The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship Steve Irwin has driven the Japanese whaling fleet out of the Australian Economic Exclusion Zone.
"We have chased the whalers for over 800 miles since last Saturday through bad weather and heavy ice conditions," said Captain Paul Watson. "They have fled eastward and they are continuing eastward and we are on their tail and we will keep on their tail."
Since finding the Japanese whaling fleet on December 20th, the Steve Irwin has had close encounters with the harpoon vessel Yushin Maru #2 and the spotting vessel Kaiko Maru and has observed and tracked the Nisshin Maru from the air.
The Steve Irwin has not been able to close with the main body of the fleet because they keep moving eastward. They have not been whaling since Sea Shepherd located them and they are not whaling now. They continue to flee.
The good news is that they are no longer whaling in Australian waters and they only managed to hunt in the waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory for about a week before being forced to flee the Australian EEZ.
They are now in the waters of the Ross Dependency and the Steve Irwin is in pursuit.
"What is now good news for the whales in Australian waters is now bad news for the whales in the waters south of New Zealand," said Captain Watson. "They are still targeting endangered and protected whales in the waters of an established international whale sanctuary and thus they are still in violation of international conservation law and acting under the principles of the United Nations World Charter for Nature, we will continue to pursue, harass and intervene against their blatantly illegal lethal assaults on the whales."
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship Steve Irwin has fuel and provisions to chase the whalers well into the middle of January before having to return to New Zealand to refuel. If forced to return to refuel, the Steve Irwin will do so and then will immediately return to the whaling area to continue to pursue, harass and intervene against illegal Japanese whaling activities."
The Steve Irwin has a crew of 40 international volunteers plus an Animal Planet film crew onboard producing the 2nd year of the series Whale Wars.
Last year the Sea Shepherd crew pursued the Japanese whaling fleet from early December until mid-March. That intervention cost the whalers over $70 million in lost profits and saved almost 500 whales.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Christmas message from the Captain
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Message from the Captain of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin
My friends,
It is Christmas Eve down here off the coast of Antarctica and I can absolutely assure you that we are all having a very white Christmas. And it is a happy Christmas because there is no place else we would choose to be.
Not only is it a white Christmas with towering massive alabaster icebergs and heaving floes of cobalt blue ice, it is a magical Christmas as orcas, humpbacks, fins, blues and piked whales escort us through these seas, as albatross, petrels, and skua gulls fly along beside us. And on the floes, the penguins, primarily Adelie and kings comically "salute" us as we pass by.
Being in these waters is like being on another planet or in another dimension of time and reality where humans are a scarce species and the oceans teem with the diversity of life. The air is pure and smells alive and the waters even purer and moving with life.
I have spent five Christmas days since 2002 in this wondrous place and I love it here, love it perhaps more than any other place on Earth despite, or perhaps because of its isolation, its wildness, and its unpredictability.
To love something is to defend it - to be willing to fight and to die for it. And such is the love that I feel for the magnificent citizens of this vast frozen region that I have no hesitation in acting in their defence, whatever the consequences might be.
Ahead of us at this moment is a fleet of killers. Led by the ship I call the Cetacean Death Star, (formally known as the Nisshin Maru), and accompanied by three vicious harpoon vessels, they have only one purpose in these waters and that is to deliver an agonizingly cruel death to the intelligent and gentle giants that grace these waters.
We are here to save life and they are here to kill. Our purposes are clearly defined.
I do not hate these whalers. I do pity them that they can take life away so thoughtlessly and so casually without pause for remorse or reflection.
As Marc Anthony said in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of Earth that I am so gentle and mild with these butchers.
"
For gentle and mild we are indeed. Every fibre of my being wants to sink that obscene floating death factory, yet I must by necessity employ gentler tactics and a more complex strategy.
But every whale that dies pains me to the core of my being. I feel every harpoon and hear every scream. I smell the blood and the fear and I see the smirks of chauvinistic humanity as they pull the triggers of their harpoon cannons and mutilate the corpses with their lances.
Restrained by our own compassion and ideals of the sacredness of life, we intercept, harass, block and pursue, driven by the guilt we must endure as whales suffer and die because of our decision of practical restraint. We seek year after year to silence the harpoons and to silence the haunting screams of the whales through tactics that although somewhat effective require time to be truly effective and time is a commodity that the whales are running short of.
