Article

2008-01-15 Down Under

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Posted by tipper 2008-01-15 07:34|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 I hope they are released ok, but damn. That is funny. I can only imagine the hubris collapsing after they boldly boarded a vessel and handed the captain a letter telling him all sorts of bad things then get taken prisoner. Hehe....

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-01-15 07:42|| 2008-01-15 07:42|| Front Page Top

#2 So they invaded a ship, and got caught.

The captain needs to keep them in the hold until he's ready to release them to be tried for piracy.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2008-01-15 08:00|| 2008-01-15 08:00|| Front Page Top

#3 Why wait? The ship captain should try them for piracy on the spot. I'm sure one of his officers can mount a good defense for them before the hanging.

Posted by Laurence of the Rats">Laurence of the Rats 2008-01-15 08:07|| 2008-01-15 08:07|| Front Page Top

#4 I'm sure one of his officers can mount a good defense for them before the hanging.

Or before they walk the plank.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-01-15 08:48|| 2008-01-15 08:48|| Front Page Top

#5 I don't understand why the japs think they need to have a whaling fleet anyway. And why they don't stick to their own waters if they want to do something so despicable as whaling.

Posted by Theper McGurque1128 2008-01-15 09:16|| 2008-01-15 09:16|| Front Page Top

#6 They are just lucky they did not attract the attention of French pro-nuclear testing activists.

Posted by Excalibur 2008-01-15 09:34|| 2008-01-15 09:34|| Front Page Top

#7 Hilarious. Though no doubt no charges will be madeagainst the two protesters seeing as how they were peaceful and showing the japanese fleet was involved in illegal activites of their own.

A thought is in the back of my mind that these two may be dead to avoid evidence of them being there, dumped overboard. But I don't know if Illegal Whaling is that big of a deal to the Japanese.

Posted by Charles 2008-01-15 09:36|| 2008-01-15 09:36|| Front Page Top

#8 I agree w/TM1128. The japanese should've stuck to their own waters. Unless there can be a solid logical case made for whaling it should be ended. However, I do see the humor in this situation - damn funny.

Posted by Broadhead6 2008-01-15 09:50|| 2008-01-15 09:50|| Front Page Top

#9 Theper McGurque1128 are you truly so clueless. There are other people in the world that aren't sitting in Mom's basement trolling the internet. Japan is a maritime nation (no, I am not going to tell you what that means, you will have to find out for yourself) and needs to use the ocean's resources to feed itself. That includes "Herefords of the Sea".

I hope the self important little numbskulls s#!+ themselves empty when the Captain said, "No way, Jose! You stay here!"

Posted by Almost Anonymous5839">Almost Anonymous5839 2008-01-15 11:04|| 2008-01-15 11:04|| Front Page Top

#10 A thought is in the back of my mind that these two may be dead to avoid evidence of them being there, dumped overboard.

Yipes. That almost seems possible given that they apparenlty have not yet been released yet.

The crime of boarding a boat and peacefully handing the captain a letter is not piracy, no matter how much it suits your purposes. Piracy implies raiding.

Posted by Whomong Guelph4611 2008-01-15 12:08|| 2008-01-15 12:08|| Front Page Top

#11 A jury in Japan should decide that. Hope they enjoy the trip.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2008-01-15 12:24|| 2008-01-15 12:24|| Front Page Top

#12 In lieu of ransom it'd be sweet to make the hostage harpoon a whale.

Posted by macofromoc 2008-01-15 12:54|| 2008-01-15 12:54|| Front Page Top

#13 The men boarded the vessel (WITHOUT PERMISSION) from a Zodiac boat to hand its captain a letter informing him that the vessel's crew was illegally killing whales in the Southern Whale Sanctuary.

That's fixed for ya. Boarding without permission is piracy, and the Japanese are completely in the right here.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2008-01-15 13:19|| 2008-01-15 13:19|| Front Page Top

#14 I have no special love for whalers but good o for the Sons of Nippon.

