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China-Japan-Koreas
Japaneses harpoon Greenpeace inflatable
2006-01-15
A GREENPEACE activist was thrown overboard when a Japanese whale harpoon was launched across an inflatable boat in the Antarctic seas yesterday.
Real shame it is, I tell you.
The incident has forced Greenpeace to rethink their human shield style protest against Japanese scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. The Japanese says Greenpeace is taking the risks for the sake of public relations.
The Japanese speak truth.
A harpoon from Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No.2 was fired directly over the Zodiac inflatable boat, which was shadowing a minke whale in Antarctic seas. Greenpeace chief executive Steve Shallhorn said the harpoon had flown within a metre of the inflatable. "Greenpeace had been doing what it has been doing for three weeks – putting out inflatables between whales and harpoons," he said.
Speechless, I am.
"The harpoon impacted on the whale but the towing rope got caught on our boat. And as the whale began to sink it put our boat in jeopardy. The rope got taut and threw one of our people into the ocean." Canadian activist Texas Joe Constantine, the second mate on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, struggled in the water for a short time before getting back into the boat.
Wait a minute! How does a "Canadian activist" get to be named "Texas Joe"? Maybe "Manitoba Joe", or even "Yellow Knife Joe," but unless he's from down Amarillo way or points south, "Texas Joe" should be out.
"He may have swallowed some seawater and whale blubber but he is all right," Mr Shallhorn said."
Salt to taste.
Posted by:DragonFly

#25  Dress up the Ainu in seal skins and claim whale hunting is an aboriginal right. Watch (non-whale) heads explode in cognitive dissonance.
Posted by: ed   2006-01-15 22:19  

#24  Fine, but can we at least leave one whale alive so we can put its bones in a museum or something...

What Greenpeace needs are bigger and faster boats. Better equipped too.

You know, if they have simulated crab meat, maybe someone can come up with simulated whale meat? Worth millions...
Posted by: Rafael   2006-01-15 21:40  

#23  "it's gotta be easier to keep up with them and safer to interfere with them"

Something tells me the second part of that statement is not true, RC. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2006-01-15 19:58  

#22  As there are "First Nations" that still hunt whales, why don't these activists go after them? Even if the tribes use the traditional Evinrude and explosive harpoon, it's gotta be easier to keep up with them and safer to interfere with them.

Probably not as photogenic or sympathetic, though.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2006-01-15 19:29  

#21  Given how leftist enviromentalists fight the evils of bathing in anything but patchouli oil, did the one that fall overboard file the enviromental impact statement of the oil slick his contact with the water was sure to have caused? I mean, who knows how many years he's not bathed and instead coated himself in the stuff.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2006-01-15 16:28  

#20  I find it no more "Evil" to hunt and eat Whales than to hunt and eat Deer, Elk, Sheep, Goats, Rabbits, Quail, other critters like possum crabs, crayfish, lobsters, oysters, clams, squid, octopus, and the various fishes of lakes and oceans.
If the Whales were hunted simply for sport, that would be different, but as food, no problem with that at all.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-01-15 15:43  

#19  I can't support Whaling at all.

Greenpeace has it comming. They have been breaking law on the high seas with impunity. Stuff like this is bound to happen. They should be glad to be alive and not in jail.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom   2006-01-15 15:03  

#18  Nuke the freaking whales.
Posted by: Shieldwolf   2006-01-15 15:02  

#17  anon1, you shouldn't believe what the media says. Australian territorial waters only extend 12 nautical miles from the coastline. Australia has a claim to an exclusive economic zone in the area based on the Heard and McDonald Islands, although international law doesn't recognize such claims because they are based on 'uninhabited' islands. And then there is the even more dubious in international law, Australian claim to part of Antartica.
Posted by: phil_b   2006-01-15 14:38  

#16  Custom over intellect - a defiance of diminishing the culture, no matter how wrongly guided.

Hear! Hear!

Ima off to ambush the twilight quail.

