LOCK AND LOAD!
Posted on 02/08/2007 7:00:00 PM PST by Kitten Festival
Two anti-whaling activists, one an Australian, were feared missing in Antarctic waters after a clash with a Japanese whaling fleet.
A search for the two men was under way after the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd confronted Japanese whaling vessels in the Ross Sea.
International director of Sea Shepherd, Jonny Vasic, said anti-whaling activists from two ships had used high speed inflatables to try to disrupt the operations of the whaling fleet.
But a mayday message was issued after radio contact was lost with two activists in an inflatable.
One of the men was an Australian from Perth and the other an American from New York, said Captain Paul Watson, aboard the Sea Shepherd vessel Farley Mowat.
(Excerpt) Read more at smh.com.au ...
Note that these clowns threw foul-smelling substances all over the Japanese and plugged their boat and then expected the Japanese to go looking for them when they fell overboard. This is the biggest Darwin Award I've seen in years.
Did the whales have "American" for dinner. I hope they filled up.
2nd whale: "Hey, man, are you OK?"
1st whale: "I'm so wasted...must have been that hippie I ate..."
1) A whaler is much, much larger than your inflatable.
2) Newton's Third Law applies at sea;
3) Newton's Second Law applies at sea
4) Piracy Laws apply at sea.
Love it-
I'll keep an eye out for them....
Nope, didn't see 'em.
"and butyric acid, which is a NON-TOXIC smelly substance."
New Jersey Health Dept. disagrees!
http://www.nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/0300.pdf
Corrosive in large amounts.
Ambergris?
*sob*
I'll bet that water is so cold they couldn't survive 15 minutes, maybe way less.
Why didn't they raise them right?
Maybe they were raised right, only to be brainwashed by Marxists in college...
Inflatables in Antarctic waters a Darwin move.
Sadly they were found alive.
actually means?
According to Mandy Davis, an activist whom accompanied Paul Watson last year, the inflatables at times, attempt to foul whale ships' propellers and steering gear, by trying to flank the ship while deploying chain or cable, spread between the inflatables.
Now, that is piracy, according to some of the very same U.N. chapters of law, which Watson repeatedly claims the Japanese Whalers are in violation of!
I received this testimony concerning the activities of Sea Shepherd from her personally, in the very building which I am now sitting. We've had this creep Watson in this building here, too...so I did some research.
I found out that regardless of any "prohibitions" on whaling, including in the Southern Ocean conservation area, nations whom are a party to the U.N. treaties concerning whaling, are specifically allowed to issue permits to ships of their own nation, to take whales, also, even including specifically within this Southern "conservation zone".
Paul Watson is flat out-and-out wrong when he declares the Japanese whalers to be in violation of U.N. "law".
It is clearly Watson himself who is in violation of U.N. laws pertaining to piracy, for those laws include the phrase "attempting to" cause injury to other vessels...
He doesn't even need be successful in causing injury, to be guilty under laws concerning "piracy".
Watson also lacks proper authority to be policing Japanese, or other whaling ships, pretty much anywhere. The U.N. has not empowered Sea Shepherd to police anything.
All in all, regardless of emotional and monetary support gained from individuals, environmental groups, etc., by going out attempting to enforce laws, on his own, Watson becomes little more than a sea-going vigilante.
Greenpeace, does a better, and much more legal(!) job of documenting what the Jap whalers are actually doing. But it's Sea Shepherd, with Watson's dangerous, high seas, in-your-face tactics that have of late, attracted more media attention. [excuse me while I go puke].
Now it appears [just as I predicted, last year] that he has contributed to the untimely death...of a human being...one of his very own helpers/supporters [again, as predicted].
The Farley Mowat is in bad shape...this, in spots...they had a bad leak last year, which they were able to weld shut from the inside. I don't recall precisely where it was, but I think it was in the shaft alley, or at the shaft "log". I know what that means, and what it doesn't...
I've spent 25 years of my life going to sea, commercial fishing on various sized boats, from open skiffs, to large factory trawlers...and let me tell you something...when you have a "leak", in a steel hulled vessel, you've got problems! More problems than just the leak you're lookin' at, that's for damned sure.
If Sea Shepherd doesn't haul out and refit the hull of the Farley Mowat, I fully expect a sinking of it, within, oh, about a year and one half...that is, if they haven't done a thing since the "at sea" patch.
It's a fairly old ship, as steel hulls go. Built in the fifties, I believe...and from what I've heard, it hasn't been hauled out, in years. At least about nine months ago, the word was "years", anyway. With no zinc anode protection, and paint mostly gone, it doesn't take long. Electrolysis eats the steel...bubbles and boils it away, a little bit by bit.
Rust too, never sleeps.
Aye, when it comes, let the captain go down with his ship, tangled in the rigging, like Ahab with his whale.
