Steve, what exactly is your cause if bringing out the truth is counterproductive to it?

People should be supporting the efforts made by these people to save endangered species.

Sea Shepherd are saving many more lives. It’s not like theyre trying to kill the whalers specifically. Seeing such savagery of the whalers would make others do even worse things to them.

For quite a few stories now, Ecorazzi seem to side with the oppressors instead of those being hurt. Maybe they just think a human life is worth more than any other? Doesn’t make sense why they would defend those who are torturing and killing innocent beings and call themselves an environmental website.

Sea Shepherd are doing a great job at protecting the whales and other sealife.

CN, they are not saving “one or two” whales, rather thanks to seashepherds efforts, the quota of killed whales each year by the japanese falls several hunderds whales short. Imagine if they would have the funds of an organisation like Greenpeace ? Whaling would be stopped in one week.
Michael, SeaShepherds main and core tactic is ramming ships, which they elevated into an artform, and without any casualties or endangering lives. Paul watson is an experienced captain, i am sure his judgement if a manouvre would be dangerous is better than your judgement, from a mere looking at a YOUTUBE video posted by the japanese.

What a joke. These people are murdering thousands of whales a year. They SHOULD be rammed. Don’t take a job as a murderer if you can’t take the risks

In reality, though, I completely support Watson in his campaign. If he must sometimes ram another ship, so be it. Causing damage to a SHIP is far better than causing damage to a living WHALE.

I agree that they have done nothing but stopped much of the ILLEGAL massacre of an endangered species. If there were more people like them willing to put their lives on the line for animal rights(as well as human rights) this world would be a much better place.

Ok had to chime in on this one – I just have ONE question. WHy is it called the Steve Irwin? I’m all for stopping the slaughter of the majestic beasts the whales.. and am not sure of the whole story here but aren’t most animal activists in agreement that Irwin exploited animals and actually pissed them off more than anything (he evidently pissed that sting ray off) seriously animal activists are naming vessels after him? I thought he was bad. And his daughter drives me nuts and supporting zoos like they do (don’t they own one?!) is not cool. I have animal planet but never even turn on my tv on (hence the reason I’m always posting on ER)

I’d love to hear from some of the obviously passionate activists on here. Was Irwin a good guy in people’s eyes!?

(and no offense to talk of the dead in a bad way – may he rest in peace, but I still didn’t like him or approve of his methods)

As for the methods of the sea sheperd. (or the Irwin or whatever it is) i’ll have to do more research.

Erin

John,

Thank you for that information. It opens my eyes to a side of Steve Irwin I had not seen. Granted, I didn’t watch much tv back when he was alive but did see him a few times and then read my usual PETA newsletter when he passed away (they didn’t like him)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14626178/

as you can see in the article…

But just the fact he was going to go on a voyage says something.

Again appreciate the info

Erin

@herwin

“since when is SeaShepherd into “annoyance” tactics ??”

Since day one. Stink bombs and powders to make the decks of the Japanese ships unwalkable.

“and NEVER has there been any causalty, in all these many years.”

I’d put that down the sheer dumb luck. You just have to watch the TV show to see that Paul regards the life of whales more important that that of his or his crews. They use volunteers who have very little experience and thrown them in at the deep end.

“japanese whalers who have the last years several deadly accidents)”

Yes, when your decks have been coated in powders to make them slippery, one false step and over the side you go but hey accidents will happen….

“This weapon sends powerful sonar sounds that make you sick and disoriented.”

But do not kill. Are the sea shepherd the only ones allowed to use disruptive tactics? Would you be condemning the Sea Shepherd if they were the ones using LRAD devices?

“they are protecting animals out there and deserve a little bit more support i think.”

Or if you wanted to keep looking at it in a scewed way they are destroying the oceans by having a boat on it that causes pollution and who knows what effect the stink bombs and slippery powder has on the eco system once it hits the water, they are after all chemicals.

Ultimately aggressive tactics in any will never win out, we have thousands of years worth of wars to prove this.

I am not okay with those tactics. They definitely take away from the validity of the cause. Annoying tactics are one thing – but putting lives in danger is another. It definitely looked like the Sea Shepherds ship purposefully collided with the Whalers.

Obviously though I’m not a navigation specialist, so I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong.

While I can see both points, can you imagine the mayhem that will be caused if everyone takes justice in their own hands?
To quote Gandhi, “An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind”

So I must say I understand how it can disturb some that force was used by Sea Shepherd. But as a human and animal right activist I have come to find that when a life is on the line stakes change. It is the difference between peace talks and a gun to your kids head. Seeing the whale hoisted on the ship and knowing that Paul and his crew were the only ones there who valued its life the same as human life I felt a sense of justice. In a moment of real danger for the life of a whale someone literally pushed back.

I don’t think this is the way it should always be. I prefer more peaceful methods. But this was a life, the whole reason these people signed contracts to board the Steve Irwin was to risk even their own lives for the whales, and I must say I am thankful they do!

“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Militant AR activists should read up on non-violence and ask themselves why these violent tactics aren’t working. There are some wonderful people out there actually making a change, but the only stories the general public hear about are stories like this one.

Violence feeds violence. By them doing this did they honestly think they would save the life of that whale? No, but they want to bring more attention to their cause. I’m sure they have made a huge difference in reducing whaling, but just like PETA and their hypocritical ways, this is one step forward, two steps back. Burning a lab full of animals, freeing animals from fur farms – these actions bring attention to the cause, but kill the animals. They would still have been killed is often the argument, true, but now their blood is on your hands. This is hypocritical.

