"One Animal Researcher Refuses to Hide "

[The Grand Nudger]

Hey hey now, I'm not talking about trying to sink them, thought I made that clear when I repeated that the law states that they cannot attack them. Trouble only arises when they put themselves and the whalers ship and crew in danger by crossing the T, as it were, or by boarding. I don't think Greenpeace has ever been accused of this, they keep it pretty clean (with regards to UNCLOS). Some other more militant organizations have done such things. In the event of a collision in those circumstance the crew that caused this will be pulled out of the water by the other ship (as you've said, it's not catastrophic), but they will not be compensated for the loss of their ship and may face charges when they get to shore (and can be detained until shore is made). Boarding is another issue entirely. The only ships that have a right to board are warships of a sovereign nation in territorial waters, warships in hot pursuit in any waters (there's an official definition of "hot pursuit"), and warships in international waters conducting a search on the basis of suspicion of illegal activity. If a ship is being involuntarily boarded by anyone else the law does state that the crew has a right to defend themselves, and as I've said, at 0-dark thirty it could be difficult to distinguish a protesters act from that of a pirates acts...the fact that protesters who board ships are not often shot shows that the crews of these whalers do exercise a fair amount of humanity and common sense (although I do recall a recent news story where a whaler crew member did open fire on a boarding protester).

This whole situation is slimey. The ships that engage in whaling activities are clearly circumventing conventions and playing word games with the law. I wouldn't ever argue that they weren't, or that their activities aren't completely reprehensible. Most protesters take appropriate action (appropriate action doesn't even require one to be at sea, let alone endanger themselves or others at sea..this is a legal matter that is best handled in a court), there are those who don't. These people are no more "in the right" than the whalers, and sadly are even less so, as the whaling ships have greased their way past the law to be legal and these militant protesters are engaging in activities that are usually reserved for acts of piracy. I don't see why it should have even come to this, whale better be seriously fucking tasty for all the trouble it's caused between these groups of people.