Sea Shepherds Continue To Make Asses Of Themselves

OK, let’s start this on the right foot. We all saw Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home. In Western culture, whaling is no longer acceptable. Whales are noble creatures and all that stuff and we would no sooner return to whaling as we would return to slavery. That said when you start applying your ideals to a culture you know very little about you get stuff like… oh…. Jihad for example.

That brings us to the Sea Shepherds. If you are not in the know, The Sea Shepherds are a group of activists, led by a man who was kicked out of Green peace for being too extreme. His name is Paul Watson.

The most powerful tool that the Sea Shepherds have been able to acquire in their war against Japanese Whaling is the cable station, Animal Planet. The two groups have partnered to put out a show called “Whale Wars.” Watch it… the crew is so inept and ill-spirited that you’ll find yourself rooting for the whalers against all expectation.

What turned me against the Sea Shepherds? Well, two things that I saw last season in particular.

1. In the show you get to clearly see how Capt. Paul Watson instigates and antagonizes issues with the Japanese whaling fleet and then is immediately on the phone to the press talking about how the Japanese are doing awful things to them. One great example is when they boarded the Japanese Ship and then called the media to say that their crew was being held hostage on the Japanese ship.

Another great example is the encounter with a Japanese whaling ship in which Paul Watson claimed to have been shot directly in the heart by the Japanese… from approximately 50-100 yards… from one moving ship to another… and the only thing that saved him was that he happened to have his Sea Shepard badge right over his heart and it stopped the bullet. Keep in mind that with a boat full of cameras, nobody saw what happened and that within moments he was on the phone with the media to tell his “harrowing tale”

2. One of their methods of attacking the Japanese Whalers is by throwing bottles of butyric acid on the decks of the Whaling ships. They do this because the acid works like a giant stink bomb that not only makes the deck really smelly, but renders any of the whale meat on the deck of the boat tainted and unusable.

Here’s my problem with this. When you destroy the meat that is going to be eaten from a whale, you make the killing of that whale completely pointless. Given their altruistic nature, wouldn’t it seem more humane to try and seize the meat and use it to feed the less fortunate? I’m just sayin…

Now, in the new season of Whale Wars, the Sea Shepherds have added a new boat named the Ady Gil to their crew. It is a speed boat that has actually traveled around the world. Early on in the season, in fact, I think on tonight’s episode, that boat will collide with a whaling ship. Who hit who? Beats me. I can tell you that the captain of the Ady Gil, Peter Bethune, was arrested and is now in detention and awaiting trial in Japan.

In the last few days it has now come out that the Sea Shepherds have booted Bethune out of the club. Why? Because he had a bow and arrow on his ship without the knowledge of the Sea Shepherds and that violates their… non violence policy…

Here’s the problem, Pete and his bow and arrow were clearly featured in the TV show. Check it out.

Despite how noble you may feel your cause is, when you are dumb enough to lie when there is filmed evidence to the contrary, you really are just an ass hat.