Whale Wars Episode ‘Sliced In Two’ Nets Best Performance With 1.7 Million Viewers

by Daelyn Fortney July 20, 2010
Categories: Film/TV
Tags: marjorie kaplan.
Photo: JoAnne McArthur/Sea Shepherd

Last Friday’s Whale Wars episode “Sliced In Two,” which featured the collision of the Shonan Maru 2 with the Sea Shepherd’s vessel Ady Gil, was the series best performing episode ever with 1.7 million viewers.

“Hot on the heels of River Monster’s spectacular season two, Whale Wars is having its strongest season. And this year we have more episodes than ever,” said Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet. “Both of these series have become a trademark for the new Animal Planet, underscoring the Surprisingly Human evolution of our brand and our huge opportunity to engage and thrill our audiences.”

Season 3 of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, which follows the Sea Shepherds’ Whale Defense Campaign on their three-month journey to the South Ocean Whale Sanctuary where they attempt to stop Japanese ships from hunting whales, is on track to be the most watched season in the history of the show.

In this week’s episode, “Revenge is Mine,” the crew deals with the loss of their stealth vessel and returns to the campaign with renewed intensity.

Josh

awesome episode, you can clearly see the shonan maru #2 make a dramatic turn, yes the ady gil was moving forward but if your on a course to crash anyone in the world would panic and try to turn, the ady gil could not turn in the 30 feet it had. Pete would never crash his ship, he cried and you could see the loss in his eyes, but like a true hero he said “money does not make you happy” and is off to get some scum bag whalers
- Mick
  
  @Josh
  
  “he cried”
  
  Yeah, bafun cried a lot. He cried like a little girl during his trial and he cried when he got back to New Zealand, too.
  - Al
    
    Bet you’re a real hero yourself, eh Mick? Your bravery is limited to posting on websites.
  - ME
    
    Pete is a hero. If he cries so be it. Just because he has something to live for and to die doesn’t make him weak. The whalers are cowards. Murdering whales by the hundreds. Id like to see if some of the “talkers” could handle chasing them. Then we’d find some real cowards.
  - Brandon
    
    @Mike
    Grow up you tool, this man is a hero. It’s an emotional thing to have your men almost killed, it’s emotional to have a boat you loved go down, it’s emotional to get your freedom back from criminal courts with people outside saying they want you hanged and chopped up. Emotions don’t make for a weak person, being able to acknowledge emotions and still do the right thing is what makes people heroes.
  - Mick
    
    @Brandon
    
    “this man is a hero”
    
    Then I guess your standards of heroism are much lower than mine. bafun cried after his boat was hit, he sobbed like a little girl in court, he cried at the airport in New Zealand. I, for one, find nothing heroic about a 40 year old cry-baby.
  - patrick
    
    so let me get this right you people think that its the Gil’s fault even though they were out of fuel and the images are clear that the Nishin Maru 2 changed coarse into the Ady
  - patrick
    
    sorry shonin
    i dont get y the names are so close to each other anyway
Mick

“Both of these series have become a trademark for the new Animal Planet, underscoring the Surprisingly Human evolution of our brand and our huge opportunity to engage and thrill our audiences.”

It’s quite telling to note that kaplan said, “opportunity to engage and thrill our audiences”. She didn’t mention it being an opportunity to highlight “saving whales”, bringing attention to whaling or anything of that nature. Just like their promotional posters said, “it’s not about whales”.
- Brandon
  
  It’s not about whales in the context as it’s not a documentary about whales as is the typical nature documentary. It’s about people saving whales, not about the actual habits of whales, and don’t try to demote it to anything less.
Kimitake Hiraoka

What better viewing than watching these violent scumbags having one of their expensive toys sent to the bottom!

Absolutely priceless.
- Brandon
  
  1 boat is easily worth one whale, and the ady gil easily saved dozens in it’s short time. Sea Shepherd saved 528 whales, Japan killed 507, and we are not out there for money, so losses is to a bigger expense then it is to sea shepherd
  - David
    
    The Japanese whalers are subsidized by the government. They basically can’t lose money.
- Henrik Samsøe
  
  Violent scumbags you say.. How about the japanese whaling fleet. No respect for anything but money and the incredible stupidity of a people who STILL buys whale meat! May they all end thier misserable days a slow and painfull death like the whales they slaughter and consume!
  Everywhere I have traveled I see japanese following some dude with a sign in his hand. They would all follow him over a cliff if he took the step.. No individual thinkers only followers. I humbly wish someone with some sanity left would show the way of NOT whiping out great species of the ocean!
  
  I guess thats too much to ask.
  
  More power to the Sea Shepherd!
- Kimitake Hiraoka
  
  Funny how these Sea Shepherd shills prattle on about money and profits and what not. But the fact is that the only people making money and getting rich from whaling in the Southern Ocean are Sea Shepherd.
  
  I can’t tell if it’s irony or just plain old hypocrisy.
Rob Gibson

Great comment Kimitake. Did you type that while eating some whale meet?
jdub

I like whales, I really do… I have watched this show just a couple of times, but it seems to me that if you were going to be running around chasing whaling vessels you wouldn’t want to stick your nose out there. You might get it chopped off. Say what you want, but if I was trying to “intercept” a whaling vessel, I wouldn’t cry a river because my bluff just got called. These guys are a bunch of cry babies. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
steve_irwin_must_go_down

I can’t wait until the Steve Irwin goes down. That will be the highest rated show of AP’s history!