Though there is good commentary in all my Whale Wars posts, you can find my newest post on the subject here.
It is nice to see the Sea Shepherds acknowledging that their tactics are not working. I thought it was funny that the leaders of the ship had ‘decided’ to reevaluate the grappling hook idea after the small boat crews had informed them that they were not going to use it. Funnier yet was when the leaders of the Steve Irwin informed the small boat crews that the ship is not a democracy in an attempt to restore their authority after the small boat leaders had already stripped them of it. I guess Paul will have to make the next person who refuses to obey one of his ridiculous orders walk the plank, or else they will begin to truly see that he has no real authority over them or even the right to tell them what to do.
I was amazed at the next idea which some fool (Richard Roberts) suggested to Paul Watson, the captain. He actually thought that they should pull their ship alongside the Japanese ship, and jump aboard it. Paul, who may be the dumbest person in charge of any operation this large on the planet thought it sounded like a good idea. Roberts said, “What are they going to do, kill me?” Stop and take the last statement in for a minute. Amazing.
There are a host of reasons why attempting something like this would be ill advised. I’m not going to waste my time detailing them all here, because it would take too long, and I think that if you have the ability to read, you should have the intelligence to come up with at least half a dozen of them yourself without really even trying. However, I will say this, if that joker actually attempts to jump from one ship to another, I hope he does not live through it. We should respect ourselves, nature and the brains that God has given us enough to know that we should not do these things. Every now and then, however, it takes the death of an idiot to remind us of who we are and how fragile life is. It is these deterrents that keep us from doing even dumber things that put the lives of even more people at risk. Also, I do not have one problem with the Japanese either throwing him right off their ship or putting him in irons to stand trial in Japan for terrorism. In fact, give me the latter.
After telling us for the last several episodes that in order to be effective, they need to be attacking the Japanese factory ship, I found it amusing that after they had decided that attacking it was impossible, they were justifying now that attacking the harpoon ships is better because of the symbolism of attacking the harpoon. I wonder what they will attack when they become ineffectual at attacking these ships also.
I found another comment by one of the crew odd. He said of the Japanese, “They threw their best at us, but the still did not stop us.” Really? As far as I understand it, it is the Sea Shepherds who are out their trying to stop the Japanese, and to this point they have deployed every weapon that they have against the Japanese with no result, but a waste of money, and their ‘prop fouler.’ The Japanese on the other hand have restrained themselves to this point and have still not even employed their LRAD which they obviously have installed for this express purpose.
They attacked the factory ship which they could not affect with the small boats in order to draw in the harpoon ships which they feel that they can be more effectual against. This seems like a good plan for now.
The small boats were as ineffectual as usual. The next great idea was to drive one of the small boats directly at the factory ship (head on) in order to try to fling the acid bottles on its deck. The gravity of the narrator’s statement put it all into perspective when he said, “The Sea Shepherds have never tried something this dangerous before.” Wow! That is saying something. It is an understatement, but the closest thing I can think of to equate this to would be a game of chicken between a unicycle and a Mack truck. However, they were able to avoid being killed by the behemoth of a ship that was coming at them, but once again, when they threw the acid, they missed it. I believe this ship is bigger than the broadside of a barn. How do you miss it?
The harpoon ships also did not take the bait, and stayed out of the range of the small boats. Once again, the Sea Shepherds had only succeeded in widening their mammoth carbon footprint.
With nothing else to do, they decided to do the same thing. Then, the helicopter pilot noticed that they are pointing the LRAD at him.
As the show went to commercial break, Animal Planet made itself look foolish by posing the question, “Which of the following countries currently hunt whales?” The choices were: United States, South Korea and China. The incredibly spun answer was, of course the U.S. This is due to the fact that the U.S, respects the culture of the Inuit and Eskimos. The U.S. does not, however, ‘hunt whales.’ We do respect Native American cultures, and allow these peoples to honor their cultural heritage by taking a manageable number of whales every year. I understand that this series is a little tilted toward the cause of ‘saving the whales,’ but up to now I have been complimentary of Animal Planet’s presentation. However, in this case of an undeniable spin of the facts I say, “Shame on you Animal Planet.”
For two week, the producers of the show have attempted to make it look as if the helicopter were going to suffer a catastrophic attack. Of course, it did not. The pilot simply left the area, but the Sea Shepherds once again, do not miss an opportunity to try to make themselves look like victims. If you do not want to have the Japanese shoot LRAD at your helicopter, then don’t use it to attack them. It’s not like the Japanese have not warned the Sea Shepherds, and no one is forcing the Sea Shepherds to keep attacking the Japanese but themselves. It does, however, look like the Japanese are the only ones having any affect out there.
One of the small boat crew members was once again bashed up by a wave during an attack attempt. Paul Watson then tried to steer the Steve Irwin close to the factory ship. This caused the desired effect as the Japanese Harpoon vessels turned around to intercept the Steve Irwin except that instead of protecting the factory ship, they seem to be going after the Sea Shepherds themselves. They attacked the harpoon ship with the acid bottles until the Japanese used the LRAD on them, and then they backed away again.
The Sea Shepherds have decided to deploy a prop fouler again. This one is a bigger rope. They, of course, failed again, and this time, it’s the Japanese who are towing ropes in order to foul the Steve Irwin. …and this is how the episode ended.
Please read all of my Whale Wars posts and commentary. A lot of questions have already been answered, especially in the comments section.
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