Posted by Kelly 2008-01-15 14:00|| 2008-01-15 14:00|| Front Page Top

#15 Sink their boat, feed them to the Orcas.
Less trouble in the future.

As I recall a Zodiac is a rubber boat, let them board, harpoon the Zodiac, "Bye now", sail away.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2008-01-15 14:05|| 2008-01-15 14:05|| Front Page Top

#16 The Japanese are allotted a certain number of whale kills for scientific research, the whale meat subsequently being sold in the fish markets. It's therefore likely the Japanese were not whaling illegally, and more than the Guantanamo Bay prisoners are being held illegally. Just because some activists say it does not make it so. (And no, I don't think the Japanese research is anything more than an excuse to hunt the animals, but moral and legal are not necessarily linked.)

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2008-01-15 14:20|| 2008-01-15 14:20|| Front Page Top

#17 Being tried for piracy would serve these self appointed twits right. I hope no one on board the Japanese vessel speaks or reads a word of English and these two are held until the vessel returns to Japan and then they are turned over to the Police and held for trail.

Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2008-01-15 14:35|| 2008-01-15 14:35|| Front Page Top

#18 Must suck when the mooks you're trying to educate absolutely refuse to recognize your nobility... and actually mock it instead!

Posted by tu3031 2008-01-15 14:48|| 2008-01-15 14:48|| Front Page Top

#19 Who knows that the "activists" did when they boarded. Perhaps they made some threats - branished some sort of weapon or made some sort of claim.... Maybe they tied themselves to the radar mast in protest?

We are only hearing one side of the story here.

Posted by CrazyFool 2008-01-15 15:03|| 2008-01-15 15:03|| Front Page Top

#20 Oooh, plot thickener...

Earlier in the day they had gone aboard the whaler to deliver a letter, saying they had done so because the Japanese had refused to acknowledge radio communications.

"I am not boarding your ship with the intent to commit a crime, to rob you or to inflict injury upon your crew and yourself or damage to your ship," the letter said. They were delivering the message and then "request that you allow me to disembark from your vessel without harm or seizure."

Mr Morimoto confirmed the two men had been taken into custody, and said they were taken to a secure room. "Any accusations that we have tied them up or assaulted them are completely untrue," Mr Morimoto said.

"It is illegal to board another country's vessels on the high seas. As a result, at this stage, they are being held in custody while decisions are made on their future," he said in a statement. "The two boarded the Yushin Maru No 2 after they made attempts to entangle the screw of the vessel using ropes and throwing bottles of acid on to the decks."

But Watson said as the two boarded Yushin Maru the Japanese attacked them. "First of all they tried to throw Benjamin Potts overboard, but he managed to get his way out of that. Then they assaulted Giles Lane. He seems to be in some pain. They tied him up [in an] incredible number of ropes. "It looks like some kind of bondage movie. It's ridiculous."

Posted by tu3031 2008-01-15 15:10|| 2008-01-15 15:10|| Front Page Top

#21 Heh, after reading the headline I read the name of the Japanese vessal as Kobayashi Maru. And if I were a ship captain, I too would be concerned if a ship named the Steve Irwin was chasing me with the crew holding out their thumbs, signaling to pull over.

No, seriously, as a captain if a ship chased me down, pulled alongside, and people boarded and started acting like idiots I would do the exact same thing. More likely, I would have mustered arms and manned fire hoses to that side and opened up.

I know as a Kansan I have little clout in these matters but it seems to me these people forced a maneuver which is dangerous in calm seas with cooperating vessals using the same language, then trespassed/boarded without permission. Think that move would work in the Gulf of Aden?

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-01-15 15:24|| 2008-01-15 15:24|| Front Page Top

#22 Hmmm... IF true, they are lucky they didn't go back over the side with 100lbs of metal attached to their legs. Dumb asses.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-01-15 15:24|| 2008-01-15 15:24|| Front Page Top

#23 I read the headline as "Whales Take Protesters Hostage". Seemed appropriate.

