Whale Wars Update

It seems the Japanese government is using up a lot of diplomatic chips trying to take down Paul Watson, leader of the Sea Shepard Society. For nearly a decade,  Watson and his band of whale defenders have been a massive thorn in the side of the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters. 

There is an international ban on commercial whaling. The Japanese have finessed the ban by conducting what they characterize as research whaling.  Of course, it's a sham. The Japanese whaling is commercial, covered by a fig leaf with the words research printed on it.  Over the past eight years, Watson and his Sea Shepard band have seriously disrupted the Japanese 'Southern Ocean' whaling operation.  They have made it a big time money loser for the Japanese, while documenting their campaign as a reality TV offering on the Animal Planet Cable Channel.

The Japanese government is now trying to get the governments of Costa Rica and Germany involved in an extradition process that would deliver Watson, a Canadian citizen, into Japanese hands.  Thus far, it hasn't worked.  What it has done is prevent Watson from rejoining his crews for another season of disruption of Japan's whaling agenda.

I first wrote about Whale Wars in a blog dated  July 12, 2012.  I applaud Watson and his crews for their tenacious defense of whales from Japanese harpoons.   What the Japanese are doing is not research. It's commercial killing designed to turn a profit. Few Japanese people actually eat whale meat. The whale slaughter is not about feeding people.  It has one purpose: making money.  Watson and his whale defenders have killed that prospect. What we have now is the Japanese government pumping millions in subsidies into their sham research whaling operation in order to save face.   They have unleashed a diplomatic shit storm against Paul Watson.  What they cannot and never will get around is the fundamental decency of Watson's relentless defense of whales.

Here is a piece penned by Paul Watson that just appeared in the Guardian (U.K.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/aug/31/paul-watson-clients-whales