Whales and Wiener Dogs

Sea Shepherd is accusing Japanese whalers of intentionally ramming and sinking their high-tech carbon fiber catamaran Ady Gill (video below). However, it remains unclear if the boat is actually sinking. One of the Sea Shepherd crew appears to have suffered some broken ribs.

Sea Shepherd Ship "Bob Barker"

A. It’s no longer a Secret, and
B. Yes, it’s named after Bob Barker (a million dollar donor to Sea Shepherd…The Price Was Right! (sorry)).

Modest Mouse just released an anti-whaling music video that was conceived and directed by Heath Ledger. In it, the tables are turned, and a boat full of whales hunts and harpoons swimming humans, and then they graphically remove the flesh from their bodies.

According to the official Modest Mouse web sheet:

In January of 2007, while visiting his homeland of Australia, Heath Ledger presented Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse with an idea to direct a video for their yet-to-be-released song ‘King Rat’. Heath’s vision, brave and unapologetic in its nature, would marry his love of bold and original music with his impassioned stance against the illegal commercial whale hunts taking place of the coast of Australia each year. Always one to operate from his heart and take a stand for what he cared deeply about, Heath’s intention was to raise awareness on modern whaling practices through a potent visual piece without having to say a word. It was his way to let the story, in its candid reversal, speak for itself.

The film was completed posthumously by a production company that Heath was affiliated with, and iTunes proceeds from the first month will go to the good people at Sea Shepherd.

You know, no matter how many chances I give Modest Mouse, they never quite turn my crank. Them and Radiohead. Yeah, that’s right. I said I don’t like Radiohead. More precisely, I don’t love them. But this Modest Mouse song isn’t terrible, just like the rest of their work. And the video’s a little heavy-handed, but it hates whaling, and that’s all that matters!

Don’t know why those whales aren’t harpooning human beings who are clearly and obviously Japanese, though.

The man has a big head...seriously, his head a like a basketball with an Andy Warhol wig

I’m surprised that Paul Watson from Whale Wars doesn’t have green skin, because that man is puuuuuuuuuure money!

He’s been trolling the Animal Planet Whale Wars message boards to his “great amusement.” Here are some highlights from his blogged reaction to all you haters:

• Of the haters, “A few of the critics are professionals paid by the Japanese whaling industry to pollute the Internet with their blogs.”
• “I so love to piss people off, as it helps to stimulate their wee little brains and it helps to make some people think”
• “The Whale Wars forum reminds me of what Senator Phil Gramm of Texas said recently when as an advisor to the McCain campaign he declared that America had become a “nation of whiners.”
• No, he’s not doing it for himself…don’t you think that for a minute. “I am only writing this at the bequest of some of our supporters who requested that I do so”
• “As a ship’s captain, I don’t have to answer to every armchair whiner with a brew in his hand and some Cheetos in the other”
• He’s not standing on the shoulder’s of giants…vice versa, “I also know that I have commanded more voyages to the Southern Ocean and the coast of Antarctica than Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen combined.”
• “My great, great Uncle, a famous poet in the Klondike once said, ‘talk is cheap, it takes money to buy whiskey.’”
• Clearly he’s heard many people talk like a sailor, for he himself says, “In other words, produce the evidence to back the accusations or else you’re nothing more than a two-bit gossipmonger grousing over the picket fence to some other loser who validates himself by spewing ignorance like vomit onto his tie. On the sea we call such self-appointed experts “t’ween deck lawyers” not fit to lick leftovers from the scuppers.”
• What he says here is completely logical, “Any accusations that Sea Shepherd is a violent organization cannot be backed by real evidence. Does Sea Shepherd destroy equipment used in illegal activities to kill whales and to poach fish? The answer is yes. Is this illegal or violent? The answer is no. If it were illegal we would be arrested. If it were violent someone would be hurt.”

But there does seem to be plenty of evidence to support his assertion that Sea Shepherd saved some whales from Japanese scientists.

This pic of Christian Bale wearing a Sea Shepherd t-shirt was at LAX. That’s not Jennifer Biel with him…That’s his wife.

Christian Bale used to be a vegetarian.

You can't change your name from Barack to Barry if your last name is Obama!

Some other whale-related happenings from around the globe:

• President Obama, whose favorite book is Moby Dick, has decided NOT cut but a $9 million program to promote the history of whaling in Massachusetts from the budget (Durango Herald)
• Sea Shepherd wants you to boycott South African wines until the man who ordered over forty beached whales euthanized is fired (Sea Shepherd).
• An Exxon oil tanker had a dead humpback whale on its bow when it arrived at the Valdez marine terminal in Alaska - Yes, THAT Valdez (Reuters)

A group called Agenda 21 scuttled this Norwegian whaling boat (Foto: STOCKSHOTS.NO)

Depending on your perspective, Agenda 21 are either eco-terrorists or righteous eco-warriors. But either way, the group is claiming responsibility for scuttling the Norwegian whale-hunting vessel Skarbakk on April 23. It appears that members of the group entered the boat at Henningsvaer in the Norwegian Lofoten Islands and flooded the engine room. Firefighters arrived in time to save the boat from sinking, but not before the ship’s machinery and electrical systems were ruined.

There seems to be little real English-language reporting of the incident (that I can find). Perhaps more though will be available in the coming days. As of right now, some of the better English-language info I can find comes, not surprisingly, from Sea Shepherd, which posted a brief blog entry here on April 27 (you have to scroll through entries until you get to this particular post).

