quote:

Originally posted by LineInTheSand:
Good question Master Chief. Sea Shepherd is not a U.S. flagged vessel and is not in U.S. waters (when this goes on). There are SOME Americans on board however. I looked at Paul Watson's "mission" record, and apparently they haven't made a U.S. port call since 2005. Would be pretty interesting to get your hands on their crew training records.

I imagine that Sea Shepherd wouldn't try to pull those kinds of stunts in U.S. waters...they tried something like it in Canadian waters and the Canadian Coast Guard seized their vessel.

Someone on speed with maritime law might know the answers to these questions.

1. At what point would it fall under US jurisdiction or authority to intervene? If a vessel of a NATO ally is under approach/attack by a rogue or stateless "terrorist" vessel, is there a bilateral agreement for us to defend them from the terrorists?

2. How about piracy? (If this happened off of Somalia, would it be viewed differently?)

One for the sea lawyers.....

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TVCJohn,

Many sites indicate the vessels are Dutch flagged. Crew quals and licenses/documents and training would fall under Dutch shipping regulations. The international requirements for a certificate as Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch can be found in the STCW Code, available thru the IMO ( Int'l Maritime Org.)

I'm sure that someone with access to the CG licensing data based could fine out what level , if any US license, Capt Dipshlitz (paul watson) holds.

And if he does, would his organization be classified as one of the activities that the CG frowns upon when determining if holding a US license or document is appropriate ??

Might be nice to hear from a licensing expert on this one.

Saw the third episode this morning. Two words; "Comms Schedule" Morons.....

haven't watched the show yet but I'm wondering if any of you remember that old clip of the protester on a jet ski up in Washington. She was protesting the natives hunting whales legally and the coast guard ran her over with a 23 foot safe boat. How's that for interdiction in us waters?

and no I do not think coasties running over protesters is funny &

The whole "Steve Irwin" crew are pirates. They should all be arrested.

I believe in protecting the whales, but the way they go about it is illegal and insane. I think they are all a bunch of mindless goats. Paul Watson is a little Charles Manson-ish.

quote:

Originally posted by TVCJohn:

quote:

Originally posted by LineInTheSand:
Good question Master Chief. Sea Shepherd is not a U.S. flagged vessel and is not in U.S. waters (when this goes on). There are SOME Americans on board however. I looked at Paul Watson's "mission" record, and apparently they haven't made a U.S. port call since 2005. Would be pretty interesting to get your hands on their crew training records.

I imagine that Sea Shepherd wouldn't try to pull those kinds of stunts in U.S. waters...they tried something like it in Canadian waters and the Canadian Coast Guard seized their vessel.

Someone on speed with maritime law might know the answers to these questions.

1. At what point would it fall under US jurisdiction or authority to intervene? If a vessel of a NATO ally is under approach/attack by a rogue or stateless "terrorist" vessel, is there a bilateral agreement for us to defend them from the terrorists?

2. How about piracy? (If this happened off of Somalia, would it be viewed differently?)

One for the sea lawyers.....

SOLAS then wait for SNO or if there is a Bilat with the country they are flagged under.......I would love to see an episode where the CG them and terminated voyage before they kill someone.

The Sea Shepherds are a bunch of morons. They have no clue what they are doing. I am suprised that they have not killed anyone as of yet. I think Animal Planet has a hidden agenda in airing this show. The main being to drum up support to stop or even saction whaling. The second and underlying is to discredit the Sea Shepherds especially Watson. They are showing the average person how extreme and terroristic this group is and the extents they will go through to save an animal that is not on the endangered species list. I think this show in the end will do more harm for the Sea Shepherd group than good.
I would like to see them try and use their tactics in US waters. Especially if the Makah are given permission to start whaling again.

One of their headquarters is just east of Neah Bay a bit. Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands.

A few years back, they had an ex 95' WPB in Lake Union Seattle and in Victoria, BC. The name was "SYRENIAN" or something like that. Thing was painted all black. Never found out whether it was an ex USCG or ex Canadian CG hull

Do you really think that Animal Planet has a hidden agenda? My guess is that the Sea Shepard society 'pitched' this idea for a reality show to several networks, and Animal Planet bought it. The Capt. seems to be pretty good with creating media frenzies, regardless of his command presence of a ship.

