The Whale War in the southern ocean

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Sea Shepherd need to equip themselves properly before they next head down to the Southern Ocean.

Such as equipping each of their ships with a couple of .50-calibre heavy machine-guns and torpedo-launchers complete with a shitload of torpedos.

That'd give those “slitty-eyes” Jap fuckers the message.

[Crusader]

Sea Shepherd need to equip themselves properly before they next head down to the Southern Ocean.

Such as equipping each of their ships with a couple of .50-calibre heavy machine-guns and torpedo-launchers complete with a shitload of torpedos.

That'd give those “slitty-eyes” Jap fuckers the message.

Whilst I agree that would be the best course of action, but given the Sea Shepherd is crewed by a bunch of 'peaceful treehuggers' that would be very hypocritical of them.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[akadaka]

If this is true,then out navy should blow the little fuckers out of the water and pretend they have never seen them





http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/21345926/concerns-controversial-japanese-boat-in-nz-waters


Concerns controversial Japanese boat in NZ waters
Concerns are growing as a controversial Japanese whaling ship enters New Zealand waters.

At about 1.30 this morning, protest group Sea Shepherd says the Shonan Maru No. 2 entered the 200 nautical mile limit of this country's Exclusive Economic Zone.

It's the same vessel which Sea Shepherd accused of sinking the New Zealand ship, Ady Gil, in 2010.

Captain of the Sea Shepherd vessel the Steve Irwin, Sid Charavarty says it's currently about ten miles behind them.

"We are about to enter New Zealand's territorial waters and this ship is still behind us."
Sea Shepherd's calling for Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully to step in and have the ship forcibly removed from our waters.

[nitpicker1]

Sea Shepherd ship refuels in Dunedin

Home » News » Dunedin
Sun, 9 Feb 2014
 
A Sea Shepherd protest ship involved in a recent clash with the Japanese whaling fleet has arrived in Dunedin to refuel.

The Steve Irwin, which had its propeller briefly entangled with ropes during the clash last Sunday, arrived in port early this morning.

It will refuel before heading back out to the Southern Ocean, where it will rejoin the protest against the Japanese whaling fleet.

Sea Shepherd yesterday alleged a Japanese whaling ship had followed the Steve Irwin into New Zealand waters.

A spokesman said the Shonan Maru No. 2, which provides security for the Japanese whaling fleet, entered New Zealand's 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone while tailing the Steve Irwin.

The group called on Foreign Minister Murray McCully, who has repeatedly called for Japan to end its whaling programme, to eject the Shonan Maru from New Zealand waters.

Mr McCully reportedly said reports whaling had occurred in New Zealand waters were incorrect.

APNZ
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/290949/sea-shepherd-ship-refuels-dunedin

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

               (click on the cartoon to read the news story)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Sydney Morning Herald....

International Court of Justice upholds Australia's
bid to ban Japanese whaling in Antarctica

By ANDREW DARBY - Hobart correspondent for Fairfax Media | 8:45PM - Monday, March 31, 2014


Australia takes Japan to The Hague: Tokyo is accused of exploiting a legal loophole.
 — Photo: Associated Press.

THE International Court of Justice has upheld Australia's bid to ban Japan's Antarctic whaling program.

ICJ president Peter Tomka said the court concluded the scientific permits granted by Japan for its whaling program were not scientific research as defined under International Whaling Commission rules.

Mr Tomka said in The Hague that the court was persuaded by Japan had conducted a program for logistical and political considerations, rather than scientific research.

The court unanimously found it had jurisdiction to hear the case, and by 12 votes to four found that special permits granted by Japan in connection with the program, JARPA II did not fall in IWC convention.

It therefore order that Japan revoke any scientific permit under JARPA II and refrain from granting any further permit.

Australia sought an order from the International Court of Justice to stop the Japanese whale hunt in a case launched by the Rudd government in 2010.

The case began as tortuous diplomatic negotiations for Japan to phase out its Antarctic hunt broke down in the International Whaling Commission.

Other anti-whaling nations, including the United States, warned Australia against going to the court to fight the hunt which kills hundreds of whales each summer.

Washington's IWC Commissioner, Monica Medina, said that it was an uncertain gamble on whales' lives.

"This is a ‘bet-the-whales’ case," Ms Medina said then.

But a series of opinions by legal expert panels gathered by international wildlife conservation groups encouraged the then environment minister, Peter Garrett.

He argued strongly inside the Rudd government for taking on Japan, WikiLeaks documents showed.

When the case came to hearing in the Hague last June, it hinged on the court's view of the IWC convention's clause letting any member nation conduct its own scientific whaling program, despite a global moratorium on commercial whaling.

The Australian government's counsel, Bill Campbell, QC, told the 21 judges they had an important opportunity to decide for the world what did, and did not, constitute scientific activity.

"In short, Japan seeks to cloak its ongoing commercial whaling in the lab coat of science," Mr Campbell said.

"It simply is not science."

Japan currently issues its fleet with a scientific permit for a quota of up to 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpbacks, with the humpback quota currently "suspended".

Then attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said the case was not about an Australian "civilising mission" against Japan.

"This case is about one country's failure to comply with its legal obligations not to conduct commercial whaling," Mr Dreyfus said.

Japan claimed a clear and indisputable right under the convention to conduct its scientific program.

