Where was the Bird of Prey when you needed it?
Posted on 08/27/2007 12:55:37 PM PDT by Reagan is King
SAPPORO -- Eco-tourists on a whale-watching vessel, looking forward to observing the mighty creatures in their natural habitat, were instead greeted by the sight of a harpooned whale being dragged in by a Japanese whaling vessel on Friday.
At about 10:44 a.m. on Friday, a whale was spotted spraying water from its blowhole near a whaling boat, about 3.5 kilometers away from the whale-watching vessel off the coast of Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula. But when the vessel approached, the passengers on board found that the whalers had harpooned the Baird's beaked whale, and it was hauled in by the whaling boat about 20 minutes later.
About 20 passengers on the whale-watching vessel looked on, voicing their pity as the whale was captured. A French woman who was on the vessel with her husband reportedly said the experience made her feel ill.
There were two other whale-watching boats nearby, but one of them left after a child started crying.
The 46-year-old captain of the passenger vessel was disappointed by the incident, which took place about 14 kilometers east of Rausu Port in Hokkaido.
"It's my job to show people whales and it's the whalers' job to catch them, but I wonder how this can be avoided," he said.
One of the two whaling companies operating the whaling ship, meanwhile, filed a protest against the whale watching vessel with the Rausu town government.
"The passenger boat approached us, which was extremely dangerous. We think this could be considered dangerous sailing, and we want you to issue a warning," the protest said. (Mainichi)
Fin.
Where was the Bird of Prey when you needed it?
Well, at least our humor has a porpoise.
(Iknow it’s pretty stretched out at this point)
“I have my Segway all juiced up to go roaming the Texas Hill Country in order to view doves this weekend in their natural habitat.”
I would almost pay money to see what happens to someone caught riding a segway in Texas (outside of Austin or Dallas).
tell ‘em to watch Star Trek IV and they’ll feel all better.
the michigan whitetail, AKA R.O.U.S.
(Rodents Of Unusual Size)
This is a good thing. Those people were out there to study the whales and now they know how they are harpooned and brought into the ship. Now they can go to the cannery to see how it is packaged and put on the market. A full education.
Dolphinitely.
yep. cuz then they know that they’re right and man will cause the extinction of whales, and it will cause the destruction of life as we know it.
of course they’ll skip over the fact that we’ll also be able to go back in time to grab a pair if we need to, so its ok to hunt to extinction.
Hey, I had that plus a little more on my tag line and the big Freeper in the Sky made me take it off.
I wouldn’t want to see a swimming chicken harpooned from one of those ships.
You win. You’re the punniest.
Exactly how we Americans feel when you Frenchies eat our beautiful horses!!!!
Hahahahahaha....
To these “ECO” tourists, just think of it as watching the lion take down the gazelle...
Nature isn’t warm and fuzzy.
ROTFLMAO!!!
“Honey! Look at the cute whale!”
“THUNK!”
“SHREEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK”
All your blubber are belong to us!
That scene in Napoleon Dynamite where the farmer shoots the cow right in front of the school bus filled with children just pops into my head reading this.
Cooooooool! It’s gotta make a better vacation story than just another boring whale-watching.
This sounds like something out of South Park...
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