And as we willingly choose to abhor a violent solution we must suffer accusations that we are violent by these same mad killers who answer our non-harmful tactics with bullets and grenades. They accuse us of being violent as they spill thousands of steaming gallons of the hottest blood on Earth into the frigid waters of Antarctica and fill the polar air with the pitiful screams of whales dying in horrific agony.
Nothing is simple in this world where commerce is absolved for passing death sentences on intelligent socially complex gentle sentient beings and where diplomacy is used as an excuse to ignore the consequences of the slaughter of the gentle and the innocent.
On this day, the eve of Christmas, the day of love and respect, we find ourselves in the most welcome position of pursuing killers with the purpose of defending their intended victims. We have them on the run and once they stop and attempt to whale we will be on them and we will stop them, as we have stopped them before and we will continue to stop them, halving their quota and costing them their bloody profits.
What better way to spend Christmas Day than saving the lives of such beautiful and uniquely marvellous beings as the whales.
And to add joy to this Christmas for all forty of us on this ship is in knowing that we have the support of so many people around the world who have made it possible for us to be here to be doing what we are doing.
Every whale we save is a whale that you save. Every blow we strike against the illegal profits of the whalers is a strike that you also have struck. In this great venture we are a team and it is a partnership that can change the way things are done on this planet - where we can challenge the arrogance and the ignorance of those who reap life and sow death for profit and culture.
If we can save just one whale from the harpoons it would be victory. However, like we did for the last two years, we intend to defend, protect, and save hundreds of these endangered and threatened giants.
As we enter a new year, we do so knowing that we are not down here alone. You are with us and for that we are deeply grateful. You give us the strength to be strong and the passion to be compassionate and the encouragement to be courageous.
Thank-you sincerely from my crew and I.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from the forty of us at the bottom of the world to all of you around this most beautiful blue and white sphere of life and diversity.
Sincerely,
Captain Paul Watson
Master - The Steve Irwin
Master - The Farley Mowat
Founder and President of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Christmas Message from the Captain of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin
My friends,
It is Christmas Eve down here off the coast of Antarctica and I can absolutely assure you that we are all having a very white Christmas. And it is a happy Christmas because there is no place else we would choose to be.
Not only is it a white Christmas with towering massive alabaster icebergs and heaving floes of cobalt blue ice, it is a magical Christmas as orcas, humpbacks, fins, blues and piked whales escort us through these seas, as albatross, petrels, and skua gulls fly along beside us. And on the floes, the penguins, primarily Adelie and kings comically "salute" us as we pass by.
Being in these waters is like being on another planet or in another dimension of time and reality where humans are a scarce species and the oceans teem with the diversity of life. The air is pure and smells alive and the waters even purer and moving with life.
I have spent five Christmas days since 2002 in this wondrous place and I love it here, love it perhaps more than any other place on Earth despite, or perhaps because of its isolation, its wildness, and its unpredictability.
To love something is to defend it - to be willing to fight and to die for it. And such is the love that I feel for the magnificent citizens of this vast frozen region that I have no hesitation in acting in their defence, whatever the consequences might be.
Ahead of us at this moment is a fleet of killers. Led by the ship I call the Cetacean Death Star, (formally known as the Nisshin Maru), and accompanied by three vicious harpoon vessels, they have only one purpose in these waters and that is to deliver an agonizingly cruel death to the intelligent and gentle giants that grace these waters.
We are here to save life and they are here to kill. Our purposes are clearly defined.
I do not hate these whalers. I do pity them that they can take life away so thoughtlessly and so casually without pause for remorse or reflection.
As Marc Anthony said in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of Earth that I am so gentle and mild with these butchers.
"
For gentle and mild we are indeed. Every fibre of my being wants to sink that obscene floating death factory, yet I must by necessity employ gentler tactics and a more complex strategy.
But every whale that dies pains me to the core of my being. I feel every harpoon and hear every scream. I smell the blood and the fear and I see the smirks of chauvinistic humanity as they pull the triggers of their harpoon cannons and mutilate the corpses with their lances.
Restrained by our own compassion and ideals of the sacredness of life, we intercept, harass, block and pursue, driven by the guilt we must endure as whales suffer and die because of our decision of practical restraint. We seek year after year to silence the harpoons and to silence the haunting screams of the whales through tactics that although somewhat effective require time to be truly effective and time is a commodity that the whales are running short of.