Posted by Spot">Spot 2008-01-15 15:31|| 2008-01-15 15:31|| Front Page Top

#24 We have a photo

Be interesting to see if that photo has any features that prove it was actually taken of the men on the Yashin Maru. These sanctimonious self-important pompous and arrogant annoyances are not above faking such 'evidence' and screaming atrocity whenever they are called to account for their irresponsible and obnoxious actions.

Posted by lotp 2008-01-15 15:43|| 2008-01-15 15:43|| Front Page Top

#25 It is illegal to board another country's vessels on the high seas

/me suspects somewho is about to discover that maritime law is completely lacking a sense of humor. Enjoy the ride!

Posted by SteveS 2008-01-15 15:43|| 2008-01-15 15:43|| Front Page Top

#26 Insh'allah, Steve.

I've had too many encounters with 'animal rights' types who would remove my dogs from my care to have any sympathy whatsoever for these jerks.

Posted by lotp 2008-01-15 15:44|| 2008-01-15 15:44|| Front Page Top

#27 Attempting to foul the props, attacking the crew and following that up with a boarding sure as hell sounds like piracy to me.

Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford 2008-01-15 15:49|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2008-01-15 15:49|| Front Page Top

#28 But Watson said as the two boarded Yushin Maru the Japanese attacked them.

Uh, yeah!

You just threw bottles of acid at them! You were expecting them to hold a reception?!

Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford 2008-01-15 15:52|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2008-01-15 15:52|| Front Page Top

#29 Looks like the show's over, Johnny. Move it along...

Japan agrees to free Sea Shepherd activists

Posted 10 minutes ago

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith says the Japanese Government has agreed to free two Sea Shepherd anti-whaling activists who are being held on board a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctic waters. Australian Benjamin Potts and British man Giles Lane were detained after they boarded the whaling ship yesterday. They said they wanted to give the whalers a letter telling them they were whaling illegally in a protected zone.

Mr Smith says the Federal Government asked the Japanese to release the two campaigners from the ship as soon as it heard of the incident. He says that request was agreed to late last night, but the handover has not yet taken place.

"The most important thing here is the safety and welfare of the two men concerned and we do, as the Australian Government, want their immediate release," he said.

Opposition spokesman Greg Hunt says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should immediately contact his Japanese counterpart to stop the situation getting worse.

The Australian Government says it is too early to say if either party acted illegally.

Both sides have traded accusations, with the Japanese whalers branding the men pirates and saying they acted illegally.

Sea Shepherd say the pair were assaulted and then tied to railings and a radar mast. The Japanese have denied any mistreatment and say the men are being treated well.

Posted by tu3031 2008-01-15 16:18|| 2008-01-15 16:18|| Front Page Top

#30 The Japanese may have a point. It appears that even Greenpeace thinks they're loons...

"It could take the fleet more than a week to regroup ... they're just running away," Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd's founder, told the Guardian from the group's ship, the Steve Irwin."They seem to be worried that we will attack them, but they are the real eco-terrorists. They terrorise the environment."

The Japanese government routinely describes Sea Shepherd as a terrorist organization and last year accused it of ramming a whaling vessel and attacking the mother ship with acid. Earlier this week, Watson's promised to "hound these poachers for as long as we can, and when we catch up with them we will disable their equipment and do everything physically possible short of inflicting injury on the crew in order to stop their illegal activities."

Greenpeace, too, disapproves of Sea Shepherd's methods and reportedly refused to share information about the whaling fleet's location or activities. A Greenpeace spokesman declined to comment on the detained protesters.

Posted by tu3031 2008-01-15 16:27|| 2008-01-15 16:27|| Front Page Top

#31 They tied him up [in an] incredible number of ropes. "It looks like some kind of bondage movie. It's ridiculous."

This Kinbaku DVD on sale at the finest Roppongi shops.

