It’s the dubious legal position of the whalers that they’re trying to draw attention to, and the refusal of successive Australian governments to do anything about it.

The Whale War TV show is a show about hate.

Firstly, aren’t they claiming authority over that region and that it is effectively a whale sanctuary? If so, then why don’t they have patrol boats and planes monitoring their territory? Because…???

Secondly, aren’t they claiming that they totally disapprove of hunting and killing whales in Australian waters, to the point that they are threatening legal action? If so, then why are they allowing the use of Australian facilities to aid the Japanese in their allegedly illegal activities? Either they approve or they don’t, surely?

Thirdly, if it is claimed as a santuary under our jurisdiction, then why aren’t they taking action about the killing, regardless of what may or may not be allowed in “international waters” (i.e. BS claims of “research”). Presumably, if it were oil reserves or our edible fish stocks that were being plundered, they would be doing more than jawboning and public posturing?

Totally inconsistent – pure spin, as far as I can see.

Which kind of makes any current bleating about dangerous activity seem a bit lame (though it may be a good tactic).

Financial drivers will work as well or better than moral ones, as we know with African poachers.

There seems to be a real inability of people outside of Japan to understand why Japanese people might not credit our claims about whales’ specialness. Until we can convince them of that claim (which is unlikely) we’re just going to have to accept that they want to eat whales. Or at least, they are willing to subsidise a whale-eating industry so long as the rural seats that depend on it have a significant say in their Diet.

I suspect that you may have something there.

People only seem to act when something goes severely wrong, and it hits a nerve. A bad intersection is not fixed, despite complaints, until a fatality occurs. Warnings about near misses don’t cut much ice. Warnings about technical problems with the space shuttle were not heeded until a major disaster and deaths. There are countless examples.

Arguably, if someone on the Ady Gil had died as a result, then the Japanese would be on the receiving end of a lot more global criticism. As it was, it counts as a “near miss”, and probably has negligible financial or moral impact on the Japanese establishment.

The Norwegians had a long tradition of hunting Minke whales in Northern Norway, and did not see a problem until they had a fledgling whale-watching industry (started around late-1990′s I believe). Now there is a counter-voice inside their own country, with a financial stake in getting their negative image changed.

I went on one of their whale-watching tours off Lofoton in 1999 (my tiny contribution in support of the whales), but have not since followed how the dynamics of that has played out. Presumably, it would depend on the level of tourism jobs and dollars for the locals, and expected future growth, compared with the returns from killing whales.

Why doesn’t someone think of making a kids movie (in Japanese) about a Japanese child and saving a stranded baby whale? Let the parents then explain away their actions to their kids….

I tell them the only reason that I can think of for the hypocrisy (and I think it’s the real reason): non-Japanese think Whales are special animals, barely even animals at all, and see killing them as on a par with killing people. I’ve had it pointed out to me that this is nitpicking, but westerners tend to be pretty sure of this position. I think Japanese might just think we’ve been seduced by the majesty of the beast, but in any case it’s irrelevant – like the Canadian seal cull, this is an issue in a few key rural seats in Japan, it has nationalist overtones and ordinary Japanese eat so little whale meat that the issue doesn’t even register to them. Which is perhaps why the sea shepherds have to take the path they have, since dialogue in such a situation is unlikely to work.

I also wonder if successive governments of oz have been seeing this issue as free publicity for their legal claims to that stretch of ocean.

I can’t see how this was a bad thing for the Sea Shpeherds. They are all about media and perception, and losing a boat to those ‘barbarous whalers’ is precisely what they would have wanted. In this case, the whalers are their willing dupes.

More generally, my view on the hunting and killing of common cetacean species is that if you eat meat (beef, lamb, pork) without knowing where it comes from, but can’t stand the thought of whales being harpooned, you’re a damned hypocrite and ought to STFU.

Common species of whales are no more (or less!) sacred than any other large herbivore that we utilise for our own pleasures. IMHO it’s less cruel to hunt whales than to feedlot steers or to factory farm pigs.

You don’t have to be a vegetarian to eat sustainably and ethically, but you do have to think about what you eat.