What happens when you sail non-ice rated vessels down to Antarctic seas and tangle with vessels that are ice rated? Hilarity. I have to admit, I love Whale Wars. Not because I like these pirates, but because I enjoy chortling at their incompetent seamanship and gimmicky attacks that don’t really seem to faze the whalers all that much.
You can see my other coverage here. Though I was appalled when I first saw the show, I have since changed my tune. I don’t think putting these incompetent boobs on TV is doing anything to win people to their cause. If anything, I’m more sympathetic toward whaling than I was before watching the show. These guys make the Somali Pirates look like true professionals.
I loved seeing this story last night. And I love watching Whale Wars — it’s like a bunch of kid’s playing war, pretending they’re about to fight a desperate and dangerous battle against a fierce enemy, then just going out in a powerboat and throwing stink bombs while getting doused with a hose. And crying victim when the people they are attacking — workers trying to make a living — fight back.
I, too, have actually become more supportive of the Japanese whalers. But I think this is an issue like guns, we take out of it what we want. It certainly was unpleasant watching a whale be killed, but the Japanese have a long history of eating whale meat.
I am in no way supportive of the whalers, but I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen since I saw those idiots on tv.
Just a simple lesson in gross tonnage right of way. Or, get out of the way of the bigger boat!
If you try and ram a heavy duty whaling boat with a fiberglass boat, you’re gonna lose. Duh.
The video is great. First their boat gets smooshed. Then they get the hose.
Love it.
I love practical lessons in physics. Maybe those asshat tree-huggers will learn something.
Or probably not..
Law of the Sea!!
Avoid a collision at all cost. Japanese Captain veered to port, idiots failed to give way. Funny stuff.
Dannytheman: The rules of the road also say that the more manuverable vessel is obliged to take the lead in avoiding a collision, and no vessel may deliberately maneuver to put another vessel into a situation where they are ‘burdened’ with avoiding a collision.
The econauts are just plain wrong, all the way around. And despite causing the trouble, they still benefit from another law of the sea where the whalers have to rescue their worthless asses.
I had to laugh. They declared WAR. Then when they lose they squall that there p@##* hurts.Kind of like liberals in government.
I think it should be the US Navy going after the whalers, since they are violating international treaties and whales might be a key part of the ecosystem.
But, the forbearance the whalers have is absolutely amazing.
The Sea Shepherd people are nothing but terrorists and pirates.
I’m surprised the Japanese navy hasn’t gotten involved in treating these pirates and terrorists like they deserve to be treated.
dusty:
The international treaty on whaling allows whales to be killed for scientific research. This is one of those rare cases where I’ll admit that the Japanese are exploiting a loophole. The Japanese whalers claim, and probably with justification, that they are taking scientific notes of the whales they kill. But they are also selling the meat on the Japanese market, which I think is the primary purpose for their whaling activities.
That said, I would have no problem with whaling if it were managed in a responsible manner, with an aim to avoid over hunting, and with keeping stable populations in mind. The world market for whale meat and whale products is no longer that large, so I think you wouldn’t see much harvesting outside of the nations that consume whale meat, which are few.
Minke is absolutely delicious. Whale blubber/fat is all on the outside, like rabbits, so the meat is incredibly lean. It has a strong but not overbearing taste, like water buffalo but 99% lean and very tender.
I agree the pirate wanna-bes are idiots. Funniest incident I’ve heard about is when Sea Shepherd (I think) was harassing Makah Indians whaling in a canoe in Washington State waters and the protesters hit a whale with their boat–the coast guard then charged the protesters with violating the marine mammal protection act! That must have been a fun ticket to write.
But the Japanese are doing more than exploiting the loophole–DNA studies on meat sold in stores there indicate a lot more individual whales have been harvested than they admit. If they want to win friends and influence world opinion, they should stop hiding behind the double-talk about “research” and just say they are practicing a traditional industry in a sustainable way, like the Norwegians & U.S. Makah do. Then they should do exactly that, & not overharvest which they may be doing currently–numbers aren’t clear.