Whale WarsFollow

I finally saw my first re-run of Whale Wars last night. I have to say I'd be 100% ok with the Japanese arming their research ships and dealing with those pirates any way they saw necessary. How do those people get away with the crap they pull?

Cameras, I guess.

I've never seen the show but hear people say that the Whale.. warriors?... are a bunch of jackholes. On the other hand, Japan has always been good for illegally poaching under the guise of "research". So I guess I have a hard time feeling much empathy for either of them.

Edited, Jun 14th 2010 12:17pm by Jophiel

It's all fun and games til the Sea Shepard shows up on the Maine Coast to harass the lobstermen:)

If the whale populations are sustainable with the take (and it seems like it is), then the only reason Animal Planet and Sea Shepard are doing this, versus trying to save an ecosystem that is really endangered, is for the ratings and of course the money that follows. I'm not clear how Animal Planet is continuing to film and air illegal activity that they're supporting.

Animal Planet, sure. But, hey, that's the reason anyone goes out with a camera from those channels.

Sea Shepard? I'm assuming they're against killing whales on principle whether it's sustainable or not. People have been harassing whaling boats for far longer than Animal Planet's been filming them.

I watched maybe 15 minutes of that show once. Those people are nuts and I'd have no problem if they got arrested and thrown in some remote dungeon somewhere for their antics. Any time a group of people exhibits such over the top behavior for a "cause", they're either crazy or attention whores, or both.

Then again, it's not much worse than Discovery's endless run of "X job here with people competing for Y arbitrary goals for the sake of ratings" crap. Producers are so out of touch with consumers these days that as soon as they find a concept that works, they latch onto it and run it into the ground, all the while losing sight of what made the original a success to begin with.

Edited, Jun 14th 2010 1:04pm by BrownDuck

Right. And people are going to use water anyway so why not dump some cans of house paint into that there lake?

I fully support the Whale Warriors. The Japanese "researchers" should not be allowed to get away with thumbing their nose at international law by using loopholes to get around the ban on commercial whaling.

Just remember that if mankind continues to recklessly drive species to extinction, one day it will be our turn.

1) Smaller carbon footprint or not, it's still going to be there and it's still having a negative effect on the world.
2) People that brag about that kind of crap are self-centered jackasses with more money/time than sense. They don't care about the animals. They care about themselves.



It's cool that you support them. That's your belief. However, if you believe that mankind will be around forever as long as we do the right things, you're insane.

Hope for you yet.

I'm sure you probably have some of that going on, too, but I was trying to be nice about it.

Presumably a researcher organization, even one that is just a group of hunters in disguise, would have some incentive to not over-fish the whales...and certainly to not hunt them into extinction.

Why do think whales deserve such special attention?






Edited, Jun 14th 2010 10:09pm by Elinda

Because you never know when James Kirk will show up needing a couple of 'em.

The way that the Japanese whalers skirt legality with their "research" vessels is disgusting, but I'm no fan of the manner in which the Whale Warriors go about their cause.

I find the whole thing to be pretty short-sighted...you're not going to put a dent into the illegal hunting of whales by chasing around whaling vessels and throwing stuff at them. As long as there is an international demand for the end-products of whaling (perfumes, foods, and such) there will always be someone out there doing it. You stop the action by stopping the demand for it, I say. The Whale Warriors aren't looking at the big picture. They're violating laws, and they're wasting quite a bit of energy and effort in doing so. And all for naught, thus far. They're probably getting some attention from the show, but I'd wager it's a wash between positive and negative PR.

As far as the actual show goes, I found it to be unwatchable. The amount of manufactured drama is ridiculous. They'll spend 55 of the 60 minute run time hyping up how they lost communication with one of their boats, complete with dramatic music, cliffhanger commercial breaks, and crew members in hysterics, as if someone might have died. Then in the last 5 minutes, the boat will show up again, and one of its members will say something like "Yeah, our radio broke, sorry about that." End of episode.

Edited, Jun 14th 2010 4:22pm by Eske