance is one thing; testosterone-driven high seas hi-jinks is another altogether.
4. I'm not across the international law argument. May I take your question on notice? In the meantime, I would be equally interested to hear your thoughts on whether local groups in Japan, Norway and other democracies are well-served by SS in their attempts to influence their fellow voters to change their respective governments' pro-whaling polices via the ballot box?

Thanks for keeping it civil. All the best.

@whaaat

E.G. The IPAs tricky understanding of transparency.

In today's Melbourne Age there is an opinion piece on Obama's appointment of a new defence secretary written by Tom Switzer. The article concludes by stating Tom is a research associate at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. A Google search will find a webpage. What The Age article doesn't say is good ole Tom is an "Adjunct Fellow" at the IPA ........ mmmm, circles within circles!!

I do agree the message SS gives is way more confrontational than other NGOs, I wouldn't say violent at all but we can disagree on that if you like, but that is what I like about them. SS have taken it up to the Japanese and have ben highly effective without causing injury to others. I just was thinking about the Japanese deliberately ramming a SS vehicle 2 years ago ... now that was violent and had the real potential to kill many people.

I disagree with the use of the term "testosterone-driven" as I believe SS act in a very planned and specific way to ensure they stay on the right side of the law.

Re: your local groups question ... if you mean local indigenous groups and their historical cultural whaling that is a difficult issue for me because while I oppose whaling I also greatly respect diversity in culture and whatever that means no matter what I might think (although this cultural aspect has been way overstated in Japan .... historically it was limited to a few coastal villages). If your question refers to local protest groups I think SS helps. It seems most Japanese people didn't know about its government backed whaling and dolphin culling programs until groups like SS and Save Japan Dolphins started taking it to the streets.

http://savejapandolphins.org

Interesting to see that Bob Brown is now actually running the SS campaign with 4 boats trying to directly stop the Japanese killing whales in Australia's whale sanctuary........

direct action by SS has stopped the killing of whales,still no-one has been seriously injured,even though the japanese keep uping the ante,by using armed personal on their boats.....

Greenpeace has gone the pacifist long term way of trying to educate the japanese people to the illegal killing of whales....

so when you boil it down there are 2 wars being waged...one direct and one indirect.

the good news is that greenpeace have stopped wasting money on sending their supa ship down there ,which just hangs signs off their ship,while SS actually stops whales being killed ...

so if you step back this multipronged attack on Japans whaling policies by SS and greenpeace is working.....

sad that our Govt is so lame that it won't even send an observer ship down there....but then we enter into the world of politics and vested commercial interest....ahhhhhhh

Long Live Sea Shepherd, and long live Captain Paul Watson, I don't give a shit how they go about it, at least they go about it. I hope they hassle the crap out the scum sucking Japanese whalers. Its about time the Australian Government actually got off their arse and did something about this themselves, like some sort of sanction or the like. Surely the majority of the Australian population would be supportive.

The last time we waged war with Japan things didn't end too well for all concerned. A little trite, perhaps, but utterly true. Better to talk than shoot, I reckon.

For the record, the Australian government HAS done something - it issued proceedings in the International Court of Justice in May this year.

http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=1&case=148

But let's not kid ourselves that Japan is the only democracy with a dubious record on keeping its international legal commitments.

Australia is a foundation signatory to an international treaty, the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, so it has positive legal obligations to protect the human rights of all asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in Australia, regardless of how or where they arrive and whether they arrive with or without a visa.

Yet I'm not sure how current and previous Australian governments' policies on so-called 'illegal boat people' squares with these obligations. But we still vote the bastards in, and most of us remain conspicuously quiet when the issue gets raised down the pub or at work.

I'm not for one moment saying that whales are unimportant or countenancing whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Just wondering about balance, fairness and consistency.

I like the way you bring balance in to the discussion whaaat.

Whaling is not currently economically viable and only exists because of large Japanese government subsidies and the existence of massive frozen storage facilities currently housing is it 3 or 4 years supply of meat. Locally, most Japanese do not eat whale meat nor do they consider doing so an expression of their culture .... either in the act of whaling itself or the consumption of the meat. In Japanese history the consumption of whale meat was limited to just a few small coastal villages and then it was of whale species that hugged the shore in Japanese waters. Not the large mammals in the cross-hairs now and in the immediate past.

Japan has previously highlighted that Australians object to whaling yet kill its kangaroo for pet meat. Good point. Japan is a proud nation and being told what to do doesn't go down well at a political level (equally just like it wouldn't here). Until SS and NGOs like Save Japan Dolphins and even Greenpeace started taking information directly to the Japanese people the existence of these inhumane practices wasn't widely known in Japanese society. Just like most of us really don't know too well how our cattle and sheep are slaughtered (be in a relative humane way).

I don't blame or have a poor view of any Japanese citizen over whaling just like I believe the vast majority of Australians are fair minded when it comes to giving anybody a fair go, even refugees. The people I have in my sights are governments and corporations and their failure to stop whaling and that is why SS is so important. SS is there in their faces and bring the issue to international attention.

I like the way you bring balance in to the discussion whaaat.

Whaling is not currently economically viable and only exists because of large Japanese government subsidies and the existence of massive frozen storage facilities currently housing is it 3 or 4 years supply of meat. Locally, most Japanese do not eat whale meat nor do they consider doing so an expression of their culture .... either in the act of whaling itself or the consumption of the meat. In Japanese history the consumption of whale meat was limited to just a few small coastal villages and then it was of whale species that hugged the shore in Japanese waters. Not the large mammals in the cross-hairs now and in the immediate past.

Japan has previously highlighted that Australians object to whaling yet kill its kangaroo for pet meat. Good point. Japan is a proud nation and being told what to do doesn't go down well at a political level (equally just like it wouldn't here). Until SS and NGOs like Save Japan Dolphins and even Greenpeace started taking information directly to the Japanese people the existence of these inhumane practices wasn't widely known in Japanese society. Just like most of us really don't know too well how our cattle and sheep are slaughtered (be in a relative humane way).

I don't blame or have a poor view of any Japanese citizen over whaling just like I believe the vast majority of Australians are fair minded when it comes to giving anybody a fair go, even refugees. The people I have in my sights are governments and corporations and their failure to stop whaling and that is why SS is so important. SS is there in their faces and bring the issue to international attention.

I like the way you bring balance in to the discussion whaaat.

Whaling is not currently economically viable and only exists because of large Japanese government subsidies and the existence of massive frozen storage facilities currently housing is it 3 or 4 years supply of meat. Locally, most Japanese do not eat whale meat nor do they consider doing so an expression of their culture .... either in the act of whaling itself or the consumption of the meat. In Japanese history the consumption of whale meat was limited to just a few small coastal villages and then it was of whale species that hugged the shore in Japanese waters. Not the large mammals in the cross-hairs now and in the immediate past.

Japan has previously highlighted that Australians object to whaling yet kill its kangaroo for pet meat. Good point. Japan is a proud nation and being told what to do doesn't go down well at a political level (equally just like it wouldn't here). Until SS and NGOs like Save Japan Dolphins and even Greenpeace started taking information directly to the Japanese people the existence of these inhumane practices wasn't widely known in Japanese society. Just like most of us really don't know too well how our cattle and sheep are slaughtered (be in a relative humane way).

I don't blame or have a poor view of any Japanese citizen over whaling just like I believe the vast majority of Australians are fair minded when it comes to giving anybody a fair go, even refugees. The people I have in my sights are governments and corporations and their failure to stop whaling and that is why SS is so important. SS is there in their faces and bring the issue to international attention.