And as we willingly choose to abhor a violent solution we must suffer accusations that we are violent by these same mad killers who answer our non-harmful tactics with bullets and grenades. They accuse us of being violent as they spill thousands of steaming gallons of the hottest blood on Earth into the frigid waters of Antarctica and fill the polar air with the pitiful screams of whales dying in horrific agony.
Nothing is simple in this world where commerce is absolved for passing death sentences on intelligent socially complex gentle sentient beings and where diplomacy is used as an excuse to ignore the consequences of the slaughter of the gentle and the innocent.
On this day, the eve of Christmas, the day of love and respect, we find ourselves in the most welcome position of pursuing killers with the purpose of defending their intended victims. We have them on the run and once they stop and attempt to whale we will be on them and we will stop them, as we have stopped them before and we will continue to stop them, halving their quota and costing them their bloody profits.
What better way to spend Christmas Day than saving the lives of such beautiful and uniquely marvellous beings as the whales.
And to add joy to this Christmas for all forty of us on this ship is in knowing that we have the support of so many people around the world who have made it possible for us to be here to be doing what we are doing.
Every whale we save is a whale that you save. Every blow we strike against the illegal profits of the whalers is a strike that you also have struck. In this great venture we are a team and it is a partnership that can change the way things are done on this planet - where we can challenge the arrogance and the ignorance of those who reap life and sow death for profit and culture.
If we can save just one whale from the harpoons it would be victory. However, like we did for the last two years, we intend to defend, protect, and save hundreds of these endangered and threatened giants.
As we enter a new year, we do so knowing that we are not down here alone. You are with us and for that we are deeply grateful. You give us the strength to be strong and the passion to be compassionate and the encouragement to be courageous.
Thank-you sincerely from my crew and I.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from the forty of us at the bottom of the world to all of you around this most beautiful blue and white sphere of life and diversity.
Sincerely,
Captain Paul Watson
Master - The Steve Irwin
Master - The Farley Mowat
Founder and President of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Japanese Defenses on Whaling Are Cracking
Behind Japan's outspoken and irrational defense of whaling there is an undercurrent of dissent within the Japanese establishment.
This week the Sydeny Morning Herald reported that Tomohiko Taniguchi, the official voice of Japan for the last three years has expressed his views on Japan's controversial whaling activities.
Taniguchi was the voice for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo. His role was to speak to the international media every day. And he reports that of the hundreds of matters he had to deal with, that the one he dreaded most was defending Japanese whaling programs. It was part of his job to defend official policy.
"I was being summoned by CNN, BBC and ABC on this issue far more than any other issue," Taniguchi says. "I hated this issue because there's no point in Japan sticking to its position,"
Today Taniguchi is an adviser to Japan's Minister Foreign Affairs. But, since July, he is no longer an employed official, so he is free to speak his mind. And he does.
At the same time this may be official Japan's feeling the waters using Taniguchi big toe.
"The Japanese whaling industry generates revenues of 7.5 billion yen a year, which is $120 million at the current exchange rate. It's tiny."
Japan's economy, the world' second biggest, has an annual output of 515 trillion yen or $8.2 trillion. So whaling accounts for 0.0014 per cent of the national economy. Or less than one-tenth the value of the country's annual market for toothbrushes.
And the total number of people who derive a living from whaling, including dependents, is between one and several thousands in a country of 130 million.
"Japan has nil national interest in the whaling industry," Taniguchi
continues. "The stake for Japan is near zero. If Australians criticise
the Japanese auto industry, Japan must do everything possible to protect the auto industry. This is not the auto industry."
Taniguchi is writing a long piece for the Japanese magazine, Wedge, to ask Japanese citizens to consider the balance sheet of national interests. On the other side of the ledger, he contends, "this issue is doing substantial damage to Japan's image in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand", the entire English-speaking world.
The Japanese whaling fleet set sail this week for the annual slaughter in the Southern Ocean. According to the report in the Herald, the bad publicity has already started.
And the dissent is beginning to burst out of other seams in the Japanese establishment. In May, 2008 Taro Aso, then secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said if Australia's feelings towards Japan were hurt unnecessarily "only in order to sustain such a small industry", then Japan should "address this issue as quickly as possible", according to an official record of his remarks. Aso made fun of the whaling industry's pretensions to scientific legitimacy.