Really, whatever you think of them, this show is doing exactly what network TV tries to do: Create a buzz and gain viewers....

Mastersmate the 95 they own is the former

Cape Knox, WPB 95312

Now called the Sirenian.

I stopped watching Whale Wars after they flipped their RHIB.

Watched last nights show.

"We're going to attack the whalers."

Heard that a lot. Also a lot of chest thumping by those yahoos.

It was interesting that the whalers didn't blow 'em off their ship with any means at their disposal. Held the anti's "hostage" onboard their ship. Who illegally boarded who? lmao.

I think animal planet does have a hidden agenda. I'm not supporting the whalers here but come on, reality check please.

Next weeks should be interesting since the Auzzies police are getting "involved." Of course, the "Sea Wheenies" didn't get sunk since we haven't read anything in the papers the past couple months.

Hmmm - a media network with an agenda, hidden or in the open, how about that for a novel concept?

I've watched enough bits and pieces of Whale Wars to reach some conclusions which lead to me writing The Animal Planet and tell them what I think.

First of all after about 40 years, conservation works. Look at the elephant population; dangerously close to decimation due to greed; making a comeback. Or deer - overhunted now way too many...

I don't favor whale hunting, especially wholesale slaughter either. But more importantly I especially do not condone the violent approach that seem prevelant in the Animal "Rights" Activitists take. The only time I would brake for an animal is if I can safely do it; otherwise sorry about that!

What Sea Shepard does is purely criminal. I saw the illegal boarding of the whaler; I felt that crew was justified in restraining the two activists. For the idiots to report a kidnapping of their crewmembers is asinine - I only hope that when they were turned over to the Australian Customs boat that they were arrested and charged before being returned to the SS.

The show is a crock. Animal Planet needs to know what we all think about it; please write them.

I just love the Jolly Roger that is displayed on their RHI's. Seems that if a Pirate flagged boat attempted to board my ship, I would be justified in using any amount of force neccesary to repel the pirate boarding...

This group is just like the ELF/ALF/PETA groups I've investigated...bunch of morons.

"Captain" Watson... I'm laughing...

And yes, running over the jet skier WAS one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time.

Big Boy Rules.

I am also interested to see what the austrians do.

I am curious to why animal planet justified putting this show on the air, especially since a majority of there viewers are children. So are we teaching our children to be domestic terrorist now?

I doubt the Austrians care

The Australians on the other hand might

My opinion is that the Sea Shepherd group, at least the crew of the ship Steve Irwin, are international maritime criminals and terrorists. They should be put in jail somewhere, but where and by whom? That is the question. Here are some current articles, below. Realize that they have just gotten underway for this whaling season, 2008. The TV show Whale Wars is old news about last season.
________________________________________

“Sea Shepherd 2008, currently with a crew that includes the American actress Daryl Hannah, promises big surprises and new tactics for the Japanese fleet. But the group whose members have been labeled eco-terrorists will not have any backup this year, 2008: For the first time in four years, Greenpeace is not sending a ship to help harass the whalers.
_____________________________________________________

"Whaling Wars'" Watson on "Talking Animals" (Radio Interview), on Dec 03 2008 11:30 (article on WMNF website)
“Our guest on "Talking Animals," December 3, at 11:30am will be CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON, a co-founder of Greenpeace (drummed out for being too controversial & aggressive, he and that organization maintain an often-pointed lack of mutual admiration society), who went on to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
His lifelong activism as a defender of all creatures of the sea has been recognized globally--for instance, Time magazine in 2000 named him one of the environmental heroes of the 20th century.
He and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are at the center of "Whale Wars," a reality series currently airing on Animal Planet that focuses on the efforts of Watson and his mostly volunteer crew (aboard their ship, the Steve Irwin) to thwart Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic seas.
Captain Watson will join us live on Dec. 3, at 11:30am--from the Steve Irwin, as they embark on a new expedition to stop Japanese whalers--and you're invited to join the conversation by calling 813-239-9663 or e-mailing DJ@wmnf.org.”

