Sea Shepherd calls for navy action

8/03/2013 4:56:20 a.m.

joseph wrote:

I have followed whale wars for sometime now and I am stunned on how things are escalating. However, I am not surprised that things have reached this levels of confrontation.Practically every episode of Whale Wars have very explicitly shown the aggressiveness,carelessness and utter disregard of safety at sea.I am a seafarer myself and the antics and provocations that Watson's band of pirates blatantly perform in the name of protecting "animals" is by no means justified. The organizations that fund, support and condone these acts of violence are better off channeling there efforts into feeding the countless children in impoverished nations. Why not offer the financial support in protecting the dignity of humans instead of whales. Regardless of how "noble" Watson and his group claims to be the bottom line is that there actions and tactics are meant to inflict damage and very recklessly create a scenario where lives are at risk.Watson needs to be stopped and I would not be shocked if one day the Japanese may just decide to blow up the Steve Irwin and the Sea Shepherd out of the water. I hope they don't for the sake of rational thinking and common civility.The party that started all of these actions and "wars" where not the Japanese,but Mr Watson who has been at this for years. How wonderful it would be if Mr Watson would devote his life to saving a community of human beings and not a pod of whales,seals,etc...

27/02/2013 8:21:37 p.m.

Robert M wrote:

Having observed the film of the little Sea Shepperd cutters, essentially ships like the Bob Barker and little 1000ton Steve Irwin, a 1976 Scottish Fishery protection cutter which was prototype for the RNs Mk 1 OPV or the Isles class a simple WW2 Corvete like vessel it is obvious they are too small to actively ram the large Japanese whalers and tankers. Sea Shepherd in the funnel between the Jap monoliths does nothing more than bumb and brush its way thru.
Naval raming is what the 1973 and 1976 cod wars escalated to when Icelandic cutters and Royal Navy frigates rammed bow first and at a sharp angle with the intention of crippling warships and cutters. Both the HMS Yarmouth and Lincoln were so seriously damaged that the RN immediately offered to sell them to the RNZN if Muldoon approved in 1976. That level of engagement can not be attempted by a civilian coasguard force in the Southern Ocean and it is obvious that the Japanese whalers can only be stopped by RNZN and RAN units. In 1975-6 the British Govt and RN acccused Iceland and its coastguard as being communist and under Soviet direction and both forces threatened to open fire-while by luck and skill their were no casualties. An Iceland cutter put hollow 57mm shells into a Grimsby trawler and in 1975 the RN frigate Leopard trained its 4/5s and gave a 30 sec waring .
Nevertheless with the whaling season nearly over, NZ can do more than maintain ships ready to sail south to intervene if their is a major accident, declare a 320km EEZ of the Ross Dependency conjoint to the Aus one Canberra is trying to legitimise in the World Court. Possibly declare a 150km exclusion zone with Australia that Navy ships will not enter unless their is loss of life or a ship in an incident- in which case the whaling and protest parties will be banned from. The real problem is the Key -Grosser govt favours Asian trade and relations over its Western liberal past and concience.

26/02/2013 4:07:05 p.m.

Robert M wrote:

The RNZN Protector fleet were designed to protect whales and fisheries from exploitation in the Southern Ocena. The Wellington performed superbly in trials in the deep south in early 2012 in condtions far rougher than likely to be experienced in the whaling zone. The pathetic MAFT and their toy Minister McCully slanders the RNZN and the OPV design as not being able to do the job in Southern waters. The far less seaworthy ships of Sea Sheperd are giving the Jap whalers and coastguard hell , the RNZN should go there and expose the predatory naturre of the Jap whalers and govt. Ram them boys. Key clearly needs to ride on the wild side and get some action. Expose the gutless hypocritical Grosser.