There are a number of interesting items, however, in the Sea Shepherd blog post:

Sea Shepherd seems to know exactly how the sabotage was carried out. “With a monkey wrench they disassembled the salt-water intake valve (used for cooling the main engine). They then opened the valve and flooded the engine room.”

They also explain the strategy behind the attack. “This scuttling represents losses for the ship’s Norwegian underwriters and for Japanese investors who were partners with the owner of the Skarbakk…This brings to 6 the number of illegal whaling boats sabotaged in Norway. These regular attacks have kept insurance premiums at exceptionally high rates. All whaling vessels in Norway have to pay war insurance premiums to operate their whaling vessels.”

And…they don’t really go out of their way to disassociate themselves from this “Agenda 21″ group:

Agenda 21 is a covert group that takes its name from the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Environment. Captain Paul Watson said at the conference that if Norway did not comply with international conservation law that Sea Shepherd would sink their ships. Captain Watson supervised the sinking of the Nybraena in 1992 and the Senet in 1994 [the first two ships that were scuttled]. After that the covert and anonymous organization Agenda 21 based in Norway took over the responsibility of enforcing international law against illegal Norwegian whaling operations.

“We don’t know who they are, and we have no forewarning of their plans,” said Captain Paul Watson. “But we do applaud their efforts, these laws must be enforced and Norwegian whalers are in blatant violation of the worldwide ban on commercial whaling. We are happy that Agenda 21 took over this task back in 1996 with the scuttling of the Elin-Toril [the third]. If I knew who they were, I’d give them a medal. It’s always better when these things are taken care of by citizens in their own country and the Norwegians who are battling the whalers are like the resistance fighters who once took on the Nazi’s in Norway - brave men and women trying to defend lives from war criminals. In today’s whale wars, those who slaughter the whales are criminals and no different than elephant poachers in Africa. Except in Africa they shoot the poachers

If you can read or understand Norwegian, there’s some text and video about the incident here.

Here’s the full text of the note Agenda 21 left behind:

“APRIL 24, 2009
HENNINGSVAER, NORWAY - WHALING SHIP SUNK

ON THE EVENING OF THE 23RD OF APRIL WE SNUCK ONTO A NORWEGIAN WHALING SHIP MAKING REPAIRS IN THE LOFOTEN ISLANDS IN
PREPARATION FOR THE 2009 WHALING SEASON. TO DELAY THE KILLING SEASON AND TO PROTEST THE CONTINUED ILLEGAL EXPORT OF WHALE MEAT TO JAPAN WE DISASSEMBLED A VALVE AND FLOODED THE ENGINE ROOM. UNFORTUNATELY LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS WERE ABLE TO RESPOND JUST MOMENTS BEFORE THE SHIP SETTLED ON THE BOTTOM BUT NOT BEFORE THE SHIP HAD ALREADY BEEN COMPLETELY FILLED WITH SEA WATER AND THE DAMAGE DONE. FOR BOTH FISHERIES INVESTORS IN TOKYO AND INSURANCE UNDERWRITERS IN OSLO INVESTING IN THE NORWEGIAN WHALING INDUSTRY CAN ONLY LEAD TO SUNKEN PROFITS. AS A DIRECT RESULT OF A GROWING INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES WE CAME TO HENNINGSVAER. WE SAW THE SKARBAKK.

WE SANK THE BASTARD. -AGENDA 21″

The Earthrace, super fast and eco-friendly (Photo Peter Faretra)

In 2008, the Earthrace (pictured above) broke the record for fastest waterborne circumnavigation of the globe by a good two weeks. It’s max speed is 40 knots and it can cruise the open oceans at 20 knots for up to 2,000 miles. Now, Earthrace skipper/owner Pete Bethune has confirmed he’s in negotiations with Sea Shepherd to sell them the boat, which is on the market for $1.5m.

The Sea Shepherd ship The Steve Irwin has a max speed of only 16 knots. The theory is that with the Earthrace, Sea Shepherd could harass Japanese “research” whaling vessels faster and longer.

Darryl Hannah, star of Splash (above) and Shark Storm

Back in December, Darryl Hannah joined the crew of the Steve Irwin as it set out to obstruct Japanese “research” whaling vessels. She wanted to stay for the full campaign, but could only stay a week due to film commitments.

This year, Greenpeace chose to sit it out and let the Steve Irwin go it alone against the Japanese. Darryl Hannah called shenanigans on that!

If Greenpeace would join forces with Sea Shepherd they would shut down the whaling industry right away. If they were really serious and held their convictions they could accomplish this.

The Japanese wanted to kill 50 fin whales, but they only got 1.

The big news today is that Japan killed far fewer whales than they set out to kill during this year’s “Scientific Whale Killing Season To Put Whale Meat On Supermarket Shelves And Restaurant Menus.”

They killed 679 of the 850 minke whales they wanted to kill, and only one of the 50 fin whales they planned to hunt. According to the Japanese themselves - not Sea Shepherd - the Japanese hunt was thwarted by the activist group’s efforts to hinder them, including a collision with one of the Sea Shepherd’s vessels.

And they also ran into a lot of bad weather.

I read yesterday that during all this, a Japanese “researcher” fell overboard and was not recovered. Sea Shepherd offered to help in the rescue effort, but were told no thanks. The Japanese later said that they were actually getting in the way. You can watch all this on Animal Planet in June.