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Japan asks Netherlands to act against anti-whalers

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and they expect the dutch to agree? unfortunately japan has not learned that animal cruelty is considered seriosly in europe..

5 ( +30 / -25 )

Awwwwww.... Poor whalers! Aggressively ramming much smaller vessels, then playing the usual victim card. It'll be fun to watch the "you're attacking our culture!" comments when the Dutch laugh in the face of these requests. Just think of the Japan response when asked to stop whaling WELL out of its waters, then times it by ten, but in laughter at the hypocrisy.

-9 ( +24 / -33 )

Hmm not sure if Holland will listen, they have enough problems of their own at the moment. In fact Sea Shepard while sailing under a Dutch flag is pretty much labeled by many Dutchies as being EcoTerrorists and the government dont want to ruin any relation with Japan.

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/sea-shepherd-could-lose-dutch-flag

8 ( +19 / -12 )

Bob Barker captain Peter Hammarstedt said the Sea Shepherd vessels were "unprovokedly attacked"

Haha. Yes travel thousands of kilometres with the single purpose of illegally interfering with and assaulting vessels at sea, and after doing so, it's "It wasn't us! It was them!" again. Credibility: zero. Misguided priorities: at the usual maximum extremist level.

by the Japanese harpooners in a "ruthless" fashion

Oh my what a colourful adjective. Could be an artist at work if he gave up his day job/cultural crusade.

4 ( +23 / -19 )

papigiulio, your 'news' is 4 years old.

Wasn't it only last year that the Dutch government prevented the transport of Icelandic whale meat en route to Japan? I don't think they're too much concerned about stepping on the toes of whale butchers.

4 ( +18 / -14 )

10 ( +11 / -1 )

The Dutch, unlike the Japanese whalers, don't hunt outside their territory. I don't support whaling at all, but at least the Dutch keep it within their waters.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

I don't support whaling at all, but at least the Dutch keep it within their waters.

What??

0 ( +8 / -8 )

How ludicrous. Sorry Japan, but international sympathy for whaling is at rock bottom

0 ( +11 / -10 )

I assume we will be seeing video footage soon to find out, who is ramming who and who is using which gadgets in the game.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Japan should give up this rubbish research and stop wasting tax payers money on a lost cause. They will never obtain the right to resume commercial whaling and the harder they try to justify it the bigger fools they look. Instead of wasting taxes on this farce they should be concentrating on getting the millions of displaced people of Tohoku back into real housing and working on alternative energy resources. Japanese whalers should just go home!

3 ( +13 / -10 )

Such naive attempt at disinformation. The rest of the world has seen raw uncut footage of the appallingly dangerous behaviour.

The whalers strategy reminds us of those insurance scammers, who walk out in front of slow moving cars and fein injury. No one in their right mind can take this seriously.

0 ( +13 / -13 )

footage shows that its the whalers that are doing the dangerous moves. theyre clearly postioning there boats in front of the SS vessels to let the factory ship escape. SS will find it again and itll start all over again. more time the whalers use in trying to stop SS the less whales they will catch. give them hell SS.

-1 ( +10 / -10 )

Why Japan so ignorant to the world wide anti-whaling world wide is out of character. Are you, Japan, is still a civilised country? You are losing that title year by year until you stop killing whales. Whales are property of human being and they belong to whole world, not belong to you, Japan. If other people do not want whales to be killed, stop kill them. You kill whales for your own benefit is equal to stealing. Why it is so difficult for some Japanese to understand this simple logic.

-7 ( +7 / -13 )

The video evidence is compelling, as evidenced by ship's wakes.

If there was only one collision, involving explicitly identified vessels, then man up and 'fess up, Suga san. You're an insult to your electorate's intelligence otherwise.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Arrest those SS idiots before they're causing real harm!

-3 ( +10 / -14 )

Bob Barker captain Peter Hammarstedt said the Sea Shepherd vessels were “unprovokedly attacked” by the Japanese harpooners in a “ruthless” fashion.

Do these idiots think anyone with half a brain cell believes this statement, when the whole world knows they have been down their provoking the Japanese every time they go whaling.

These guys have to be thick if they think they can provoke, antagonise, interfere with lawful acts, terrorise, throw acid, get in the way and generally be a flaming nuisance and call that unprovoked !!

Got only half of what they deserve I reckon and they are lucky it is the Japanese and not the Russians they are provoking.

2 ( +11 / -9 )

Would the sinking of a Japanese ship by ramming from a Sea Shephard ship be considered a terroristattack against the eco system due to the fuel oil and other materials on board the ship that would polute the ocean, kill wildlife and continue to do it for years on end, however, the Sea Shepards do not consider that as terrorism just as stopping Japan from doing what they have the legal right to do.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

The video evidence is compelling.

I agree. I see two SS vessels coming within an unsafe distance of another vessel for no reason other than to precipitate a ramming.

The SS's stated intention is to harass whaling ships. It obvious who is provoking the confrontation. Damages and injuries should be expected. If you are an "eco-warrior" then man the **** up and stop complaining that your activities resulted in a ramming.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

Japan will have to define what is meant by 'practical measures'.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

blue_monday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCKpq15qTI

Who is ramming who?

