Last year on the Animal Planet cable station, the Sea Shepard ship named the Steve Irwin, was filmed as it battled the Japanese for supremacy of the waters in the protected Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. By using non lethal methods, the Steve Irwin dogged the Japanese whalers through the hunting season. This whole adventure was filmed and played on Animal Planet.
In truth, it was beautiful to behold, as these people from the Sea Shepard harassed the whaling fleet so much, that the Japanese were only able to kill half of their quota of whales. Most importantly, the awareness generated by broadcasting Whale Wars, has let people all over the world, see how horrible modern whaling is.
Just in case anyone out there doesn’t know about whaling, here is a little rundown on why it continues.
The International Whaling Commission was formed in 1946 to regulate commercial whaling. Since 1986, however, with the stocks of whale populations so low, there was a virtual ban on whaling on all species. Although only voluntary membership is accepted, there are 82 nations that abide by the IWC rules. Japan is one of it’s members.
The loophole in the regulations are that, whales may be harvested for scientific purposes, with one of the goals being to find out if certain populations can withstand sustainable hunting. Under that banner, Japan continues to hunt whales, and sells the byproducts of it’s research on the open market. Of course, one of those byproducts is whale meat. The proceeds of these sales allow the funding of more research, as well as the vessels to harvest the whales, and you can see a vicious circle developing. The more whales that are harvested, the more money that comes in for research, etc. etc. etc.
The big deal with the research is this question, how much research is needed to be done to any whale group to find out all anyone needs to know? The contention is that, the research is only a disguise to allow Japan to continue the banned commercial whaling. Enter the Sea Shepard.
This dedicated group of environmentalists is doing something about this disguise by the Japanese whalers. They do everything they can in a non-violent way to stop the Japanese from killing whales. Which means doing incredibly dangerous things in an effort to get in the way of whales and harpoons, to name just one.
The Whale Wars show is riveting, to say the least. For years everyone has probably heard about the Sea Shepard crews, but no one really knew what they were actually doing to save the whales. It’s about as hands on as it gets, and me personally, I root for the Sea Shepard and the whales, every time I tune in.
Check out their website, and learn what they are doing to protect one of natures incredible animals at the Antarctic circle. Then make sure, next season, you watch the show.
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