Sea Shepherd vs. illegal trawler

It was an interesting read.

very informative and a great read

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kookaburrahz said..
thought it was just a stereotype they were all a bunch of dirty vegans hahaha good to see :D
quite eye opening only takes a 40 odd people to cause so much bloody devastation (the thunder crew that is)

The "Thunder" was only one boat of 9 in total, illegally fishing for Toothfish. Also its worth noting that sadly the crew really are mostly from poor third world nations. They were simply doing a basic job at best. The good news about this years bust and the pressure is that Sea Shepherd, authorities managed to entrap the owners (to a limited point) and the handlers/resellers of the catch.

Good news all round

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dmitri said..
^^ the money and resorses should be re directed to catch the owners and their clients, instead of spending it on the angry vegans doing "estupedo" stunts in the high seas witch BTW are far from being legal too.

The truth is that the authorities haven't been able to stop any illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean for decades. The Toothfish industry has been decimated and those "estupedo" vegans you mentioned managed to do just that. The last time our Government got involved with the Illegal Toothfish poachers we the tax payers had to settle them for millions in compensation for lost income.

Oh and one of the biggest commercial fishing companies for Toothfish have come and openly praised Sea Shepherd for their efforts in stopping the poachers. They even sent a ship to try support when the Sea Shepherds were outnumbered by the poachers.

Sorry but it was a great result thanks to those Stinky Vegans..

We had some " I & J packet" flathead fish and chips tonight, pretty good for a lazy Friday night
Tipping they weren't really flatty tails though, makes you think where they came from

Edit, just checked - South American Flathead fillets 56% (what ever that means?)

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SandS said..

yeah long live the Canadian guy that funds all this work !!!!!! .......We need an apprentice sea Shepard funding person ....

Unfortunately Sam Simon passed away recently.

Guys,
Please feel free to donate to Sea Shepherd, or buy some merchandise... It all helps.

shop.seashepherd.org.au/shop.html


Pretty much every cent goes to "the cause"!

"He said it would not be paid from donations received from supporters."

I'm guessing you didn't read that far.

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dmitri said..
Its BS. Unless you can tell WHO will pay.

contradicting yourself

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kiteboy dave said..

dmitri said..
Its BS. Unless you can tell WHO will pay.

contradicting yourself

I am calling this is BS: "He said it would not be paid from donations received from supporters."
I am asking if the money doesn't come from donations, so where it comes from then, do you know ?

I agree the donation money shouldn't be used and the crew should take responsibility for own actions.
How about they play the drawing straws game and the losers will sell their parents houses to pay the bill to the whalers

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dmitri said..

kiteboy dave said..

dmitri said..
Its BS. Unless you can tell WHO will pay.

contradicting yourself

I am calling this is BS: "He said it would not be paid from donations received from supporters."
I am asking if the money doesn't come from donations, so where it comes from then, do you know ?

I agree the donation money shouldn't be used and the crew should take responsibility for own actions.
How about they play the drawing straws game and the losers will sell their parents houses to pay the bill to the whalers

Maybe better to use RPGs on whalers

Great read.

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jbshack said;"The funniest part is people like yourself Dmitri say they are breaking the law, yet very rarely can anyone show were they have been charged or convicted of doing so. To be frank i know often they would prefer that they were taken to court. An example was when the "Save the tree alliance" jumped on board the Shona Maru two a few years back of Bunbury. They were never charged, one guy was arrested for outstanding fines but no charges. Sad because if they had been taken to court, they would have then shown that a Japanese Whaling vessel of only 10 miles of shore, well with in the 200 mile exclusion zone. So Japan would have been found to be illegally in Australian waters"

"So Japan would have been found to be illegally in Australian waters" - Under what law or jurisdiction would they be in breach of?

The Japanese were not indulging in fishing and the gear was correctly stowed, yes they were within Australia's 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone, Fishing Zone or Continental Shelf so what were they doing that was illegal?

Under the UN's Maritime Charter.

Coastal States (Australia) exercise sovereignty over their territorial sea which they have the right to establish its breadth up to a limit not to exceed 12 nautical miles; foreign vessels are allowed "innocent passage" through those waters;

Coastal States (Australia) have sovereign rights in a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with respect to natural resources and certain economic activities, and exercise jurisdiction over marine science research and environmental protection; All other States have freedom of navigation and overflight in the EEZ.

Coastal States (Australia) have sovereign rights over the continental shelf (the national area of the seabed) for exploring and exploiting it; the shelf can extend at least 200 nautical miles from the shore, and more under specified circumstances. All States enjoy the traditional freedoms of navigation.

