EcoTerrorists Playing Pirate

This article gives a perfect example of someone who is fully convinced that they and their cause is above the law. Again, it's anti-whaling groups who are going off the deep end. Apparently they miss the point that having a sympathetic international following is more likely to help you than attacking whalers.

The controversial founder of the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Society has begun defiantly flying its version of the skull and crossbones from the bows of his ships as they skirmish with Japanese whaling vessels across the ice choked waters of the Antarctic Ocean.

"We're like the Flying Dutchmen," Captain Paul Watson said in a satellite telephone interview yesterday from the bridge of the Farley Mowat, one of two of his anti-whaling ships that recently had their flags of registration revoked by Canada and two other countries. "We've got nowhere to go: No port will take us in ... basically we're pirate ships."

The Japanese whalers obviously have political clout. From the article it definitely sounds that they were the driving force with getting Watson's flags revoked.

The already tense situation in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary escalated yesterday when the Farley Mowat's sister ship, the Robert Hunter, was involved in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship

The Kaiko Maru issued a distress call after the collision, claiming it had been rammed by the Robert Hunter, prompting the Japanese, who are hunting an estimated 1,000 whales in the sanctuary this year, to condemn Mr. Watson and his crews as "terrorists."

Hideki Moronuki, head of the Japanese Fisheries Agency's whaling division, said the anti-whaling activists struck the Kaiko Maru at both ends. "They threw flares and knotted ropes at our ship in a bid to damage the propeller, at which they succeeded," Mr. Moronuki told Agence France-Presse. "It is not a conservation group. It is a terrorist group."

Capt. Watson scoffed at the Japanese claims and said the whaling ship backed into the Robert Hunter while trying to elude another protest vessel that was attempting to interfere with its pursuit of a pod of whales. "I've rammed whaling ships before and I don't deny it when I do it," he said. "We didn't ram this ship ... They were not in distress. They were trying to look like the victims when they were clearly the aggressors."

Right, Watson freely admits he's rammed whalers before, but not this time. And he should be believed why? Frankly, his open admission strikes me as enough of a reason to pull his license and have him arrested. Hopefully, that will happen when he returns to his home country.

And just to ensure that the public doesn't believe that Watson is a terrorist, the journalist postures the Japanese actions as a combatant:

In the past four weeks that the two Sea Shepherd ships have been stalking the six Japanese whaling vessels in the Antarctic, they have used powerful nail guns to fasten steel plates over outlets on one whaler, dragged ropes to foul other whaling ships' propellers and have hurled flares, smoke bombs and butyric acid, an acrid smelling chemical, on to their decks.

The Japanese retaliated by training powerful water cannons on the anti-whaling campaigners.

Interesting choice of words. When a person defends themselves from attack, are they retaliating?

Last week, two activists threw acid on a ship and then were lost in a fog bank for more than seven hours before being located in a search assisted by the whalers. After being rescued by their foes, the pair resumed attacking the Japanese ships.

That's just insane. Personally, I would have left them lost in the fog. It certainly takes large cahones to be rescued by those you're attacking and then go back to attacking them.

Back to Watson:

Kirsten Goodnough, a spokeswoman for Transport Canada, said the Farley Mowat gave up its Canadian registration voluntarily after the government suspended it for violations of maritime regulations. She said that if the ship sails into a Canadian port again, it might not be allowed to leave.

"It would be subject to the appropriate sanctions, including arresting the ship," she said.

Capt. Watson blamed his vessels' registration difficulties on Japanese influence and said he would rather ram the Farley Mowat into the largest whaling ship than lose the ship.

"The obvious way to obstruct things is to put a ship right in their rear end and get stuck," he said. "If we are going to lose the ship, we might as well lose it in a constructive manner."

There's a reasonable man. I wonder if he'll expect the Japanese to save his ass when his ship sinks? I'd sure be sympathetic with some nut case ramming his ship into mine in Antarctic waters. Not that having your life threatened should be a decision maker in a dangerous situation.

The article goes on with Watson whining about Greenpeace. This whole topic is simple. You don't like whaling, that fine, get it stopped through legal means. As soon as you go beyond the norms of international law, you've become a criminal yourself. And when you threaten others lives, you've lost the sympathy for your cause with those that can aid you the most.