Sea Shepherd permanently abandons Antarctic whaling face-off over Japanese military fears

[Goonch]

Activist group Sea Shepherd is abandoning its annual face-off with Japanese whaling ships in Antarctic waters, saying it has little chance of success against Japan's economic and military might.

The end of the 12-year campaign means Japan will continue its so-called "scientific" whaling program without the group trying to physically prevent the annual slaughter, which takes place despite loud international protest.

Japan reportedly intends to take about 4000 whales over the next 12 years in the name of "research", and ultimately plans to resume commercial whaling.

In a statement, Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said Japan had doubled its hunting grounds in the Southern Ocean and reduced its annual whale-kill quota to 333, giving its fleet "more time and more area to kill".

He said Japan was also using "military" tactics in the form of real-time satellite surveillance to track Sea Shepherd ship movements, "and if they know where our ships are at any given moment, they can easily avoid us … we cannot compete with their military grade technology".............


http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/sea-shepherd-permanently-abandons-antarctic-whaling-faceoff-over-japanese-military-fears-20170828-gy5phn.html

[MineralMan]

1. A wise move on their part, I think.

[defacto7]

2. Japanese culture

I can love it, admire it yet sometimes I just can't understand how some Japanese people can be so dim to the plight of the planet and can be that way for useless stupid reasons.

[Goonch]

5. Japanese H-IIA rocket launches latest IGS spy satellite March 16, 2017 by William Graham

Japan’s H-IIA rocket has lofted the next in a series of new-generation radar imaging satellite for the country’s military. The launch of latest IGS-5 spacecraft lifted off on schedule at 10:20 local time (01:20 UTC) on Friday, setting sail from the first pad of the Tanegashima Space Centre’s Yoshinobu Launch Complex.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/03/japanese-h-iia-rocket-latest-igs-launch/

[hack89]

6. My bad. Will delete nt

[roody]

4. Sad news, but

Sea Shepherd is busy doing other good things for marine life.
http://www.seashepherd.org/

[Goonch]

7. Vessels depart for minke whale hunt off northeastern coast of Japan

The Japan Times





https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/07/18/national/vessels-depart-minke-whale-hunt-off-northeastern-coast-japan/

[aikoaiko]

8. It made for some mediocre reality television.

The more I watched the show, the less sympathetic I was to the Sea Shepherd crew.

The SS crew was lucky that the Japanese crews were very tolerant and peaceful toward them even when they boarded or attempted to disable the Japanese ships.