So if the "Fishing" gear was NOT deployed and remained stowed away then the Japanese vessel was transiting from point A to point B and NOT engaged in fishing. So what were they doing that was illegal?

The tree huggers on the other hand illegally boarded a vessel conducting a lawful transit (this is known as Piracy in the South China Sea and around the Horn of Africa). The only reason it didn't go to court was $$$$$'s, the Captain and Crew of the Shona Maru would have been required in country to attend court (maybe for several days) and the tree hugging dropkicks would've copped a couple of hundred dollar fines and maybe had costs (that they couldn't pay) awarded against them, not exactly economically sound.

I find "The funniest part is" people claiming illegality where none exists.

Don't get me wrong, I abhor the practice of whaling be it by the Japanese or Norwegians targeting toothed or baleen whales in the Northern or Southern Hemispheres but IMHO it should not be left to a volunteer funded privateer organisation to make them stop.

Governments (World wide not just Australia) should be placing huge economic barriers in the way of these poachers so that it becomes no longer financially viable for them to continue.

There is absolutely no point in sending a warship down there, what can they do other than observe?

Sea Shepherd are a dedicated and loyal bunch of Pirates driven by good intentions (but the road to Hell is paved with good intentions) and on that they are to be congratulated, but they are vigilantes and show total disregard to the International Rules for the Prevention of Collision at Sea (IRPCS). If one of the Sea Shepherd or Japanese "Scientific Research" vessels had been holed and sunk in the Southern Oceans due to the blatant disregarding of the IRPCS, resulting in loss of life or an environmental incident where several hundred (thousand) tons of heavy fuel oil was spilt, they would be facing more than just a fine.

Japanese whaling vessels are not permitted with in the 200 NM zone. In fact Japanese whaling vessels are not allowed in many of the worlds oceans. Thats their biggest hurdle as to re fuel they can really only get fuel in Japanese waters or International zones. They are also not allowed to refuel below the 60th parallel but they can't re fuel above that because of the weather. The only argument they could have used is the Shona Maru was registered as a government security vessel, its possible that they could have pulled that card, but then they also would need to apply for permission to enter Australian waters with a "Ship of war" so to speak , as they had armed troops on board..

I saw this posted today regarding the first post.. Great news IMHO

www.theage.com.au/national/last-catch-for-polar-toothfish-pirates-20150806-git43a.html

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Rupert said..
Great read.

Sea Shepherd are a dedicated and loyal bunch of Pirates driven by good intentions (but the road to Hell is paved with good intentions) and on that they are to be congratulated, but they are vigilantes and show total disregard to the International Rules for the Prevention of Collision at Sea (IRPCS). If one of the Sea Shepherd or Japanese "Scientific Research" vessels had been holed and sunk in the Southern Oceans due to the blatant disregarding of the IRPCS, resulting in loss of life or an environmental incident where several hundred (thousand) tons of heavy fuel oil was spilt, they would be facing more than just a fine.

Just on this last one. So the law is that no transfer of fuel is allowed below the 60th parallel. Yet they had a fuel tanker and a mother vessel (that then transfers fuel to smaller boats also) doing just that. The 'MV Bob Barker" was along side the Nishan Maru steaming and YES blocking the illegal transfer of said fuel. Whats wrong with that. The Nishan Maru than rammed the fuel tanker, the Bob Barker in an attempt to break the International law. On a side note later when they did actually manage to transfer fuel, they spilt a huge amount..My point is once again no charges. WHY really if as you say the Sea Shepherds had no authority and were breaking the law why no court proceedings

Two years earlier whilst near the end of a campaign the MV Steve Irwin extended there stay down south to preform a life and death search for a missing yacht in distress. After a week of searching they no longer had enough fuel reserves to return safety to Australia so they were forced to take on fuel At McMerdo station. Sea Shepherd was charged and fined for not logging a fuel requisition for the transfer 3 months prior to setting sail. How stupid yet the Japanese get away with it for nicks..

Along with the fine from the Australian government, they also received a commendation of valour for their efforts in retrieving and performing the search. SO a fine and an award

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kiteboy dave said..
"A 600k fine handed down and a catch worth 1.8m forfeited".

A massive legal win after concerted effort by international authorities = fine worth 1/3 of 1 good catch. This is unfortunately the best the legal system can do. Fines need to be 10x higher.

Yeah the systems in place are so stupid.

Sea shepherd was taken to court by Fish N Fish for loss of stock. That stock was an illegal catch of Tuna that Sea Shepherd upon checking to find if they had a legal quota for them, was released Fish N Fish lost but it did cost SS a big whack of funds that they eventually got back through the courts.

Thats like a Bank robber suing someone for stealing his proceeds from a bank robbery he just stole himself