Have the crew be survivors all, rescued by the oh so villainous Japanese, who'll treat them well.
When they arrive back, sobbing their story, I'll smile, and hand them a hanky...
I've never seen one, but I'd pay more then a few bucks to shoot a wrecked school bus with one (even without the explosive warhead). I wounder if it would be an economic proposition?
This is one time I don't mind being wrong.
That's good. Now they won't miss their piracy trial in Japan.
I'd have had a hard time being a magnanimous as the Japanese whalers.
At minimum they should be charged with Piracy on the high seas, in a Japanese admiralty court. Oz and the US should extradite if need be.
More attention, could very likely result is some sort of action against the present Japanese whaling practices, too [which I wouldn't find an entirely bad thing].
The Japanese rhetoric behind the taking of Minke whales includes the rational that it's "for scientific purposes", which does seem far-fetched. Hmm, now that I'm pondering upon it, if memory serves, the "scientific purposes" thing might be necessary in order for the Japs to be in compliance with the treaties signed under the International Whaling Commission (IWC)...which are the ones that take precedence, since the U.N. language is not in the form to over-ride or abrogate the treaties of the signatories under the IWC.
I do find the taking of such large numbers of whales to be repugnant, in that, just how many whales does one need for "study" anyway? Two, three? A dozen? What number again is it that they are taking? 600 or so? All why we keep getting told that there is a backlog, or stockpile of the meat retained in relation to this Southern Ocean effort of theirs, that they [the japs] are having a difficult time moving.
Their people don't care as much for eating it, as they did in the past. Tastes and preferences have changed. The Japanese of today are much more likely to chose American beef. The imported beef is much cheaper, and tastes better, too, according to many Japanese.
No one stops Paul Watson, so he continues on his self appointed U.N. vigilante quest. Watson's supporters, when you speak with them, and are trying to point out certain facts, will bring up "George Bush", and his [so-called] "illegal war"...
In their minds, Watson is justified, since he is trying to save whales, even if Japanese whalers were to die in the process of his doing so, or so many have told me, when I pressed them on that point...
But Bush is not justified, for there has been much human death. They cannot see that our present efforts in Iraq were and are aimed at trying to head off, or quell a vastly larger, future war. One that would entail the deaths of not only a great number of American citizens, but also a huge number of people whom live in the Middle East. That, I'm very worried, will come, and come not because of our efforts, but in spite of our efforts.
Meanwhile the "save the world" people focus on the animal life, and the "environment", while turning a less-than-half-way seeing eye towards the pride, passions and treachery threatening to spill out of Iran, and in the words of the Iranian President "wipe Israel off the map" "destroy the White House" and with it, America in general. This Iranian President, and now the Iranian Prime Minister, both tell us "soon", "this will happen soon".
So---[according to current liberal/democrat/environmentalist logic] it's ok to confront and dangerously harass , even perhaps kill jap whalers to save Minke whales, but it aint ok to confront the Iranians whom are currently threatening to wipe out large portions of the civilized Western World!
Sorry for the rant, but this is the mindset which I am fairly surrounded with, on a daily basis...
Think about it... Why go to the Southern ocean, have your guys run one of your outboard motor powered inflatables part-way up the stern ramp of whalers, for nothing? Having provoked water cannon attempts of deterrent defense on the part of the whalers, you have the whalers fighting back...which is what Watson WANTS. So then, you have your "inflatable" guys get lost for a few hours, then find 'em, uh, AFTER you've uploaded to the media interesting photos of the confrontation.
Sea Shepherds' larger boat DOES have a helicopter. Just go to their web site. There were pictures of it, some months ago now...
Who in the hell else took those photos? Nobody else, except for folks from the Sea Shepherds, that's who.
The whole thing is a set-up. A good one, too. Media manipulation, by an "old hand", the Sea Shepherd Society.
If this isn't true, why didn't the helicopter find the inflatable, instead of Watson just going around in ever increasing circles, as he claims he did to find them? Why did the helicopter lose sight of them, in the first place?
The timing is just too 'neat', with photos pre-loaded, and everything. Why waste eye-ball time firing off communications to the media, when all hands [and eyeballs] would be better used searching for 'lost crew', who's lives were in so much danger?
This was a stunt, I'm growing more certain by the second. It's too bad that they'll get away with it... but they can't fool everybody. Just nearly, with the help of the media. The media doesn't even have to be "in" on it, since they'll find sympathy there in newsrooms, for an exciting, breaking, high seas story, plus will find some newsroom enviro sympathy that will kick in, ensuring that Sea Shepherd's viewpoints alone, skillfully spoon-fed to them, will get all the airtime, until much later, when there might be some token airtime for the other side of the story, which of course, will be soon dismissed and forgotten. Look people! Enviro public opinion manipulations, while you watch/wait!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.