Japan Issues Arrest Warrant for Sea Shepherd Founder Paul Watson

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:11 pm

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:28 pm

Unless the Japanese Govt has the Aussies and Kiwis in their back pocket, this should backfire spectacularly. It's great publicity for the Anti-whaling cause. The only reason I can see that it wouldn't be is if the Aussie and Kiwi govts cripple the Sea Shepherd crowd by confiscation and obstruction.

I do fear that the whole Sea Shepherd approach is futile: if climate change turns out to be as bad as the scientists say it will, then we are heading for a mass extinction (if we aren't already well into one) and in mass extinctions it is the big species that tend to vanish quickest.

JacksDad · Post by **JacksDad** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:18 pm

Let's say the scientists are wrong.

Are the Shepherds cause still futile?

The Japanese have no grounds to arrest Captain Watson.

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:31 pm

IF the scientists have got it wrong, then the Shepherds' action would not be futile. Unfortunately I fear the scientists are right. I would really, really like to be wrong about this.

JacksDad · Post by **JacksDad** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:23 pm

The linked article was from May. If they were arresting Capt. Paul it would have been done already. They did arrest Peter. Capt of the Ady Gil.

Arrest, trial, and conviction.

The Japanese are not scientists. Science studies living creatures. Not gutted and bloodied dead ones. They are brutal murderers.

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 2:10 am

JacksDad;1328511 wrote: The linked article was from May. If they were arresting Capt. Paul it would have been done already. They did arrest Peter. Capt of the Ady Gil.

Arrest, trial, and conviction.

The Japanese are not scientists. Science studies living creatures. Not gutted and bloodied dead ones. They are brutal murderers.

"The Cove" was shown on TV here in the UK a little while ago. The Japanese are also slaughtering dolphins. Certain things came to light in the programme.

First, the general Japanese public are unaware of what's going on and sundry members of the public were either shocked or disbelieving when shown evidence of the slaughtering.

The Japanese Government actively resist the notion of having dolphins classed as a whale. Whales are a protected species.

Dolphin meat is being sold as whale meat.

My point is that the majority of the Japanese are not a barbaric race. They are, however, heavily under their Government's thumb. The members of the Japanese Government are no less ruthless than the governing members of any other country.

The fishermen involved with the culling of the dolphins have no other skills, it seems, and would suffer a drop in living standards without this work. The methods they use have been used for years. The methods used are barbaric. There is no guarantee of an quick cull and many dolphins are left to die slowly. All this was shown on secret video images taken by "The Cove" team.

As a point of interest, the main proponent of this team was the trainer for our ole Flipper, Richard o'Barry. At the beginning of the film, he made some interesting points about dolphins in captivity. Miami Seaquarium Flipper trainer Ric O'Barry

Clodhopper · Post by **Clodhopper** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 2:55 am

Jacksdad: Look, I really don't like the slaughter of whales. And claiming you are going to slaughter 935 Minke for research is contemptible. But we kill animals by the million - sheep, pigs, cattle and chicken in particular - and are overfishing too. I'm not sure we can really claim a moral high ground. Boycott Japanese goods by all means; write to their Ambassador; but don't claim that all Japanese are barbaric. Especially if Openmind is right that most Japanese know nothing about this.

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 3:29 am

I meant to add to my previous post that in "The Cove", the Flipper that Richard o'Barry was holding in his arms had committed suicide simply by no longer taking in air. Apparently, the taking in of air through the hole on the top of it's body is a voluntary act and not an involuntary act. Human breathing is entirely involuntary, we have to hold our breath if we don't want to breathe and it becomes more difficult to do so as we resist the involuntary muscle action.

Dolphins are also very sensitive to sound and the constant noise going on in and around a dolphinarium does them no good. Of all the creatures in the sea, dolphins are the most aware. These creatures have been known to be aware when humans are in trouble in the sea and have helped them of their own free will.