"Has anyone heard of any scientific results coming from Japan's whaling program?" he posed rhetorically.
When Aso became Prime Minister, it raised hopes that he would dispense
with the 500 million yen government subsidy that sustains the industry. But the whaling fleet is again on the high seas, and Aso's prime ministership is in difficulty.
Taniguchi hopes the whaling industry will fade away. Whale meat is not
a big seller, an uneconomic activity. About 80 Japanese parliamentarians support whaling, but it is a core issue for only six
to eight. With the Government's deficit worsening, the annual subsidy
becomes harder to defend. But Taniguchi advises Australia, and others,
not to press too hard, lest this only entrench Japanese political support for whaling.
This may explain why the Rudd Government is heeding this advice, and both countries are seeking to cool the issue. Japan is not sending Customs officials with this year's fleet, and Australia is not sending a Customs vessel in pursuit.
According to the Herald, many countries have an ugly blemish that mars the total image and makes other peoples recoil in distaste. China has Tibet, the US has Guantanamo Bay, Turkey has Armenian genocide, and Japan has whaling.
Uneconomic and increasingly costly to Japan's image, Taniguchi expects it will disappear in a few years.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society believes we need to keep the pressure on the Japanese fleet now that Australia has retreated from Greenpeace has surrendered to Japanese whaling interests.
"Economics is the key," said Captain Paul Watson. "We need to keep costing the whaling fleet their profits. We need to keep them spending more money and making less. We will end whaling and when we do Greenpeace will claim victory and the Australian government will claim they did it on their own. It does not matter. What matters is that we silence the harpoons in the Southern Ocean and that we save as many whales as we can this season with the resources available to us.
The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin will depart from Brisbane on November 30th for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
This week the Sydeny Morning Herald reported that Tomohiko Taniguchi, the official voice of Japan for the last three years has expressed his views on Japan's controversial whaling activities.
Taniguchi was the voice for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo. His role was to speak to the international media every day. And he reports that of the hundreds of matters he had to deal with, that the one he dreaded most was defending Japanese whaling programs. It was part of his job to defend official policy.
"I was being summoned by CNN, BBC and ABC on this issue far more than any other issue," Taniguchi says. "I hated this issue because there's no point in Japan sticking to its position,"
Today Taniguchi is an adviser to Japan's Minister Foreign Affairs. But, since July, he is no longer an employed official, so he is free to speak his mind. And he does.
At the same time this may be official Japan's feeling the waters using Taniguchi big toe.
"The Japanese whaling industry generates revenues of 7.5 billion yen a year, which is $120 million at the current exchange rate. It's tiny."
Japan's economy, the world' second biggest, has an annual output of 515 trillion yen or $8.2 trillion. So whaling accounts for 0.0014 per cent of the national economy. Or less than one-tenth the value of the country's annual market for toothbrushes.
And the total number of people who derive a living from whaling, including dependents, is between one and several thousands in a country of 130 million.
"Japan has nil national interest in the whaling industry," Taniguchi
continues. "The stake for Japan is near zero. If Australians criticise
the Japanese auto industry, Japan must do everything possible to protect the auto industry. This is not the auto industry."
Taniguchi is writing a long piece for the Japanese magazine, Wedge, to ask Japanese citizens to consider the balance sheet of national interests. On the other side of the ledger, he contends, "this issue is doing substantial damage to Japan's image in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand", the entire English-speaking world.
The Japanese whaling fleet set sail this week for the annual slaughter in the Southern Ocean. According to the report in the Herald, the bad publicity has already started.
And the dissent is beginning to burst out of other seams in the Japanese establishment. In May, 2008 Taro Aso, then secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said if Australia's feelings towards Japan were hurt unnecessarily "only in order to sustain such a small industry", then Japan should "address this issue as quickly as possible", according to an official record of his remarks. Aso made fun of the whaling industry's pretensions to scientific legitimacy.
"Has anyone heard of any scientific results coming from Japan's whaling program?" he posed rhetorically.
When Aso became Prime Minister, it raised hopes that he would dispense
with the 500 million yen government subsidy that sustains the industry. But the whaling fleet is again on the high seas, and Aso's prime ministership is in difficulty.