_________________________________________________________

Anti-sealing group head dismisses federal lawsuit
Saturday, November 29, 2008
OTTAWA - The head of the anti-sealing group sea Shepherd Conservation Society is shrugging off a statement of claim filed last week by the federal Fisheries Department against one of his vessels.
The department wants to recover $487,000 in costs to maintain the Farley Mowat since it was seized last April during the annual hunt.

Paul Watson says good luck. "The longer they hold it the more it's going to cost (them), because they're not going to get a dime out of us. No matter what kind of statement of claim they file," Watson said Saturday from Perth, Australia where he is preparing for the group's anti-whaling campaign.

"They haven't notified our attorney, they haven't talked to us about it," Watson said.
The ship has been tied up at Sydney, N.S., since it was raided on April 12, 2008 for allegedly encroaching on seal hunters near Cape Breton 12 days earlier. The RCMP commandeered the ship and arrested 17 crew members. In the end, only the captain and first mate were charged with violating seal hunt rules by approaching within about a kilometer of the seal hunt without a permit.

Watson maintains the ship was in international waters at the time and says his group is preparing a lawsuit of its own against the government seeking $30,000 for each month the Mowat is held. He said the group was ready to retire the Mowat anyway, and DFO has done them a favor. "It's extremely expensive to retire a vessel. Now, I get the Canadian government paying the expenses of retiring it for us. They can keep it."
_____________________________________________________________________________

Sea Shepherd anti-whaling activists investigated, 18 Sep 2008 (Telegraph.co.uk article)
Japanese police have started an investigation into three anti-whaling activists who have disrupted the Japanese whaling fleet's activities. The Japanese government has labeled Sea Shepherd a "terrorist organisation" and issued arrest warrants for Daniel Bebawi, 28, from Nottingham, and two American activists.

According to authorities in Japan, the three used a rope to damage the propeller of the Kaiko Maru in February last year and threw a smoke bomb onto the deck of the vessel, which Japan describes as a research whaling ship.

Interpol issued blue notices for the three men, meaning it is collecting additional information about the suspects' identities and activities. "There is no doubt that this is politically motivated," said Paul Watson, who heads the US-based environmental group, in a statement.

"If the Japanese police succeed in arresting any of these three men we will use the courts as a forum to focus international attention on Japan's continued illegal whaling activities."

Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, but Japan has exploited a loophole in the legislation that allows it to hunt the mammals in the name of science. The meat from the harpooned whales is then sold in Japanese supermarkets.

This year's campaign against the whalers was the most successful in Sea Shepherd's history, with the Japanese fleet only able to land 551 minke whales instead of the 900 it set out to harpoon between November and March of this year.

Japan is expected to file similar complaints with Interpol against activists who this year hurled chemicals and bottles of rancid butter onto the whaling ship Nisshin Maru in the Southern Ocean.

Three members of the Japanese vessel's crew were treated for irritation to their eyes after coming into contact with the rotten butter - which becomes butyric acid - within an area designated by Canberra as Australian Antarctic Territory and a wildlife sanctuary. Japan refuses to recognize the sanctuary.
_______________________________________________________________
In Battle Against Whaling, Groups Split on Strategy (NY Times article)
HONG KONG — Quietly, without the usual bon voyage fanfare and Buddhist blessings, a Japanese whaling ship set sail this week on its yearly hunt for the great whales of the Southern Ocean. If the hunting is good, the ship, Nisshin Maru, will haul in more than 1,000 whales.

Meanwhile, at the Rivergate Marina in Brisbane, Australia, the Sea Shepard Conservation Society is preparing its own ship, the Steve Irwin, for its annual oceangoing battle with the Japanese whaler.
Past confrontations have been dramatic, dangerous, even violent. There have been collisions and rammings, forced boardings, the fouling of propellers, the firing of stink bombs and stun grenades, even allegations of gunplay.

Sea Shepherd, with a crew that includes the American actress Daryl Hannah, promises big surprises and new tactics for the Japanese fleet. But the group whose members have been labeled eco-terrorists will not have any backup this year: For the first time in four years, Greenpeace is not sending a ship to help harass the whalers.

