Whale Wars Season 2 Episode 9: Crazy Ivan

Though there is good commentary in all my Whale Wars posts,  you can find my newest post on the subject here.

This episode began with the Steve Irwin being chased by one of the harpoon ships which was towing a prop fouler of its own.  Paul Watson, the hypocrite, claimed that he would ram them with his ship rather than allow them to do foul his prop.  What if the Japanese had taken this tact up to this point?  There would have been dead Sea Shepherds if that had happened.  Also, I believe the Japanese ships are bigger, faster, and I am sure better, than the bucket of bolt known as the Steve Irwin.

Paul Watson then starts firing ‘warning shots’ with flares in the general direction of the Japanese.  My question is, “How are they supposed to know that these are warning shots, and not some crazy man shooting hot bits of fire at them and simply missing?”

The helicopter pilot was unhappy when these flares started flying past him, and when he asked if Watson would stop, Watson’s reply was I don’t know what he means.  What an ass.  I hate that guy.

He then fired a rocket propelled safety line at the Japanese.  Oh, if the Japanese just had a canon….  Watson looked like a petulant child.  How does anyone support this guy?  Also, I hope the Sea Shepherds do not end up needing all of that rescue equipment that he is wasting.

Another Japanese harpoon ship then approached with its LRAD mounted on the front of its ship.  Go… Japanese!  The Sea Shepherds’ defense was, of course to deploy another prop fouler, and miracle of miracles, this one looked like it worked.

The Japanese released a statement later saying that these acts were illegal, which they were.  The first mate, Peter Hammarstedt, referred to it as a war in response, and once again referred to the whales as casualties.  I really wish these guys would drop the hypocrisy.  Why is it a war when they do the attacking, and when the Japanese do anything to defend themselves, suddenly the Sea Shepherds go into victim mode and whine how out of bounds it is?  I hate these guys too.

The Sea Shepherds were feeling their oats, and proclaiming their own importance, and the fact that the Japanese could not hunt while they are messing with the Sea Shepherds (foreshadowing?).

The small boats were now in need of recovery, and they decided to recover the small boats at speed.  So… dangerous.  In the mean time, they discovered that their last prop fouler was working as well as the others had (meaning it did not work at all).  The first boat was recovered with a lot of danger, and then the Japanese turned their LRAD on the second boat.  Then, the second boat was recovered.

The geniuses on the Sea Shepherd then held up an old satellite dish in order to make the Japanese think that they had one also.  I think the Japanese will figure it out as soon as they don’t hear anything, unless they are deaf.

Later, after the Japanese Harpoon vessels were lost, and returned.  The Sea Shepherds were incredibly surprised when they found out that the whalers had actually been… (wait for it…)… Whaling!  Hammarstedt said, “I knew then that things were not the way they were supposed to be…. The one thing we were not suspecting was for them to kill a whale in front of us.”  Let me take a minute her to explain.  Whalers whale, it is what they are supposed to do, and it is the one thing that should not surprise you coming from them.  In fact, it would be surprising to me if they did not whale.  I was amazed by their continued incredulity.  What did they expect?

You watch, these people are about to become really dangerous.