Taniguchi hopes the whaling industry will fade away. Whale meat is not
a big seller, an uneconomic activity. About 80 Japanese parliamentarians support whaling, but it is a core issue for only six
to eight. With the Government's deficit worsening, the annual subsidy
becomes harder to defend. But Taniguchi advises Australia, and others,
not to press too hard, lest this only entrench Japanese political support for whaling.
This may explain why the Rudd Government is heeding this advice, and both countries are seeking to cool the issue. Japan is not sending Customs officials with this year's fleet, and Australia is not sending a Customs vessel in pursuit.
According to the Herald, many countries have an ugly blemish that mars the total image and makes other peoples recoil in distaste. China has Tibet, the US has Guantanamo Bay, Turkey has Armenian genocide, and Japan has whaling.
Uneconomic and increasingly costly to Japan's image, Taniguchi expects it will disappear in a few years.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society believes we need to keep the pressure on the Japanese fleet now that Australia has retreated from Greenpeace has surrendered to Japanese whaling interests.
"Economics is the key," said Captain Paul Watson. "We need to keep costing the whaling fleet their profits. We need to keep them spending more money and making less. We will end whaling and when we do Greenpeace will claim victory and the Australian government will claim they did it on their own. It does not matter. What matters is that we silence the harpoons in the Southern Ocean and that we save as many whales as we can this season with the resources available to us.
The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin will depart from Brisbane on November 30th for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Scary times!
Excuse me while I rant! I had the worst experience trying to get gas today I barley believed it was happening. I had a doctors appointment and while I was on the way home I saw that I was dangerously low on gas. OK, I went to the station I usually go to, they also happen to be the cheapest. I waited in line for 35 minutes until I found out they ran out of gas. I stopped at 4 more stations only to find out the same thing. By this time I am near panic. If you guys know me you know I have had 3 hip surgeries in the past 18 months! I was in no mood to walk home!! The final station I arrived at was pretty close to home but it was also my last chance. I got in line. I actually got a good spot and was right at the pump. They had run out just as I got out to pump the gas. I had no idea what I was going to do. My spirit guide must have been looking over me. There was a gas truck pulling up to fill their tanks just as I was about to give up hope. I waited 45 minutes for them to finish. Of course, everyone that was there waiting tried to pump gas at the very same moment, bad idea! The tanks had to much air and needed to build up pressure before they started to work, all of them except mine of course. That turned out to be bittersweet. My pump just happened to be the only one working. I was getting some nasty comments from the woman in a Cadillac, none the less. The poor station attendant was running around like a mental case. He said he had to shut everything down and restart it so the rest of the pumps would work. I was almost done filling up and Mrs. Ugly started pointing at me and saying her pump is running. It's her fault, yadda yadda yadda. Man it got really ugly. Thankfully the guy running the station let me finish before he shut everything down. Looks like we are really in for some tough times. Bush can't seem to go away fast enough for me!!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Daily Zen
Talking about food won't make you full,
Babbling about clothes won't keep out the cold.
A bowl of rice is what fills the belly;
It takes a suit of clothing to make you warm.
And yet, without stopping to consider this,
You complain the Buddha is hard to find.
Turn your mind within! There he is!
Why look for him abroad?
- Han shan
Babbling about clothes won't keep out the cold.
A bowl of rice is what fills the belly;
It takes a suit of clothing to make you warm.
And yet, without stopping to consider this,
You complain the Buddha is hard to find.
Turn your mind within! There he is!
Why look for him abroad?
- Han shan
Sad Goobye to Collette
Statement from Captain Paul Watson....
We view the life of every Humpback whale
as valuable and if anything can be done to save the life of this young baby
Humpback than we encourage and support every effort to ensure that he survives.....
I would propose finding a small cove,
inlet or bay to keep Colin safe and then attempting to feed Colin with a
mixture of krill and small fish. Finding whale milk is difficult if not
impossible. If Colin is old enough to be weaned then this could work.....
It is of course an awesome task to care
for and provide life saving care to a whale. It truly is a whale of a task but
we can’t be faulted for trying, just for refusing to try.....
Australians have an opportunity
demonstrate that they do not just talk about saving whales but that they are
prepared to do whatever it takes to protect them, including this little orphan.....
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
wishes to work with the governments both Federal and State, the media, other
groups and concerned Australian citizens to mobilize an effort to save Colin.....
We can do this!....
Captain Paul Watson....
Sea Shepherd ..Australia..
