Sea Shepherd Piratical? Hardly.

Japanese whale "researchers" have persuaded a U.S. judge to declare the Sea Shepherd organization piratical.

 The ruling was issued on Wednesday by chief judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th US circuit court of appeals.

In his 18-page opinion, he wrote: "You don't need a peg leg or an eye patch. When you ram ships; hurl containers of acid; drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders; launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate, no matter how high-minded you believe your purpose to be." 

Had this ruling come from a country whose justice system had a shred of integrity this ruling would be more worrisome but, it didn't, it was an American court.

Piracy, really?   What is piracy on the high seas after all but unsanctioned privateering?   That's certainly what was on everyone's mind when it was outlawed by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.  It's commerce raiding, pillaging.   There's no element of that whatsoever in the Sea Shepherd campaign against Japanese south ocean whaling masquerading as scientific research.

If anyone is doing any pillaging, it's the Japanese.   They're privateers operating under the sanction of their government that hasn't read the memo that privateering itself has been outlawed since 1856 under the Declaration of Paris.

And the Japanese aren't alone.  Other nations, including Norway, also support whaling.   Many other countries simply turn a blind eye as their commercial fleets destroy one fishery and then move on to the next.

Why did the American court get involved in this?   Because it now provides a vehicle to hunt down the Sea Shepherd ships and leave Japanese whalers to their bloody business, unwatched, unchallenged and unmolested.

Whaling Activists Held Hostage

In the Antarctic Ocean yesterday two Sea Shepherd activists boarded a Japanese whaling ship. They were there to inform the Japanese their whaling was illegal and to demand the ships left the hunting grounds.

The Japanese crew responded by seizing the activists and locking them up. Sea Shepherd claims the pair were first lashed to the ship's mast for two hours before being taken below.

Australia, which claims jurisdiction over these waters, has contacted Japan demanding that the activists be released and, as of yesterday, it seemed they would be returned to their own ship.

Now, it turns out, the Sea Shepherd crewmembers are being held hostage. Captain Paul Watson told Reuters that the Japanese have said they won't release the activists until the get Watson's undertaking not to use his ship against them (ramming) and to keep the Sea Shepherd vessel at least 10 nautical miles distant at all times.

The Antarctic Ocean Heats Up - Sea Shepherd vesus Japanese Whalers

The latest run-in between Japanese whalers and anti-whaling Sea Shepherd activists has been nothing if not dramatic.

Two of the Sea Shepherd crew - an Australian and a Briton - were grabbed as they attempted to board the Japanese whaler. A report from The Times of London claims the two were mistreated:

"The incarceration of Giles Lane and Benjamin Potts, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, follows their attempts to board the Yushin Maru No 2 — a vessel engaged on Japan’s hugely controversial “scientific” pursuit of minke and fin whales.

According to their fellow activists, watching from a helicopter, the two men endured a two-hour ordeal during which they were strapped to the mast of the Japanese vessel.
With the ship now steaming away, Paul Watson, the captain of the protestors’ flagship, the Steve Irwin, told The Times that it was now “very hard to imagine getting our two missing crew members back any time soon”. He called on the Governments of Britain and Australia to demand the immediate return of its citizens."

Hours earlier an Australian court ruled Japan's whale hunt illegal and ordered the ships to leave the Antarctic hunting grounds.

First Period - Whalers 1, Sea Shepherd 0

Sea Shepherd's fleet has finally closed with Japanese whalers in the Antarctic.

Unfortunately the Japanese came through the first encounter rather well.

The Sea Shepherd vessels, MV Farley Mowat and MV Robert Hunter clashed with the whalers today sending fast inflatable boats in close to disrupt the Japanese ships. One boat, crewed by an Australian and American, sought to foul one ship's propeller but got too close and collided with the ship, damaging the boat.

When the helpless protesters radioed for help they found their radio didn't work. Meanwhile the rest of the small boat flotilla had passed them by and they quickly got smothered in freezing fog, snow and sleet. The men eventually managed to lasso an iceberg to shelter from heavy winds and keep them from drifting away.

When the disappearance of the men was noticed, the Japanese suspended their hunt and took part in a joint search with the Sea Shepherd ships. They did this even though Sea Shepherd protesters had thrown six litres of acid on their flensing deck injuring two Japanese crewmen.

Sea Shepherd is right to protest the Japanese whaling. It's right they're doing it and we should be grateful to them. But are their tactics defensible? Is throwing acid at another human being justifiable? What if the Japanese decide to use firearms to defend themselves?

To my way of thinking, the resort to acid and the subsequent Japanese decision to assist in the search for the missing protesters, gives the first round squarely to Japan - and that's just sad.