gdp's Comments

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:19:40 +0000

As far as the Sea Shepherd ships go ... one is registered in the Netherlands, I believe, and another in Belize. A few years ago, Japan pressured different countries (Britain, Canada, Belize) not to register the anti-whaling boats and Sea Shepherd ships were registered and then unregistered by various countries - often in the same day. This brought out five united sovereign nations of Mohawks (in Canada) to step forward and offer their flag to the Sea Shepherd ships. I guess where there's a will there's a way.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:31:18 +0000

I think all of their ships are registered to countries other than the U.S. Their crews are multi-national. The headquarters of the org is based in the US though. So, I'm wondering if the US would be or could be held complicit. Not sure. Just wondering.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:37:58 +0000

I think the crossbones are actually whaling tools, HarryCan, and the skull has two whales on it though one of them looks like a dolphin to me.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:56:15 +0000

Post 3 of 3 Japan - and any other country that so chooses - can abandon their membership in the International Whaling Commission and can then hunt whales without IWC sanctions. If Japan were to do this, other anti-whaling countries would extend retribution through various means - most likely trade oriented. I would really like more insight into why the IWC just doesn't close the loophole that allows whales to be killed for research. I hope someone on here can converse with me about this.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:55:57 +0000

Post 2 of 3 There are now 7500 bowhead whales so their population levels are no longer a concern. The Inuits kill something like 75 whales per year. They use almost all parts of the mammal. Japanese whaling is different. They do not have a treaty ... they have signed the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on whaling but have exploited its loophole that says whales can be killed for research purposes. The Japanese have ships labeled research yet have never released any research findings. The Japanese are commercial whalers. The Inuits hunt and harvest whales as a means to survive. The Japanese kill 1,000 whales per year and yet more than ninety percent of the Japanese population have never eaten whale; have eaten it on rare occasions; or have not eaten it for a long time. Whale meat is central to the Inuits' survival. Whale meat is insignificant to Japan's culture and society.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:53:59 +0000

Post 1 of 3 I agree with you, Individualist, about none of this mattering to the whale being killed. Back in the seventies, the IWC imposed a ban on the Alaskan Inuit people's whaling. It was based on research that there were 600 or so bowhead whales left in the world - the only whale hunted and harvested by the Inuits. There was much conflict between the Alaskan Eskimo Whale Commission and the federal government but they eventually came to the agreement that Alaskans could hunt whales but with a strict quota and with a federal agent on site. This agreement was reached in the eighties and has held up right up until today.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:26:02 +0000

The wind can blow both pepper spray and acid. I'm not saying that it can't. What I am saying is that the whalers complained that they got the acid in their eyes from the Sea Shepherd people. This is not true. The film clearly shows the whalers with air rifles popping off pepper spray and there is a close up of them firing the guns and then the spray of the gun can clearly be seen blowing back in their faces and they are reacting to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjvU2qnC3IA

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:38:07 +0000

The human scent transfer idea is not true for any species studied thus far - seals, birds, squirrels, raccoons, cats, turtles, tigers, bears, etc. To be on the safe side, many animal species specialists will touch the mother and then touch the baby. To be super safe, many carry unscented baby wipes and wipe down the baby before returning it to their mom.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:54:02 +0000

This article is biased and admittedly so. I can tolerate that people have views different than mine. But short as this written piece is, it is fraught with inaccuracies and misinformation. I find this unacceptable. In Mr. Wilson's editorial he writes that the Sea Shepherd people threw butyric acid into the faces of some of the whalers and that the corrosive chemicals burnt their faces. Patently not true. The Sea Shepherd people were throwing the chemical on the ramp of the so-called research vessel so that the meat of any killed whales would be rendered unusable. There is a very clear piece of footage showing the whalers shooting pepper spray at the Sea Shepherd crew members. The wind blew THAT caustic chemical into their faces.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:31:42 +0000