Director Jeff Hansen began to mobilize a coordinated rescue effort with the
Australia Zoo and the government of ....New
South Wales.... as soon as he heard about the unfortunate
whale.....
Unfortunately the bureaucrats could not be bothered. They refused to
allow us to help Colin and they refused to attempt to feed him. They took the
easy way out and killed him.....
Killing is usually the first response of government bureaucrats when a
wild species is in trouble. They dismissed our help, they dismissed our
suggestions and they dismissed our pleas to spare the life of this baby
Humpback whale.
As I said before Colin was killed, we could not be faulted for trying
to save his life but the bureaucrats can be faulted for not even trying. ....
This tragedy underlies the political reality that the Rudd government
has abandoned their efforts to defend the whales from the lethal harpoons of
the illegal Japanese whaling fleet. The appeasement of the Japanese government
in the name of not upsetting trade will condemn hundreds of whales to an
agonizing death once again at the end of the year.....
We wish that we still had ..Senator..
Ian Campbell championing the whales as the Minister of Environment instead of a
man who did more as a rock star than he has done as a politician.....
Memo to Peter
Garrett....
Peter, did you check you balls at the door when you were elected? Why
not do one or two of the things you promised to? Now you’re
murdering kangaroos, kissing the ass of the Japanese whalers, backing pulp
mills, logging and dredging operations. What the hell happened man? Spitting on
the burning bed ain’t gonna put out the fire! When you played on the logging
road at Clayoquot I loved you man. When you spoke out in song and music for the
Earth, we adored you. But now, well now, you’re just another lying politician with
a self serving agenda. Redeem yourself while you still can – speak out like you
used to – hell all they can do is fire you but better to be a hero to the
people than a pawn to special interests. ....
We view the life of every Humpback whale
as valuable and if anything can be done to save the life of this young baby
Humpback than we encourage and support every effort to ensure that he survives.....
I would propose finding a small cove,
inlet or bay to keep Colin safe and then attempting to feed Colin with a
mixture of krill and small fish. Finding whale milk is difficult if not
impossible. If Colin is old enough to be weaned then this could work.....
It is of course an awesome task to care
for and provide life saving care to a whale. It truly is a whale of a task but
we can’t be faulted for trying, just for refusing to try.....
Australians have an opportunity
demonstrate that they do not just talk about saving whales but that they are
prepared to do whatever it takes to protect them, including this little orphan.....
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
wishes to work with the governments both Federal and State, the media, other
groups and concerned Australian citizens to mobilize an effort to save Colin.....
We can do this!....
Captain Paul Watson....
Sea Shepherd ..Australia..
Director Jeff Hansen began to mobilize a coordinated rescue effort with the
Australia Zoo and the government of ....New
South Wales.... as soon as he heard about the unfortunate
whale.....
Unfortunately the bureaucrats could not be bothered. They refused to
allow us to help Colin and they refused to attempt to feed him. They took the
easy way out and killed him.....
Killing is usually the first response of government bureaucrats when a
wild species is in trouble. They dismissed our help, they dismissed our
suggestions and they dismissed our pleas to spare the life of this baby
Humpback whale.
As I said before Colin was killed, we could not be faulted for trying
to save his life but the bureaucrats can be faulted for not even trying. ....
This tragedy underlies the political reality that the Rudd government
has abandoned their efforts to defend the whales from the lethal harpoons of
the illegal Japanese whaling fleet. The appeasement of the Japanese government
in the name of not upsetting trade will condemn hundreds of whales to an
agonizing death once again at the end of the year.....
We wish that we still had ..Senator..
Ian Campbell championing the whales as the Minister of Environment instead of a
man who did more as a rock star than he has done as a politician.....
Memo to Peter
Garrett....
Peter, did you check you balls at the door when you were elected? Why
not do one or two of the things you promised to? Now you’re
murdering kangaroos, kissing the ass of the Japanese whalers, backing pulp
mills, logging and dredging operations. What the hell happened man? Spitting on
the burning bed ain’t gonna put out the fire! When you played on the logging
road at Clayoquot I loved you man. When you spoke out in song and music for the
Earth, we adored you. But now, well now, you’re just another lying politician with
a self serving agenda. Redeem yourself while you still can – speak out like you
used to – hell all they can do is fire you but better to be a hero to the
people than a pawn to special interests. ....
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