Following is my summary from an editorial in Norwegian paper Fiskaren:
“In October many celebrities will gather to celebrate 30 years with Sea Shepherd, including Mick Jagger, Martin Sheen, Orlando Bloom , Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan among other super stars together with their cheque books.
Norway has been under heavy international criticism for its whaling policy. To counter this , Norway has presented facts after facts to defend its whaling policy. Even if the Embassies will not be attacked by anti-whalers, what consequences will show up if a new “whale war” blows up?
Probably it will mainly harm the seafood industry and the country’s image.
Sea Shepherd will arrange the history’s biggest “ Save the Whale’s Party”.
Sea Shepherd might feature images of the attacked whalers “ the Nybraena”, “ the Willassen Senior” and “ the Elin –Torild” on the big screen and as well featuring video sequences of whale’s dying in agony to the tunes of Rolling Stones.
The revenues from this gala evening will be bigger than the revenues from Norwegian whaling. Revenues that can pay new ships, direct actions and media campaigns.
With James Bond and Mick Jagger in the frontlines it might be a tough battle for Norway.
However, the Coastal Party, that represents most whalers, made this statement after the sinking of the Norwegian whaler, “Norwegian authorities must now act to promote minke whaling , as a means to save fisheries in the North. It’s a traditional, sustainable and eco-friendly industry that international extreme animal rights activists mustn’t ruin”.
Ann Novek
Sweden
"" Greenpeace is refusing to outline its plans until mid-October but Mr Watson believes its ship, the Esperanza, will trail the fleet south all the way from Japan. "
I once asked Shane Rattenbury from GPI , why they didn't trail the Japanese fleet from the port in Japan, he then told me that it was very difficult due to logistics( problems with the fuel).
" Meet the man who hunts the whalers" ,
Link to the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/meet-the-man-who-hunts-the-whalers/2007/09/28/1190486574239.html
" "I think we have to take a more aggressive position against [the whalers]," Mr Watson told the Herald.
" Greenpeace is refusing to outline its plans until mid-October but Mr Watson believes its ship, the Esperanza, will trail the fleet south all the way from Japan. He dismisses Greenpeace's extraordinary recent record of raising awareness of the hunt by video."
"We all know it's going on. What are we going to do to stop it? That's the point. I will not roll a camera while a whale dies. I don't care how valuable that is. Anyway, we've never seen a whale killed, because when we show up, they don't kill whales. They run. You notice that when Greenpeace shows up, they just carry on. Business as usual."
""Japan already leaned on Holland hard to try to get the Dutch flag off us," he says. He says the tables were turned at a meeting in The Hague in July and the Dutch complained about Japan's illegal whaling"
In evidence of Japan's determination to continue whaling, the Government-owned fleet is expected to be joined by a new chaser ship launched last month.
Mr Watson dismissed its importance. "We're going to concentrate on the Nisshin Maru," he says. "Because if you can stop the factory ship, you stop the operation."
I know of no opinion polls that have asked such a question.
Hi David,
"In Japan a new Prime Minister (71-year old son of a former PM, Fukuda-san) is about to take over from Abe-san."
What do younger Japanese think of having such an "old" leader?
A rough translation from Norwegian media this morning.
Paul Watson is no threat to Norwegian whaling , according to the Secret Service. To be that he must turn out to be a fundamentalistic islamist.
So eco- terrorism and Paul Watson are not mentioned as threats to Norwegain whaling as was the case back in the 90's.
Before the sabotage to the Willassen Senior, it was estimated that threre had been no threat to whalers for about a decade.
Iceland is still whaling apparently:
http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/allweb/135756CE6499F81B8025735D002ACAD8
In Japan a new Prime Minister (71-year old son of a former PM, Fukuda-san) is about to take over from Abe-san. Not sure what this means for decision making with regards to whaling policy, but I presume leadership change means a bit of policy paralysis, and the ruling party has likely got much bigger fish to fry at the moment...
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your respons...
Yes indeed many are angry with Paul Watson, including Greenpeace , as they believe he sets back the work of the "anti whaling cause" with a decade.
Some people believe the time for direct actions on the sea and sabotaging whalers is over...
Some people get a nice warm feeling when a whaler is sunken but the real result is the opposite. This is something PW doesn't understand...
Btw, I wrote in a whaling thread that I was not opposed to his sinking of the pirate whaler " the Sierra" . The difference here is that he attacks national property , which only will fuel nationalism.
Maybe if he really wanted to make a difference for the marine life , he could sink some illegal trawlers up in the Barents Sea....
Guaranteed action !!! Russians, Spaniards, Norwegians, the Coast Guard , the Mafia etc.