They added a few tricks like a Long Range Acoustic Device (reportedly a stereo with 900w speakers lol) that they would use to harass the whaling boats. Here is a picture of their LRAD and the boat.
They had been circling and harassing a Japanese whaler, Shonan Maru 2, for some time. The Shonan Maru using water cannons to try and keep the SS folks away, and the SS folks using a laser to try and blind the whalers. Of course, as you may have guessed or heard...they crashed. Now both sides blame each other.
Below is a video taken from the whaling ship, which appears to show the Ady Gil move into the path of the whaling ship just before impact.
I've watched that show on Discovery, and their methods of stopping these guys are stupid, and then they get all upset when they get pelted by water or nuts & bolts, or anything the fisherman have to throw.
I put these guys right up there with PETA.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
Quote: They kept firing the water canons at them even after they hit them. LOL
Of course they do, those idiot sea shephards ran into their boat.
In all seriousness, the Japanese whaling industry is brutal and the reality show does show it. I remember one episode where the shepards are stuck witnessing the actual hunting of a whale. And i'll admit it, when I was watching it, I was definitely cheering on the whale. Of course the whale lost and I'll tell you, it's disheartening. Especially when you watch and know what's going to happen so nothing can be done..............
May be my issue with it is the size of the creatures, but I don't mind what these guys are doing. They might seem extreme, but they are taking action in the best way that they think they can. They just need to be a little more intelligent with the way that they use their boats. Don't crash your expensive trimaran thing into the gigantic ship, you will never win.......... Unless you have reinforced, icebreaking, titanium boat with a lot of reinforcements on the front (so may be you can use it like a spear?)
May be it would have been different if I was driving that trimaran motorboat, they're quite manueverable because they ride on top of the water and only have to pivot on the center hull. I'd be money in that 2.5 million smoked out vessel
Now I go fishing, and sometimes I keep one that's a little too small. But this just seems like a totally different level to me.......... Why kill such a fantastic creature.
And before you think that i'm some sort of PETA hippie, i generally support republicans, so there you go
Because in some cultures whale parts are worth a lot of money, kinda like elephant tusks and rhino horns in Africa. And if there is money to be made, someone will do it.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
Quote: Because in some cultures whale parts are worth a lot of money, kinda like elephant tusks and rhino horns in Africa. And if there is money to be made, someone will do it.
Fair enough, but at least credit the Sea Shepherds for doing something about it.
If only the Sea Shepherds could just hire Kimbo Slice to go to Japanese Restaurants and punch people in the face who are eating whale............ It would be a big deterent, better than ruining your carbon fiber looking boat by running it into a gigantic steel ship.
I can credit them for their interest, but have no sympathy when they get hostility back, rather than work with the governments in Japan to do something about regulating or banning whaling, they just attack the whalers.
Not much different than PETA attacking a trucker carrying beef, and trying to destroy his rig.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
Quote: I can credit them for their interest, but have no sympathy when they get hostility back, rather than work with the governments in Japan to do something about regulating or banning whaling, they just attack the whalers.
I believe the captain of the ship was explaining in an episode that working with the Japanese government has never gotten them anywhere with this issue.
That is why he decided to take the initiative and take on these whalers themselves.
Now I don't really care much for the guy, and I think he has a huge ego and thinks too highly of himself, but it isn't like this is a new issue. This was an issue when I was in elementary school, that means at least 15 years. I bet you it's been something that people have been fighting for much longer than that too.
Sometimes working with a government doesn't work. In fact, MANY times it doesn't work. I can give numerous examples if you like.
May be they need better tactics, but it isn't like people aren't taking on the Japanese Government and the Whaling Industry in legal and non-physical ways. Besides, don't Japanese, at least business-wise, take a long time before making ANY decision? That's at least what i'm told in my international trade graduate classes
What do you do when someone simply won't work with you? May be if we stuck a harpoon in the Prime Minister's Dog the point might get across.................
Besides, cows/cattle are domesticated animals. And there are tons of them. We breed them to eat/produce milk. We can't just breed whales.......... These are free ocean creatures. And they're a lot smarter than dumb cows (of course may be this might just be my experience with cows and my lack of experience with whales PLUS the fact that I love beef)
My point was that these guys are deciding what's good for everyone or bad for everyone, much like we complain our own government does to us.
If our government was so worried about whale population they would do something about it, but they don't. Why do these guys decide what is acceptable and what is not. What's to keep me from deciding I don't like karaoke and go around destroying karoake equipment in every bar that has it?
There has to be some illegality to the way they are going about this. When Somalians do it, we call it piracy.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
Quote: There has to be some illegality to the way they are going about this. When Somalians do it, we call it piracy.
I understand what you're saying, and sure committing violent acts at sea is piracy.
But sometimes people follow/answer to a higher law. In this case, I trust the higher law. Killing whales isn't right, whether the US Government or Japanese Government recognizes it or not.
Whether or not they are deciding things for everyone else, I have no issue with what they do. In fact I support them. Because in my heart I know that they're at least on the right side. I bet you would change your mind too if you were on a japanese whaling ship watching a big helpless whale get chased and harpooned to death.
May be you might not agree with their tactics, but it's a clear cut good guy/bad guy situation in my book. I prefer to be on the side of the good guys, no matter legality of what they do.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like the whaling either, I just don't find it interesting that they get away trying to damage a commercial vessel at sea without reprimand.
Maybe they pay hefty fines for what they do and just accept it as part of the cause, I don't know, but I do find it interesting how when sometimes those trying to fight a cause can get away with what others can't. Just curious where this invisible line is that says these people can break the law for what they believe is right, but these folks over here can not.
Not sure if any of that makes sense or not.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
That is your opinion - you state it as if it is the absolute truth. I don't agree with killing whales either, but I'm not going to force my opinions on someone else by ramming their ship - I think those lunatics got what they deserved. Wrong way to go about it IMO.
Quote: That is your opinion - you state it as if it is the absolute truth. I don't agree with killing whales either, but I'm not going to force my opinions on someone else by ramming their ship - I think those lunatics got what they deserved. Wrong way to go about it IMO.
Fair enough, but how would you go about it?
Because I bet there are people trying to do that too................
I know it seems wrong, I just have no sympathy for the Japanese Whalers at all. Do I have sympathy for the guys who ruined their boat, nope. As I said, morons. They should know better than to hit a steel commercial ship. That's why their boat got ruined. But I really could care less about what happens to these Japanese whalers. And I don't really care to give them any leverage to use against the people trying to stop it.
Yes it is my opinion and not an absolute truth. But as I said, some of these people can't just sit by watching this happen. In the end you answer to your heart or a higher power or conscience (is that spelled right?). And that's what I think that they're doing, whatever the reprecussions are.
What the Sea Shepherds really should do is hire ex-navy seals to dive below these Japanese ships and sabotage their props so that they never can go out to sea anyway. This would cost the industry tons of money, and it would be more effective. Especially if they hit "the mother ship" which is lack the storage factory for hunted whales at sea. Time is money afterall.
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