Show Down In Antarctica - Sea Shepherd Calls for Action from Australia
and New Zealand Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:24:41 +1300
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In Antarctica - Sea Shepherd Calls for Action from Australia and New Zealand
The Sea Shepherd ships Farley Mowat and Robert Hunter are in hot pursuit of the
Japanese whaling fleet.
Faced with a shortage of fuel and the prospect of the ships being arrested
for being flagless, and the continued slaughter of the whales, the two whale
defense ships are in a desperate position. They will have to break off
engagement within days.
The Farley Mowat has reached the point of no return and does not have enough
fuel to reach the closest port. Perhaps it is better to lose a ship in defense
of the whales than to lose it to the bureaucrats.
Perhaps it is time for a dramatic showdown after twenty years of illegal
whaling activity in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. The outlaw whalers have
illegally, ruthlessly and mercilessly murdered over 18,000 intelligent, gentle,
socially complex sentient creatures we call whales since 1986. They are in the
process of killing more than a thousand at this very moment including the
endangered Fins.
The politicians who purport to side with the whales just attend meetings and
draft laws that are never enforced. They sit behind desks and pass judgment on
activists while pretending to be concerned for the issue. Activists toss a
couple of stink bombs on a deck that is running red with the hot blood from the
whales and they are accused of being extremists.
It is incredible that attempts to stop the illegal slaughter of endangered
whales are always called extreme yet the criminal slaughter of endangered
whales in a whale sanctuary in defiance of a global ban on global whaling is
NOT considered extremist. Do whale defenders have to die down here for the
world to notice and take action against the criminal activities of the Japanese
whalers?
For this reason it has been decided to stop the operations of the Japanese
floating slaughter house, the Nisshin Maru by ramming one of the ships up the
slipway of that foul sadistic piece of killing machinery. Better to sacrifice
a ship and make a difference than lose the ship to the trickery of the
bureaucrats.
Whalers been rammed before and whale defenders on the Sea Shepherd ships are
in fact the most experienced ship rammers in the world so they are confident
they can ram the Nisshin Maru in such a way as to stop their illegal activities
without hurting any of their crew. A large chuck of metal jammed up their
rear-end will stop any further processing of whales and force them to return to
port.
Perhaps it is time to be the extremists that the critics are always accusing
them of being.
Perhaps it's time to give these cruel whalers a steel enema they will never
forget.
But before such drastic action can take place, reason should not be
rejected. All that is needed to desist from taking such action is a pledge from
New Zealand and/or Australia to actually do something to stop these criminal
operations down in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary.
The argument that nothing can be done is unacceptable. Both New Zealand and
Australia and France and Great Britain patrol Antarctic waters in search of
illegal fishing operations. Fish poachers are boarded, arrested, their ships
seized and their crews jailed for illegal fishing. These Japanese whalers are
killing whales illegally in the very same waters. How is it that if you catch a
fish you go to jail but if you kill a whale, you get a letter saying, "please,
please, please don't kill our whales because if you do we will do absolutely
nothing but send you another letter next year?"
Accusations that what activists are doing in these remote waters is
dangerous are ridiculous. Of course it's dangerous. However there does not seem
to be concern for the danger of sending men and women to protect oil wells in
the Middle East yet here we have men and women defending endangered species and
somehow these priceless living treasures are not considered as worthy as some
pipeline in Iraq.
What will it take to stop the killing of the whales in the Antarctic Whale
Sanctuary? What will it take to stop the Japanese from slaughtering the
incredible Humpback whales like Migaloo that grace the coasts of Australia?
What will it take for the Australian and New Zealand governments to take
action, to kick these poachers out of the sanctuary?
Men and women are down here risking their lives because the governments of
the world only talk about defending the whales. Very few efforts are being made
to actually stop the slaughter and the horrific cruelty.
So what will it be? Plugging the stern slipway of the Nisshin Maru or a
commitment from those in power to actually do something to stop this ruthless
illegal slaughter.
Twenty years of ruthless slaughter is enough. Targeting endangered Fin and
Humpback whales is the last straw. Will we continue to allow their illegal
kills to escalate? When do we say enough is enough? When will the killing end?
Australia and New Zealand need to stop talking and they need to start taking
action. Both nations can prevent a dangerous intervention by simply agreeing to
uphold their responsibility to protect whales in their own territorial waters.
Australians and New Zealanders need a commitment from their governments that
not a single endangered and beloved Humpback will die in the next whaling
season. After all the accusations of extremism, the activists down in the
Antarctic Whale Sanctuary need only borrow the style of Crocodile Dundee, "that
ain't extreme, Mate, this is extreme, we'll show you extreme."
On the other hand they would just like to go home peacefully knowing that the
whales have some real muscle in Canberra and Wellington.
Visit www.seashepherd.org for updates.
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