By Well the eco-drama in the Antarctic high seas continues as Sea Shepherd continues to try and provoke reasons for people to watch their Animal Planet series:
A group of conservationists threw bottles of butyric acid at Japanese whalers and blasted their ship with paint balls, while the Japanese fired water cannons in their latest Antarctic Ocean clash, both sides said Thursday.
No one was injured in Wednesday’s confrontation, the most recent in a string of increasingly aggressive clashes between U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd and the whaling fleet. Japan condemned the conservationists’ actions as dangerous and violent. Sea Shepherd said they are simply doing what is necessary to protect whales.
Sea Shepherd has long used butyric acid, produced from rancid butter, in their annual fight to stop the whalers and maintains that the substance is nontoxic.
Earlier this month, Japan claimed three crew members on one of its whaling vessels suffered face and eye injuries from an acid attack.
“We don’t throw acid on them — we throw rotten butter, which technically is butyric acid,” Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson told The Associated Press by satellite phone from the Antarctic on Thursday. “We’ve been throwing rotten butter at them for five years.” [Associated Press]
Butyric acid is classified as a toxic substance and here are the potential harm of hitting people with butyric acid:
Harmful if swallowed or inhaled. Corrosive. Extremely unpleasant smell may cause nausea. Liquid may burn skin and eyes. Readily absorbed through the skin. Severe skin, eye and respiratory irritant. [MSDS]
If this “rotten butter” as Paul Watson claims is so harmless than why doesn’t he show the world how harmless it is by pouring a whole bucket of it over his head and rub it in his own eyes?
Anyway this is part of the article which is real interesting:
On Monday, Sea Shepherd activist Peter Bethune jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a Jet Ski with the stated goal of making a citizen’s arrest of the ship’s captain and presenting him with a $3 million bill for the destruction of the Ady Gil.
He was taken into custody by the whalers and will face charges in Japan of trespassing and assault.
I think it is great they are going to bring this guy back to Japan and try him for piracy. Now if only Paul Watson would have the guts to jump on a Japanese ship than maybe he could be locked up as well and this annual eco-drama could end. The reason though that Sea Shepherd boarded the ship is that they are trying to cause an international incident between Japan and Australia because the Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada is scheduled to meet with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd this weekend. Like I said before this is all staged eco-drama.
12:01 pm on February 18th, 2010 1
"Aye, methinks we found us a stowaway, we did."
"Well, gosh, what are you gonna do about it, Captain Behindgrinder?"
12:12 pm on February 18th, 2010 2
They used to hang pirates, might cut back on the SS crap…just saying.
5:53 pm on February 18th, 2010 3
The japs say Bethune wore a cocade, eyepatch and had a parrot on his left shoulder. The japs used a chain saw and cut 8" off Bethune's peg leg to prevent him from escaping.
5:56 pm on February 18th, 2010 4
The assault charge comes from Bethune striking the captain with his hook.
6:12 pm on February 18th, 2010 5
Q: What's the difference between life on a Japanese whaling ship and the ending of Don't Ask Don't Tell?
A: You won't be asked to pay three million dollars when a Peter unexpectedly comes on your poop deck in the middle of the night.
6:43 pm on February 18th, 2010 6
Arrrr. Alas maties. We've to keel haul this ere scurvy dog.
I think the Nipponese are about done playing nice with these terrorists. Maybe Discovery Channel can engineer a Sea Sheppard versus Deadliest Catch Prime Time Special! I'd love to see that! I'd love to see CPT Sig Hanson (a REAL Captain BTW) hammer that fat ass Paul Watson and throw him adrift with the rest of the flotsam.
Down to Davy Jones locker with ye.
2:35 pm on February 20th, 2010 7
Leon,
From a legal standpoint, Paul Watson would be considered jetsam.
10:41 pm on February 28th, 2010 8
The whole fiasco down south was just to get footage for WW , donations for the fat mans retirement fund, no one gives a rats about the whales, not money hungry Paul Watson and not Sea Shepherd. Its all about publicity , movie stars, money , the good life, and no hes not a vegan either. Likes his cheeses and fillet mingon , plus a few thousand meat pies and hamburgers, Its sdad to realise its a sham.
1:55 pm on March 7th, 2010 9
It is amazing to read about the hostility people have toward a small cadre of people trying to protect an endagersd mammal population. To comprehend what has been written, it honestly sounds like a bunch of crazy Christians that act like speciests. Get a grip, the world is bigger and more complicated than your simple minds allow you to believe. Please keep aspousing to those simple views so that the minority has more chance to hear your simpleton ideas of the complex world. So long as you crazies never commit us to the nuclear option then I beleive Darwin's theory will eventually assure your removal from the species. What a fine day that will be!
Go Sea Shepherd's
6:17 pm on March 7th, 2010 10
"Go Sea Shepherd’s"
Huh? Finish, already!
Go Sea Shepherd's WHAT?
Demise?
8:45 pm on March 7th, 2010 11
Please #9 enlighten our small little minds. Please educate us to your right thinking ways. I am in awe at how you can grasp such complicated issues. Obviously we lack intelligence AND we are wrong. You've got me convinced with your compelling arguments. You are one silver tongued devil, you are. Where might I send money to support the Sea Sheppard's? Also, were might I inquire about subscribing to your news letter.
I am also curious how you are going to avoid "…your removal from the species." What's the secret? Is that in your newsletter as well. Any price; any price, I'll gladly pay. Please, I beg of you, mold my mind!
12:50 am on March 8th, 2010 12
Leon,
Don't be such a diick.
He was graciously supporting your ideas and you rewarded him with bitter sarcasm and snide remarks.
"then I beleive Darwin’s theory will eventually assure your removal from the species."
What he is saying here is that, since whales have not evolved, their removal is assured… and even to be celebrated as yet another noncontributing failed species branch on the tree of life… which couldn't compete with superiorly-adapted organisms.
I, personally, would hate to see that. I think whales are beautiful and unique creatures… more impressive and valuable than a lowly pig or cow… and more worthy of continued survival than a syphilis spirochaete or tinea cruris.
But, he makes a good point. While pigs and cows have evolved a symbiotic relationship with their predators (where we feed them and they feed us) which has allowed their species not just to continue, but to prosper, the lazy whale has done little to advance its position above evolutionary dead end. Even HIV has done a better job of adapting to the principles of Darwinism.
Whales have evolved no particular resistance to harpoons. They are big and slow and blow their holes for anyone to see for miles away. They make irritating attention-getting noises both above and below the water. They beg sonar to detect them. And they are made of large volumes of tender, delicious meat packed into an elongated shape that is begging to be lifted out of the water with a chain hoist where they can be carved up half-alive with hardly a fight.
So, like the velociraptor and the smallpox virus, the whale has run its course. It was a good run… but, he is probably right. Darwinism always triumphs in the end.
Fare ye well, oh whale.
7:55 am on March 8th, 2010 13
You're right CH. I feel bad now. Kinda like I bit the hand that fed me. I'm such a jackass.
To console myself, I think I'll head down around Pohang this weekend and enjoy a whale burger.