Sas
Contributor
To conclusively say the Ady Gil planned this in advance is pretty confrontational given the limited video evidence we are all working with. It is however not confrontational to say the Captain of the Whaler vessel acted illegally because the video evidence we are all working with is pretty damn conclusive with that regard.
They did plan it in advance. SS have a long history of doing stuff like this and putting the lives of the whalers in danger. There is a book called The Whale Warrior about a guy who went with SS for a season to see what they were like. There is a section in there where they are discussing whether it would be worth dying to save whales. I.e. if someone was killed, would that cause such a scandal that Japan would be forced to give up whaling. That is the mentality you are dealing with in SS.
Like it or not, whaling is legal. It is done in the Australian Antarctic Territory at the moment, which is only recognised by four countries - none of them are Japan. Also the IWC is voluntary and their resolutions are not binding or enforceable. Japan has not left as the US would cause problems for them if they did.
Basically prohibition never works. The only solution here is for Japan to have not been screwed over in the 80s, been giving a small quota of whales to kill and then left in peace. A bunch of protesters is only going to make the government want to whale more and they are doing so - I mean they have stockpiles of whale meat because they can't sell it. But I know I wouldn't give up if someone was doing what SS is doing to Japan's whaling operators. SS in the long run are going to be responsible for FAR MORE whale deaths than would have otherwise occured, had this been resolved diplomatically. Their idioicy and lack of knowledge about the best way to achieve their aims never ceases to amaze me. What also never ceases to amaze me is the hypocrasy of so many Australians (and perhaps people in other countries but I don't live there - whaling protesting is huge here). They scoff tonnes and tonnes of meat and seafood, yet complain when Japan kills a few whales.
I think as long as whaling is done sustainably there should be no issue with it.