Posted by ed 2008-01-15 16:34|| 2008-01-15 16:34|| Front Page Top

#32 This was last year's festivities...

An anti-whaling group's boat and a Japanese whale-spotting vessel collided twice in Antarctic waters today during clashes over a pod of whales, conservationists and Japanese officials said.

The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said a one-metre (three-foot) gash was torn in the hull of its ship, the Robert Hunter, by the Japanese ship Kaiko Maru during the clashes in iceberg-strewn waters far south of New Zealand.

Japanese officials accused the group of attacking the whaling ship like pirates.

The Kaiko Maru issued a distress signal during the clash to seek help from another Japanese whaling ship in the area, said Hideki Moronuki, a senior official at Japan's fisheries agency. No one aboard the Kaiko Maru was injured, and no serious damage to the ship was reported.

Mr Moronuki said two Sea Shepherd vessels attacked the Kaiko Maru this morning."The attack was like that of a pirate, with people on one boat throwing warning flares and a rope in an attempt to entangle our ship's propeller," Mr Moronuki said. The Kaiko Maru was forced to stop, he said.

Five other ships in the Japanese whaling fleet were far away from the Kaiko Maru at the time of the collision, Mr Moronuki said, declining to give their location.

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said the Robert Hunter was hit twice by the Kaiko Maru after the conservationists tried to stop the Japanese ship from reaching a pod of whales. "Robert Hunter was struck in the stern. We have a three-foot gash in the hull above the waterline," he said by telephone from the Farley Mowat, a second Sea Shepherd ship in the area.

No injuries were reported aboard the Robert Hunter. Captain Watson said the Sea Shepherd ships offered to respond to the Japanese ship's distress call, but it had not answered. The three ships were still near each other, while other Japanese whaling ships were about 20 miles (30km) away, Captain Watson said. "The situation clearly is dangerous," he said.

New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre said it was aware of a distress call from a Japanese vessel, and that authorities were investigating.

The collision was the latest high-stakes clash between Japanese whaling ships and Sea Shepherd activists, whose self-stated aim is to "harass, block, obstruct, and intervene against" Japanese ships hunting whales in Antarctic waters.

Last Friday, two Sea Shepherd members went missing aboard a small inflatable boat for several hours during a confrontation with another Japanese whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru, before being found safe. The conservationists had dumped a foul-smelling acid on the whaling ship, prompting Japanese officials to label them "terrorists" after two crew members were slightly injured.

Posted by tu3031 2008-01-15 16:34|| 2008-01-15 16:34|| Front Page Top

#33 This get's better and better. It appears they're a bunch of friggin morons. Again, from last year...

John Gravois said he and Karl Neilsen huddled in their damaged inflatable craft for eight hours in freezing fog, snow and sleet after the confrontation on Friday before being hauled to safety aboard the flagship boat Farley Mowat, which belongs to the Sea Shepherd conservation group. "When they found us it was a feeling of the most extreme relief that you can imagine," said Mr Gravois.

The activist, from Los Angeles, said that he and his Australian crewmate had been trying to foul the ship's propeller but had gone too close and collided with its hull. Their small craft began letting in water and they fell behind other small boats in the fleet who were also trying to sabotage the whaling ship's activities. When they tried to use their radio to call for help, they discovered it did not work.

HA-ha

Earlier on Friday, the protesters had splashed six litres of butyric acid on to the ship's flensing deck, where whales are stripped of their blubber. Butyric acid is a corrosive chemical and contact can cause severe irritation and burns of the eyes and skin, leading to permanent damage. Two Japanese crewmen sustained injuries, Kyodo news agency reported.

Posted by tu3031 2008-01-15 16:44|| 2008-01-15 16:44|| Front Page Top

#34 Damn! This was TWO years ago. It's a Greenie Cat Fight!

