Whale Wars

What is Whale Wars, you may ask. Well, I'm glad you asked me that.

It's a show on the Animal Planet about a group of quasi-pirate, definite moron, hippies from around the world who want to stop the Japanese from killing whales in Antarctic Water. The Japanese claim they are conducting scientific research while the Sea Shepherds (that's what these Rhodes Scholars call themselves) claim they are on solid legal ground in trying to stop the Japanese from whaling. They invited cameras aboard the ship to document the whole thing.

A little background, first. The founder of the anti-whaling group, Paul Watson, is a co-founder of Green Peace. But he was kicked out because, get this, he was too radical for Green Peace. Isn't that like the Republicans kicking out George W because he's too conservative? Maybe a better analogy is that he's the Malcolm X of the eco-terrorism, err, I mean, eco-defense world.

The name of the ship is the Steve Irwin. I'm sure he would have loved to be associated with this group of degenerates. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not in favor of whales becoming extinct. I just think that when people are willing to die to save a whale, it's a bit much for my tastes. When Captain Watson is asked about people risking their lives for whales, his response is that he doesn't see what's so unusual about that. How is that an answer? I'm sure lots of drugs are on board the vessel, but, come on, that makes no logical sense. If I don't see what's so unusual about something, that doesn't make it legal, or safe. For example, if a person says fighting a bear is not that unusual, that doesn't mean it's right. It means that person is a moron. But anyway.

Also on board are a few life long Sea Shepherds. Many of them have been to sea before and could even be called sailors. The rest of the crew are, from what I can tell, volunteer vagabonds from across the globe. Now, if there is anyone I'd like to sail to Antarctica with, it would be this group. Never mind that if anyone fell in the water, they would freeze to death before they could be rescued. Never mind that they want to attack Japanese whaling ships in international water. What could possibly go wrong?

Their plan is to throw stink bombs at the Japanese ships so that the whales that are already on board can't be eaten or used for scientific research. The Japanese, in an effort not to waste the already killed whales, eat the meat from the whales after they conduct their research. That's their claim, anyway. I'm not going to weigh in on that one at this time. But, back to our Sea Shepherds. They throw these stink bombs on board so that the whale meat cannot be eaten. So, in order to do more research, more whales need to be killed. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of stopping whales from being killed? Am I missing something?

I've only seen one episode, but in talking to Will McMillan and GW, they come up with a genius plan for some of the volunteer vagabonds to somehow climb aboard one of the Japanese ships and claim to be kidnapped. The end result will be the Australian government coming to their rescue. Apparently, the Aussies are willing to start an international incident over two morons who got on board a ship and then claimed to be kidnapped, all at the behest of a guy who was too radical for Green Peace.