Sadly some people get hooked on a cause and somehow lose sight of what attracted them to it in the first place: respect for all life. For example, putting animals to sleep to have more money for PR does not go hand in hand with animal rights (activism), unless they are very old, sick or disabled.

As a vegan I choose the causes I support carefully. I understand many AR activists are angry and want a change, and rightly so, but as history shows violent actions will only alienate those who are interested in the cause but still hesitant. It’s not the way to go. If we could use that energy to start networking and start a grassroots movement for animal rights and veganism based on facts we could do so much more.

As a final note I’d like to add that I’m a lifelong vegan and many of the angry vegans and/or animal rights activists I’ve met became interested in the movement sometime during their teens, but it didn’t last for long. Life is never black or white, ever.
Not believing in violence does not equal defending an industry/a world that tortures animals for its own benefit. Just because you don’t hear about changes brought about by peaceful methods doesn’t mean they don’t take place. The media doesn’t care because the media is obsessed with sensationalism.

Yes, we are the voice for those who cannot speak, their welfare is our responsibility, so let’s choose our words and actions well.

Hey Japan… change your Diet..Who needs to eat whale…Guess what You’ll live with out it. Grow up.

graphidaceae, Japan is required to report their whale research to the IWC Scientific Committee, so you can find all your answers in their reports (who tend to find that the Japanese are doing valuable research which could not be done without killing the whales).

It might very well be that the ultimate motive for their whaling is for human consumption. However, they’re smart enough to make sure that the research they do while whaling is valid and rigorously done. Even this is better than them flat out refusing to sign up to the whaling agreements, which they could perfectly well do.

It’s strange that you claim to teach children respect, yet you don’t respect the fact that eating whale meat has been a part of the Japanese culture for a long time. Supporting actions like ramming boats into research vessels is not respect. Instead you should respect the other side of the issue and try to negotiate towards a mutually agreeable solution. It’s easy to preach respect, but hard to practice it when the other side has vastly different views from yours.

fbr… are you paid for your deceptive posts against sea shepherd around the net or do you just have nothing better to do?

You guys are some scary people. The people on this ship have very little credibility. The staged hoax of a shooting, the ramming of another vessel….these are lies that benefit noone and make self-righteous people more self righteous. Maeks me thing they could easily rationalize lining up people and shooting them. Seriously scary folks, Animal Planet does themselves a disservice running this propanda.

I don’t know why everyone is so shocked by this. Sea Shephard has rammed boats in the past, it’s just that it’s on TV now. This is nothing new.

I take everything Paul Watson says with a wink-wink kind of attitude. Last season, they planned the hostage incident and presented an angled story to the press. Have you not watched that? Him giving a different story about the ramming, it’s not unexpected.

finally someone is actually out there doing something in the fight of good vs evil…this guy is a hero…i wish he would have sank that jap boat and harpooned all the japs aboard, dissected them on the deck and then call it science…that would have been beautiful! until then keep up the great work Sea Shephard!

those japaneses are the ecoterroist
they are even using mitary greade wepontrty

If you’ve watched all of season 2, you’ll notice that the Japanese were the aggressors who not only circled the sea shepherds but crossed in front of them–dangerously close–more than several times. Anyone who has put even the mildest effort into looking in on what the Japanese are doing knows that they are clearly not there for research. The international community knows it, but no one dare goes up against the economically strong Japanese. Let’s remember folks: money talks. If it’s tissue samples that they are trying to gather for “research” purposes, there are non-lethal ways to do it. No, sadly they are a efficient, whale meat packing, mobile factory. They also claim to use it to preserve traditions, but I highly doubt their ancestors floated all the way to the Antarctic for whaling purposes. I think that the aggressor game was started by the Japanese and now they cry foul because someone else played the game that they started.

if slavery was “just dragged in to get some northern states along” it seems that the slavery topic was more then “just a political issue” for these countries.
In most countries lavery ended without a bloodletting ? Nice bedtime story for children, but slavery was a continues story of violence and blood of slaves. What about South Africe ? No slaves but black people treated as second class citizens in their own country. It was politicians and people like you who always condemned the “violence” of the people who fought for their freedom and equal rights, like Nelson Mandela and his ANC.

the recent ban of seal products did greatly reduce the seal hunt ? really ? Last years seal slaughter quota wasnt reduced at all.
How can SeaShepherd set back the anti whaling movement by years ? Sea Shepherd IS The anti whale movement. Negative comments from people who support animal rights ? y-o-u-g-o-t-t-a-b-e-k-i-d-d-i-n-g-m-e. Sea Shepherd are the heroes of animal rights activists.
Negative press ? Where ? Arent you forgetting they have each year a video crew and Whale Wars is a hit on television ? With the japanese ramming two Sea Shepherd vessels while there is a television crew on board, whose lives are in danger you can imagine these television crew arent too positive about the japanese whalers.

Could this be another bad season for the japanese poachers?

“I think we can guarantee now that the Japanese whaling fleet will fail to get their kill quota by 30% to 55% based on past observations of Sea Shepherd disruptions,” said Captain Watson, “They will not be seeing any profits for this season.”

New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Murray McCully: “I am simply trying to make sure that we win friends and influence people.”

“We’ve managed to see meaningful discussions with the parties that hold opposite views and that’s very welcome,” he said. The only way to quickly stop whaling was by diplomacy, he said. “All of the alternatives involve time, expense and frustration. We may have to go down that path [legal action], but before we choose it, we should exhaust the diplomatic process.”

Read the full article: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3356430/Govts-hand-may-be-forced-on-whaling