Needlenose

Truth is stranger than fiction! None other than Bob Barker of 70s and 80s TV game show fame has come to the rescue of Sea Shepherd, through a $5 million gift to go buy a boat that won’t get crushed in the ice in Antarctic waters.  And believe it or not, the new ship, the ‘Bob Barker’ has already proven it’s worth – it came to the rescue of several crew members of their little ‘attack’ vessel the Ady Gil after said boat was deliberately rammed by a whaler.

While I like and support Sea Shepherd’s work, I’m no big fan of their founder, Paul Watson.  Case in point, he’s equating the potential end of Japanese Antarctic whaling with the end of commercial whaling:

“Whaling was shut down today,” Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said via satellite phone from aboard a nearby ship. “There’s no whaling now and hopefully no whaling after this.”

Well…what about Iceland?  What about Norway?  What about so-called Russian & U.S. “traditional” indigenous whaling?  I think his organization would have a much easier time putting pressure on those countries and shutting down whaling faster than playing faux pirate in the Antarctic waters with the Japanese cast as the only villains.

Anyway, hopefully Bob Barker’s courageous donations will be a clarion call that will inspire other game show hosts to donate additional money and tools to pro-environmental groups…how about a 16 inch/50 caliber Mark 7 naval gun for the new ship?

I’ve been raging for some time about Japan not only flauting the IWC ban on commercial whaling but actively seeking to overturn the moratorium.  But the Iceland has not only left the IWC, but is now flagrantly and egregiously whaling like mad and exporting the product to Japan…and they are doing this at a loss!

Those Sea Shepherd dudes are really wasting their time hunting around the Antarctic for the Japanese fleet – they would have a much easier time going after Thor Codbiter in the Atlantic, and maybe get some public interest in the EU and the US around boycotting Icelandic goods.  Given Iceland’s current crappy economy, I seriously doubt it would take much of a boycott to get them to stop this one measly company’s depredations on fin and minke whales!