It's super clear in this video you linked. Unfortunately for Sea Shepherd, the only thing that matters is what the two ships were doing directly leading up to the collision and with the Yushin Maru 3 ahead and to the starboard of the Bob Barker, all fault lies with the Bob Barker because by navigational rules she is required to give way to the Yushin Maru 3.

Navigation Rule 15 - Crossing Situation: When two power-driven vessels are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, the vessel which has the other on her own starboard side shall keep out of the way and shall, if the circumstances of the case admit, avoid crossing ahead of the other vessel.

The skipper of the Bob Barker should lose his license.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

I'm curious as to what steps my government will undertake against Sea Shepherd. Last time Japan filed such a complaint it resulted in no more throwing of butyric acid (at least for a while) as a result of the Dutch government telling Sea Shepherd to either stop throwing the acid or lose the Dutch flag. Considering the very warm ties between The Netherlands and Japan, both on a governmental and royal level, I expect my government to give Sea Shepherd a warning. They might even declare a certain amount of distance between Sea Shepher and the whalers as a mandatory buffer in the future, or losing the Dutch flag. I suspect something along those lines will occur.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

It's pretty plain that the SS is the group causing the risk here and that they are the ones doing the ramming. They've crossed the line. The only good news is that nobody was hurt.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

“The sabotage activity was extremely dangerous,” Suga told reporters.

“It is unforgivable,” the top government spokesman said without elaboration. “As a government, we are asking the Netherlands, where the ship is registered, to take practical measures.”

The Dutch government previously attempted to remove the eco-terrorist SS from the Dutch ships registry. Maybe this time it will be successful. There are few (3?) nations left that will still allow the eco-terrorist SS to sail under their flag.

As it stands now, it appears that the Netherlands promotes and encourages it's flagged vessels to attack vessels of it's international trading partners.

It's the weasel faced capt of the Bob Barker who continues to resorts to unprovoked, and ruthless attacks so they can then whine about the whalers defending themselves from attack. I'm surprised that the eco-terrorist SS hasn't already sunk one of it's own garbage scows this year. Just as they did when the eco-terrorist SS cut the Ady Gil adrift, allowing it to sink in 2010.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Sure in that video it may look like the Japanese ship is cutting in front of the SS ship, but where is the longer footage of what led up to that situation? How are we to determine that the Japanese ship changed its course for the sole purpose of cutting them off? I'm sure that SS put themselves on a direct collision course with the whaling ship, which for all we know was heading in that direction for some time. Would very much like to see some footage from the Japanese ship of the events leading up to it.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Well, the latest development here is that the commission for social environment and transportation is going to investigate whether or not Sea Shepherd acted according to maritime law. Side note: according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the Japanese have not been very forthcoming with detailed information up to this point. Sea Shepherd on the other hand has already provided a full statement of the events that occurred.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It's the weasel faced capt of the Bob Barker who continues to resorts to unprovoked, and ruthless attacks so they can then whine about the whalers defending themselves from attack. I'm surprised that the eco-terrorist SS hasn't already sunk one of it's own garbage scows this year. Just as they did when the eco-terrorist SS cut the Ady Gil adrift, allowing it to sink in 2010.

Hey, come off the fence... hard to tell which side you're on, lol.

I think the Dutch should study the footage, ask a LOT of questions of both sides and THEN decide on what action to take. SS can be rash at times, but when you start ramming large vessels at sea (as it appears the whalers have been doing) that is just not on.

In the 1970s my country and Iceland were engaged in what was called the Cod War... and that got nasty, with fishing vessels ramming each other and naval vessels from both countries shadowing each other. THAT was bad... this is nowhere near that yet, but something has to give...

... and I hope it's the whalers who back down.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

The Whalers are there to take whales. Sea Shepherd are there to interfere with their operations and harass them. These objectives have been openly declared by both parties. The allegation that the whalers "rammed" the Sea Shepherd vessel is absurd since any action the whalers take is to protect themselves and their operation from Sea Shepherd's attacks. Sea Shepherd used subterfuge to evade the US federal Court order restraining them from even coming within proximity of the whalers. That the media continues to support these eco-terrorists is disgraceful. When the ICJ rules one way or the other this year, Sea Shepherd will have no business to carry out in the area.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Thunderbird2 - I think the Dutch should study the footage, ask a LOT of questions of both sides and THEN decide on what action to take.

It's been obvious for years that the Netherlands has been supporting the repeated acts of violence of the eco-terrorist SS by allowing the eco-terrorist SS to sail under the Dutch flag. I expect someone in the Dutch government to claim that the YM3/whalers/Japanese backed into the bow of the eco-terrorist SS garbage scow.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The maximum speed of Sea Shepherd vessels is 16 knots, enough to keep up with the Nisshin Maru, while that of the harpoon vessels is 20 knots. That being said, how were the Sea Shepherd vessels able to get into a position to entangle the harpoon ships, as the Japanese claim? The video backs this up. Not buying this one from Japan

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

The ICJ wont stop the sea shepherd, they will continue their mission! They pepared to be arrested to make headlines to embarass Japan!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

to be arrested to make headlines to embarass Japan!

Japan doesn`t need the arrest of Sea Shepherd members to embarrass itself

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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