Greenpeace has decided to concentrate on a court case in Japan involving two of its activists along with a campaign to turn Japanese opinion against whaling. The group has changed its tactics for a few reasons, Steve Shallhorn, chief executive officer of Greenpeace Australia-Pacific, said Friday from Sydney.
For one, it has been “out-messaged by the Japanese Fisheries Agency,” he said. “They’ve been very skillful, using the message that Westerners can’t tell Japanese what they can and can’t eat.”

But Greenpeace is also distancing itself from the directly confrontational approach it once championed — and which Sea Shepherd remains committed to. “Their brand of militancy has generated a huge backlash in Japan,” Steve Shallhorn, chief executive officer of Greenpeace Australia-Pacific, said Friday from Sydney. “Japan is a society where confrontation is avoided and property damage is considered violence.”

The shift infuriates Paul Watson, the Sea Shepherd founder and the captain of the Steve Irwin. One of the original founders of Greenpeace in the early 1970s, he parted ways with the group in 1978 because he wanted it to be more aggressive. “I call them ‘the other whaling industry,” he said in a telephone interview Friday from Brisbane. “They’ve raised millions of dollars off the whales for this campaign — and now they’re not sending a boat. They should be ashamed.”

Mr. Watson, 57, is a Canadian who sports a bushy beard and flies a skull-and-crossbones flag on his ship. He says he was shot in the chest last year by a Japanese sailor who was on the whaling ship. Only a bulletproof vest saved his life, he said. His account could not be independently verified. Mr. Watson's ship is set to sail next weekend.

The International Whaling Commission, with 82 nations as members, banned commercial whaling in 1986.
Some native and aboriginal groups are permitted to hunt whales for food; Norway and Iceland have since objected to the moratorium and continue to hunt whales.

International law also allows whaling for scientific purposes, and Japan uses this codicil to license its deep-water whalers. They mostly hunt minke whales, but also fin whales, which are listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. “The Japanese have seized on that loophole,” Mr. Shallhorn said, “and stretched it beyond all recognition.”

Still, he has become convinced that the annual face-off at sea only played into the hands of the whalers, who were able to build on the historical attachment some Japanese feel for the industry. After World War II, with Japan on the verge of starvation and winter coming on, Gen. Douglas MacArthur requisitioned ships for whaling expeditions, and surveys show that the idea still resonates for some Japanese, especially older men.

“They were encouraged to go whaling,” Mr. Shallhorn said. “For almost 10 years, whale meat was an important part of the Japanese diet, a lot of the protein in their diet.” Still, he feels that Greenpeace might be able, over time, to shift opinions. Few Japanese eat whale meat on a regular basis, and he said, the group’s polling suggests that most Japanese “wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot chopstick.”

I had the opportunity to catch a couple episodes of Whale Wars as Animal Planet was showing multiple episodes throughout the weekend. I have to say that I’m surprised that Sea Sheppard or Animal Planet would want this televised. All the show proved was that those guys are a bunch of incompetent, no talent, A $ $ Clowns, who are going to seriously hurt or kill themselves. Some things that stood out to me as disturbing:

-Swamping of the RHIB during launch
-Indecisiveness of the Capt on how to recover MOB’s
-Damaging the Helo while recovering MOB
-Decision to fly Helo after being advised not to by manufacturer
-Taking a non ice-breaking vessel into an ice field
-Not keeping a comms sched while operating the RHIB over the horizon and out of radar range
-Claiming their members were “kidnapped” after they illegally boarded a vessel they had been harassing
-Flying a flag that resembles the jolly rodger
-Asking the vessel they were harassing for assistance in finding lost RHIB
-relieving the only watch stander who seemed to have a clue after he wanted to conduct a search for the missing RHIB and crew.

Animal Planet and Sea Sheppard should be embarrassed to air this show of follies and blunders. The program is an exercise in “how not to manage and operate a vessel at sea” and clearly sends the wrong message about what on the surface seems a worthy endeavor.
Cheers!