Whale Wars: Big Dumb Ever?

Is't "boarding someone else's ship" and attempting to gain control of said vessel basicly the same thing as piracy? They're lucky they weren't shot dead!

But technically the ship was a scientific research vessel allowed to kill whales for research, what some groups claim and this may be the truth is that they are in fact whaling for profit.

I *love* this show. I watched th efirst episode last week and was absolutely enthralled , and couldn't wait for last night's show. From a purely entertainment perspective, it's extremely well done. Last week when they were attempting to launch the delta, and it capsized dumping the crew in the super-cold ocean? Crazy. So yeah, I'm a fan.

But as to the broader message, I completely support what they're doing. Whales are sentient beings and slaughtering them for food is ridiculous. The Japanese are using a loophole in the whaling convention to score millions and millions of dollars by killing 1000 whales a year for "research". The Shepherd's tactics are extreme, no doubt, but they are effective. As long as they are hassling the Japanese whalers, they aren't whaling.

Get this straight, though: they *are* pirates. They may have had a letter in their hands as they were boarding the Maru, but by their intent and actions, they completely are pirates. Heck, they even fly a Jolly Roger.

But, of course, I dig pirates. There was a time in my life when that would have been my dream job.

Side note: I completely respect the cultural whaling done by Inuits and the like.

As to the "research" the Japanese are doing, here are their two main "discoveries":

• Minke whale populations are healthy 
• Contaminant levels in whale meat are low.

So, an group that kills whales for food says there are plenty and that they are safe to eat. Surprising.

The Japanese collect data for an organization called the Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR).  The ICR says that whales must be killed to collect data, but based on the research they are doing, for the life of me, I can't see why. If you're going to do population studies, fine. But aireal surveys work fine for that. I don't see what they are learning by killing whales: are they could possibly gather from that activity is the number of dead whales there are.

As for the contaminent levels thing, they could put divers in the water and collect muscle biopsies. They say they need stomach contents, but seriously, doesn't everyone know what baleen whales eat?

ETA:

If someone can describe what vital knowledge can possibly be gained that requires killing 1000 cetaceans a year; information that can be gathered no other way that would result in long-term survival of the species being studied, I'd change my mind in a heartbeat. I'm all about research, but thinly-veiled research used to support an abhorant industry is difficult to support.

Hope I don't disappoint.

I'm down with needs, it's the wants that I struggle with. If I want to sell blue whale skin coats, for example, should I be able harvest all the blue whales I want, simply because I want to?

Conservation is about more than needs and wants. It's about not screwing with ecosystems which, if irreparably harmed, can cause unforeseen problems for all of us.

When does whaling cross the line from culturally respected to abhorent? Killing for the sake of research crosses it for me, but what of prior Japanese (and other nations') hunting for food? Is this what you meant by "..and the like"?

I know nothing about whale populations, how endagered they are, etc. so I have nothing intelligent to offer that way.  All I know is:

This show absolutely rocks!!

I came home last night after a long a pretty stressful day.  I should have done the smart thing and just gone to bed but I started watching the new episode last night and couldn't stop watching!  Then they replayed the first epy I couldn't stop watching that either!  Like was said earlier, from a pure entertainment standpoint - this show is awesome!  The scenery itself is awesome!

To me, it crosses the line when your culture has evolved to the point where a particular food sourse is no longer necessary. The Japanese and Americans, for example, don't need whale meat as a protein or energy source. The tribal Inuit aren't there yet.

Can't quote me on this, but I recall reading that after the Makah tribe was allowed to hunt greys in the PNW< it was revealed that they were actually selling the meat.  *if true,* culture my a$$. 

The Japanese are so Full of sh** on this one it's not funny.  They've called Minke whales the "cockroaches of the sea."  Some cockroach, huh?  (Coral Sea 2002)

FWIW, I completely respect Paul Watson (not sure if he's in teh show, but he's the one that left Greenpeace and started the Sea Shepherd Society, an org. to which I've donated $$ in the past), he's done more for anti whaling than anyone else is willing to do, including boarding ships that are engaged in illegal activity. 

Do his actions border on insane/illegal?  Suppose so, but I have also read that no one has been injured as a result of their actions (except him - he got shot once).

 After that it would be a betting situation: do you die by freezing or starvation? On the other hand, if you had planted a few seeds instead...

Radical Greenpeace people blowing up food processing places is bullsh-t.

Radical Greenpeace people getting in the way of loopholed whalemen is 100% okay with me.  That "scientific process"/whaling is a complete and utter farce.  It is being done completely to satisfy the Japanese demand for whaling.

Kind of like the wholesale killing of sharks by catching them, cutting off their fins, and throwing them back into the sea.

Humans pizz me off a lot with their wanton destruction of life sometimes.

 Now I am all for hunting and eating a good piece of meat but when you are circumventing the law to kill a while to make money, I have a problem.  They said each whale can make the ship up to $1M.  I am sorry, they are not reasearching, they are whaling which is illegal.

When they deployed the fouling line to foul the whaling vessel's prop and disable it...could that be construed as attempting to gain control of a ship?

Bald Eagle Soup with Fried Panda is basically my favorite meal I grew up eating.

I also noticed that. They all sat around not knowing what to do. No real leadership from their captain. There was the one female who was all about the media and he sort of followed that. They couldn't follow, their smaller pursuit boat ran out of fuel as did their helicopter. It seems like his crew is a bunch of young idealists, with no real world nor any experience on the water.