"Australia has pursued an express policy of using the IWC, against its stated purpose, to ban all whaling," Japan's counsel, Payam Akhavan, said.

"It has politicised science in order to impose Australian values on Japan in disregard for international law," Mr Akhavan said.

The decision comes with the whaling fleet under increased pressure from conservationist direct action that brought serious conflict to the far south - much of it in waters off the Australian Antarctic Territory.

However, despite this pressure from Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, the whalers killed 10,439 minkes and 15 fin whales under scientific permit from the 1986 moratorium until the end of the 2013 season, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Last season's kill figure has not yet been released.

Established in 1945, the ICJ is the UN's highest judicial body and the only one of five principal UN bodies not located in New York.

The ICJ's judgements are binding and cannot be appealed.

• With AFP.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/whale-watch/international-court-of-justice-upholds-australias-bid-to-ban-japanese-whaling-in-antarctica-20140331-35ude.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

It will be interesting to see what sort of SPIN gets spouted by the professional liar and Jap arse-licker Glen Inwood.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Whales may be safe but let's not forget all the fish

Brian Rudman on National Issues

The New Zealand Herald | 5:30AM - Wednesday, April 02, 2014


On behalf of the whales, I reckon the rest of us are entitled to raise a glass or two, writes Brian Rudman.

WHAT TO PROTEST ABOUT, now the whales have finally been saved? We all felt sorry for these big lumbering, harmless, giants of the sea. But krill? Or sharks? They're not cuddly at all.

As Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said yesterday, the Japanese whalers' bloody-minded persistence in killing these great leviathans in our backyard was deeply offensive to many New Zealanders. And I, for one, delighted in the piratical tactics of Pete Bethune and Paul Watson, the Sea Shepherd protesters who put their lives on the line in the freezing waters of the Antarctic to obstruct the "scientific" slaughterers.

The stereotypical "green" protester is supposed to be a meek and mild leaf-eater. Bethune and his mates were anything but, as they daringly played dodgems with the Japanese fleet. They were more your anti-Springbok tour front-liners confronting the baton-wielding Red Squad.

In the end, victory was pronounced this week at the International Court of Justice. But the way the Japanese whalers quickly capitulated suggests they've had enough with "scientific whaling" and the international opprobrium it attracts. For that, first Greenpeace and later Sea Shepherd, with its hard-nosed tactics, onboard cameras and slick PR, must take the credit. With, of course, the Australian and New Zealand governments which finally called the Japanese to account in the international court for continuing to kill whales, despite signing a 1986 moratorium against whaling.

Mr McCully is now warning against indulging in "triumphalism". He fears that if we denigrate the Japanese, this will hurt their national pride and encourage them to dig their heels in and devise a new "scientific" programme that better fits the definition than the one just laughed out of court.

On a government level, this is no doubt good diplomacy. But on behalf of the whales, I reckon the rest of us are entitled to raise a glass or two.

The Japanese are apparently very big on "saving face". But with warehouses full of unsold whale meat unable to be disposed of, you'd like to think this judgment is just the excuse needed, face or no face, for them to call an end to this long farce, and leave the whales in peace.



But at the rate we humans are "harvesting" other fish species, the whale population, as it slowly rebuilds its numbers, could find the seas an increasingly lonely place.

A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation report on the state of world fisheries in 2012 notes that between 1950 and 1996, the annual world sea fish harvest increased from 16.8 million tonnes to 86.4 million tonnes before plateauing around 80 million tonnes. As a result, it isn't just the whales that need saving. The organisation says about 30 percent of fish stocks are over-exploited and in need of strict management plans. Another 57.4 percent are "fully exploited" with no further room for expansion in catch and at risk of decline unless properly managed.

It concluded: "The declining global marine catch over the last few years together with the increased percentage of over-exploited fish stocks and the decreased proportion of non-fully exploited species around the world convey the strong message that the state of world marine fisheries is worsening and has had a negative impact on fishery production.

"Over-exploitation not only causes negative ecological consequences, but it also reduces fish production, which further leads to negative social and economic consequences."

The report notes that adding to the problem is illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

"The international community is deeply frustrated by the failure of many flag states to meet their primary responsibilities under international law, which are to exercise effective control over their fishing vessels and ensure compliance with conservation and management measures."

In our part of the world, the UN body singles out orange roughy, oreo dories and silver gemfish as "ranging from fully exploited to over-exploited", and the southern bluefin tuna stock as "depleted". That's defined as "catches being well below historical levels, irrespective of the amount of fishing effort exerted". In other words, in deep trouble.

We're far from the worst culprits. The list of "depleted" or "over-exploited" species runs over five pages. The biggest problem is in the more populous areas of the world, in particular, the North Atlantic.

The report highlights that even with the rapid expansion of aquaculture, of marine reserves and quota systems, the cod, the herring, the haddock, the whiting, the geelbek croaker, the red steenbras, the blackfin icefish and assorted shrimps and prawns — to name just a few — urgently need a saviour or three.

Unfortunately for them, "Save the shrimp" doesn't have quite the same ring as "Save the whales".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11230416

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

               (click on the cartoon to read an editorial from The Dominion Post)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

               (click on the cartoon to read the news story)

[donquixotenz]

http://xtranewscommunity2.smfforfree.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=375http://xtranewscommunity2.smfforfree.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=375

[hdrider]

that aint a whale dude that's a moon fish in full blow