Whale wars at its best

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Anti-whaling activists of the Sea Shepherd, Whale Wars, is on the headlines once again. T  hey claim the Japanese crashed their speed boat, the Ady Gil, in an "unprovoked attack," breaking it in half.

Still, there's nothing like some high seas dog fighting to make good television. I've got to hand it to the programming execs at Animal Planet who came up with this. All they needed to do is add some camera crews to Paul Watson's entourage, and then sit back and watch as all hell broke loose.

The Japanese "research" activities are just as suspect as Watson's crusade. I just hope that as folks watch this exciting drama unfold, they can find enough time in their busy TV schedules to worry about where their seafood is coming from.                                      t 

he news that a vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet has deliberately rammed and sunk a small vessel of the Sea Shepherd fleet in the open ocean will lift this issue to a whole new level. It could well lead to serious harm to diplomatic and other relations between Australia and Japan.

In looking at how things have come to this point, it is worthwhile outlining some background to public and government attitudes to the issue. The tension and antagonism around the annual hunt by Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean has been steadily increasing over a number of years.

The previous conservative government in Australia adopted a strong anti-whaling stance – in line with the views of the vast majority of the Australian public – but was either unable or unwilling to do more to try to bring about a reduction in the number of whales being killed each year. Given at least some of the slaughtering takes place in waters which the Australian government had (self)declared as a Whale Sanctuary, the failure to prevent or even hinder the amount of whaling did little to assuage public concerns.

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