A battle for what is being called "the high moral wave" was last night being fought off the wild coast of Antarctica as the world's two leading international marine protection groups fought each other over which would stop the Japanese whaling fleet.

With an international crew of volunteers, a helicopter and a deep warchest, Greenpeace International has sent two boats, the Arctic Sunrise and the faster Esperanza, to the Southern Ocean to stop the Japanese whaling fleet as it tries to catch 900 minke, blue and other whales for "scientific research".

The animal rights protector Captain Paul Watson, who co-founded Greenpeace in the 1970s and later set up the more radical Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was also in pursuit of the fleet yesterday in his ship, the Farley Mowat. Capt Watson, who accuses Greenpeace of being "the Avon ladies of the environment" and of being more interested in publicity than in enforcing international law, intercepted the Nisshin Maru factory ship on Christmas Day. Each environmental group now accuses the other of endangering lives by trying to ram its vessels.

Sea Shepherd had requested the presence of the Australian navy to monitor events in the Southern Ocean, but Australia's environment minister, Ian Campbell, said that Sea Shepherd's threats to attack the fleet "risk setting back the cause of whale conservation many years".

Capt Watson said yesterday: "Stop threatening us, Mr Campbell, and charge us if you believe we are acting unlawfully. Stop posing for the Japanese [who] are in blatant violation of international conservation laws."

Despite a short truce at Christmas in which the captains swapped greetings, Capt Watson and Greenpeace were at daggers drawn again yesterday with Sea Shepherd accusing the larger group of refusing to say where the Japanese fleet was.

"Greenpeace has misled Sea Shepherd and betrayed us. The Japanese fleet does not give a damn about protests. [Greenpeace] just take pictures and hang banners. We are down here to enforce international conservation law and to stop the illegal whaling operations."

Greenpeace retorted: "Greenpeace distance themselves from Sea Shepherd because of their inability to commit to non-violent tactics. But we'll do what we can to put bodies between harpoons and whales and protect the whales non-violently," said its spokesman Danny Kennedy. Capt Watson yesterday warned Greenpeace that Japan had dispatched a warship to the Southern Ocean to protect its whaling fleet and arrest the conservationists for piracy. This could not be confirmed.

Last night, the three conservation ships were reportedly trying to spot the Japanese harpoon vessels. "They are sweeping along the [Antarctic] coast corridor with radar and helicopter reconnaissance flights with the objective of ferreting out the positions of the illegal harpoon vessels," said a spokesman for Greenpeace.

Backstory:
The bad blood between Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd goes back to 1979, when Captain Paul Watson, membership number 008, left the Greenpeace Foundation he helped set up in Canada in 1972. In 1978, he formed the Sea Shepherd society. While Greenpeace adopted an ethic of non-violence, Capt Watson, 55, believes in confrontation and has been accused of piracy and terrorism.

Posted by tu3031 2008-01-15 16:54|| 2008-01-15 16:54|| Front Page Top

#35 I call upon Congress to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal to help stop this brazen piracy. Hey, maybe the Rantburg Navy would like to bid on the job.

Posted by SteveS 2008-01-15 18:04|| 2008-01-15 18:04|| Front Page Top

#36 Japan sent an entire fleet of ships and didn't include one frigate?

Posted by john frum 2008-01-15 18:33|| 2008-01-15 18:33|| Front Page Top

#37 Ask Deacon about Butyric acid, it's nasty stuff and smells like vomit.

If you are trying to foul the propeller, you are committing piracy. Hose pipes on the perps first line of defense, then shotguns. These guys are pirates, despite their eco-front. Treat them as such.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2008-01-15 18:39|| 2008-01-15 18:39|| Front Page Top

#38 SRI LANKA > warned JAPAN about initiating any new GLOBAL ACTIONS [military].

Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-01-15 19:46|| 2008-01-15 19:46|| Front Page Top

#39 Thanks TW for the clarification.

Posted by Broadhead6 2008-01-15 21:52|| 2008-01-15 21:52|| Front Page Top