Japan announces intent to defy court order to stop "sci

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Yeah, Watson is an as*hole, but this is what you get when people get away with everything. You can't expect people to stand idly by while everything goes to sh**.

If Watson and the Sea Shepherds feel free to break the law whenever they wish, then they have no legitimate claim to having the moral high ground.

Breaking the law to stop others breaking the law.

Not that I consider myself to have the moral high ground, I have eaten eel and tuna as well while knowing they are endangered.

The tuna can I have here has some sustainable fishery label on it, and it's skipjack tuna. About breaking laws: sometimes breaking the law can be the right thing to do. Sometimes following or enforcing laws can be the wrong thing to do.

The whalers know that they are breaking the law. They shouldn't moan when some vigilantes show up and their ship gets bruised up a bit. That's like a burglar complaining that someone used excessive violence on him. Maybe the excessive violence was wrong, but I feel little sympathy.

That the Sea Shepherd nitwits think it is illegal is clear.

But is it really illegal? A moratorium was declared, but by the rules of the whaling commission, nations which objected to the moratorium are exempt from it.

Another moratorium was declared, but it does allow for research and so Japan only needs to make sure that their activity can qualify, no matter how slightly, as research. Furthermore, the moratorium itself may not be legal.

So it is far from clear that Japan is acting illegally by whaling in the area. It is quite possible that they are completely legal.

Only if you grossly redefine the term so that it means something much different than its accepted meaning.

An eco-terrorist is someone who use violence against people or property in furtherance of an ecological agenda. They are criminals who should be incarcerated.

the welfare of the whales is all too often an afterthought at best. humans have a long ways to go before they can be termed "civilized."

I think we should transition to test tube meat. They already made hamburgers from muscle cells of a cow. In the long run this will be cheaper, more animal-friendly, and less draining on the environment. Those whales take a while to die, it seems an extremely cruel way to get our food. And they are social animals as well, the other whales will miss their relatives.

I think we need to transition toward a plant based diet. There should be plenty of plant sourced nutrition available to sustain human life if we would stop sourcing so much of our produce to the production and harvesting of animals for humans to consume as food. This is unsustainable.

There was an interesting tv show on yesterday, where they served a hamburger made from seaweed and insects or insect larvae, which are all low on the food chain (unlike cattle, tuna etc) so they would need less resources for them and it would be healthier too. I may post more later but I got to run.

In march this year the International Court of Justice ruled that the scientific reseach excuse was BS and that Japanese whaling is now banned completely. Of course this does not give the Sea Shepherd idiots free reign to stop them.

The Court finds that JARPA II can broadly be characterized as “scientific research”. It then examines whether its design and implementation are reasonable in relation to achieving the programme’s stated research objectives.

...

After an extensive examination of the determination of species-specific sample sizes, the Court notes that the evidence relating to JARPA II provides scant analysis and justification for the underlying decisions that generate the overall sample size, raising further concerns about whether the design of JARPA II is reasonable in relation to achieving its stated research objectives.

The Court also observes a significant gap between the JARPA II target sample sizes and the actual take. In the view of the Court, the gap between the target sample sizes for fin and humpback whales in the JARPA II Research Plan and the actual take of these two species undermines Japan’s argument that the objectives relating to ecosystem research and multi-species competition justify a larger target sample size for minke whales, as compared to that in JARPA.

...

Taken as a whole, the Court considers that JARPA II involves activities that can broadly be characterized as scientific research, but that “the evidence does not establish that the programme’s design and implementation are reasonable in relation to achieving its stated objectives”. The Court concludes that the special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking and treating of whales in connection with JARPA II are not “for purposes of scientific research” pursuant to Article VIII, paragraph 1, of the Convention.