Posted by: 6   2006-01-15 14:36  

#15  You forget: the Japanese are whaling in an international whale sanctuary.

They've even trespassed on Australian Territorial waters to hunt whales - in breach of our laws and our sovreign territory.

Sink the bastards! They can go catch whales in their own territorial waters and if they're too povvo and stupid to manage their fisheries so there aren't any left, too bad. They can eat rice.
Posted by: anon1   2006-01-15 14:14  

#14  Bye the bye.. the "Canadian" activists - generally of this generation - are Americans.

60's 70's runaways. Hence - "Texas" Joe.
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827   2006-01-15 13:29  

#13  Funny, used to be the "meat" of the poor.

Current fashion brings it back to the resto's.

Custom over intellect - a defiance of diminishing the culture, no matter how wrongly guided.

Sign 'o the times
Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827   2006-01-15 13:27  

#12  NS: I wonder how much of the whale they use anbd how much is chum.

They eat the whole thing. The meat from the catch usually winds up on dinner plates in the form of sashimi, bacon, or marinated with soy sauce at some of Japan's higher end restaurants.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2006-01-15 12:28  

#11  The Japanese rely on the sea to feed their people, they eat whales (And other things I don't even want to know about) as a necessary diet

This is stupid on the Greenpeace side, I for one, would sink their boats, try the survivprs for Piracy, and consficate their assets for damages, they have absolutely no business there.
Witness some of their past stupidities, the attempted stoping of the seal harvest, the spotted owl fiasco, the campaign to eliminate nuclear power (Just as it's most needed to reduce petroleum dependency)etc.

Note also the following excerpt from
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/save-our-seas-2

Quote
Whalers ram Greenpeace ship
This morning our ship the Arctic Sunrise was deliberately rammed and damaged by the Nisshin Maru, the factory ship of the Japanese whaling fleet. Straight after the ramming, the Nisshin Maru began to steam away from the "scene of the crime". However both the Arctic Sunrise and the Esperanza are in pursuit with every intention of continuing to peacefully protest the hunt.

Note especialy that while Greenpeace says it's ok for Greenpeace to ram and sink whaler ships, they're all bent out of shape when their own tactics are used against them.
And I don't call sinking ships a "peacefull protest"
Do you?
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-01-15 11:48  

#10  There is money in human trafficing too. It doesn't make it something we should support.
Posted by: 2b   2006-01-15 11:24  

#9  There can't be that much money in whaling

The Japanese aren't doing it for charity. I wonder how much of the whale they use anbd how much is chum.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-01-15 11:21  

#8  Well, (ducks for cover) I think it is stupid that the Japanese are still whaling. It's as popular as killing elephants for their tusks. Most people like and relate to elephants and whales and dolphins and don't like seeing them slaughtered.

There can't be that much money in whaling - except the money that groups like Greenpeace get for opposing it. The only accomplished here was publicity for Greenpeace.
Posted by: 2b   2006-01-15 11:18  

#7  I wonder what a ninja throwing star would do to an inflatable boat. I wonder if this has been tested yet.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-01-15 11:06  

#6  Hey! The Japanese are serious SOAB's!!!! /fear
Posted by: Greenpeace   2006-01-15 10:29  

#5  Wow, that's disappointing -- from the headline I was expecting to see a photo of a harpoon line with a rubber boat wrapped around it.
Posted by: Darrell   2006-01-15 10:25  

#4  greenpeace suck they just jump on the $ bandwagon now. All that climate change fear-mongering to get a dollar when they know it's unstoppable.

Now Sea Shepherd: there's a good cause! They go and ram the whaling vessels! no mucking about.
Posted by: anon1   2006-01-15 10:06  

#3  Git some Daggapo!
Posted by: 6   2006-01-15 09:49  

#2  Hmmm, doing stupid things at sea is dangerous. Who would have guessed?
Posted by: SteveS   2006-01-15 09:45  

#1  If they wind up harpooning some guy I hope they get it on camera.
Posted by: Penguin   2006-01-15 09:38  

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