The International Whaling Commission was founded in the 1940s. It was established to properly conserve the whale stocks. In the 1970s, the Commission was dominated by anti-whaling countries. (I think Japan, Peru, Norway, and the former Soviet Union were pro-whaling back then.) In the 1980s, the Commission voted to adopt a moratorium on commercial whaling. It has never been lifted and Japan signed onto the agreement after pressure from President Reagan. In the nineties, the Commission created the whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean. The sanctuary measures something like 12 million square miles. This is where the Whale Wars depicted on the television show occur. The IWC is a voluntary organization, international in scope, and not backed up by treaty. Any member country can simply leave the IWC if that nation so wishes and declare to be not bound by IWC. Japan has not done that. There is no international law that says whaling is okay.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:14:09 +0000

I totally support everything you (51Squids) just said. I'd rather someone spit in my face directly than do it surreptitiously and call it rain. The Japanese are openly doing commercial whaling but they are labeling it research. The Japanese commercial whalers are getting super wealthy doing what they're doing yet they don't have the balls to admit to what they are doing.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:04:47 +0000

I actually don't hate liberals, 51Squids. I started as one. Right out of college, I was working for myself part time and to make ends meet, I also held a full time job as a press secretary to a Democratic governor. I was in charge of constituent services / relations. I found early success as an entrepreneur and with that comes high earnings so little by little I became more conservative. I'm confident and I do not mind if people disagree with my view on something. I'd rather see that they are informed, that they believe in something, and that they are willing to stand up and be counted regarding their beliefs.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:05:14 +0000

Post 4 I apologize for the length of these posts. It is a very complex topic and Michael Wilson's editorial is not doing the issue justice and neither is my post. I am a very successful entrepreneur. For the past thirty years, I have made money "hand over fist." But I've tried to be a legitimate, stand-up person and I always try to leave things better than I have found them. In the absence of family, I have had to make a decision about where my assets will go after I die. I have selected the Sea Shepherd Organization. Me. The card carrying Republican. I cannot impart to you how startled I am.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:04:44 +0000

Post 3 Back in the eighties the International Whaling Commission put a moratorium on whaling. The very next year the Japanese organization Institute of Cetacean (marine mammal) Research was founded. These are the whalers. They are a five ship whaling organization. They SAY they are killing whales to study them. One of the things they are studying is the whales' effect on the environment and their migratory practices. The latter, it seems to me, would be better studied by NOT killing whales. The Institute of Cetacean Research is nothing more than a front for commercial whaling - kind of like the Mafia is a front for giving out loans. Oh no wait. They're into loan sharking. And there you go. The Sea Shepherd pirates do what they do because there is no teeth in the International Whaling Commission's rulings. In fact, the U.S. has passed amendments to strenghten the anti-whaling movement and President Reagan's administration pressured the Japanese to withdraw their objection to the moratorium. The Japanese complied. But not really. They purport to performing research when they're really just whaling.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:04:23 +0000

Post 2 Then I decided to read up on the topic ... and I chose sources not from Sea Shepherd, Animal Planet, or the Institute of Cetacean Research, a government-sponsored organization that uses lethal means to study whales (the Japanese whalers). Over 90 percent of the Japanese population has not eaten whale meat ever; has eaten it very rarely; or has not eaten it in a very long time. Japanese men in their forties and fifties are the biggest consumers of whale meat. As these people age and die, eating whale meat will become even more statistically rare. Initially, I thought whale meat was to the Japanese like beef is to Americans. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. Whale meat and whaling are not important to current day Japanese society or their culture.

Big Hollywood : Eco-Terrorism: Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' Celebrates Psychotic Whaling Activists

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:03:34 +0000

Post 1 I am the most conservative Republican business person I have ever known and I have been self employed since I was a senior in college. I am now in my fifties. I have been a business lobbyist and I have run for office on the Republican ticket. You have no idea how much I cannot stand these "way-left bleeding heart" liberals. But I support the Sea Shepherd organization and here is why. Like most posters on here, I thought these Keystone Cops of the Southern Ocean were a bunch of bumbling idiots. I watched the show on and off sporadically. [Most of the people on the TV show are volunteers rather than skilled seafaring sailors.]