www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/world/a-renegade-trawler-hunted-for-10000-miles-by-vigilantes.html?emc=edit_na_20150728&%20lid=66917898&%20ef=cta&%20r=0&_r=0

Interesting read.

It was an interesting read.

Great read and a bit of an antidote to the Cecil story - not all humans suck. And not all humans that suck get away with it.

very informative and a great read

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)

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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

^^ 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.

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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..

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

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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shoodbegood said...
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?)

I bought some supermarket "flathead" and threw it out from the strong iodine smell (shark)

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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.

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Rex said..

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.

He did and the animal world lost a great man. R.I.P SS

I am a loyal Sea Shepherd supporter and have been for too long, but these days you will see Paul Watson is definitely taking a large backward step from the day to day adventures. He is now re married and bases himself out of France. He is very cleaver with the pen and is using that to his and the organisations advantage.

Paul was really ready to be replaced a few years ago and with all the heat from interpol he could see the cause was being side tracked and so he stepped backwards then. Sea Shepherd though was never about one person, one individual may have motivated many, but these days the helm is being gently guided by Captn. Peter Hammerstead. The "Hammer" as he is known is the skinniest whip of a man, nothing like Paul Watson But my god he will stand his ground and has shown he is the right man for the job. Id say many thought if they could break Paul, they would break SS but the Hammer must really put the wind up the worlds poachers..

In this shot you can see him not backing down to an "illegal" fuel transfer in the southern ocean below the 60th parallel. So the law breakers are the the "Sun Lurel" and the "Nishan Maru"

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"!

why not to donate to the Japanese whalers directly

www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-11/sea-shepherd-pays-japanese-whalers-more-than-3-million/6538734

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dmitri said..
why not to donate to the Japanese whalers directly

www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-11/sea-shepherd-pays-japanese-whalers-more-than-3-million/6538734

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

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

^^ I did. Its BS. Unless you can tell WHO will pay.

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

contradicting yourself

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jbshack said..


........................, but these days you will see Paul Watson is definitely taking a large backward step from the day to day adventures. He is now re married and bases himself out of France.

Ironic that he lives in France I assume under some level of immunity, considering the history of France and Greenpeace. (yes I know Sea shepherd are independent of Greenpeace but the connection is still relevant)

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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..
^^ I did. Its BS. Unless you can tell WHO will pay.

As a financial member i have no issue in my contributions going towards paying fines or legal battles. I guess it comes with the territory. I'm not sure though that it has ever been paid

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..

They do an amazing job were the authorities are happy to turn a blind eye..Just like they did in bringing the Illegal Toothfish poachers to their knees..


Edit: Sorry i missed the point about moneys and were it comes from. Often when they have a large payment to make, it will be via private donation from one individual/business. For instance The Red hot Chiilies pay for a fare amount, Bob Barker or previously Sam Simon. They have many big supporters with deep pockets. I guess you could say they are still donations, but there are generally not day to day donations. Also a few governments around the world help, Lotteries donations, that kind of stuff.

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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

$2ish Million is an annoying amount to pay for a Fine, but that is pretty small on the grand scheme of things... We live and learn...

Sea Shepherd are the Ultimate Winners about 99% of the time... As the saying goes, you can't win them all!...

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.

No government funded vessel could achieve what Sea Sheperd has done . They would be powerless in foreign waters. Yes Sea Sheperd blatantly disregards international law but so do the illegal fisherman and the only way to stop them is at their own game. Economic barriers are useless we are talking about multi national captains , crew and ship owners selling to the highest bidder and they continually swap registration to avoid any embargoes.

Every person that boards a Sea Sheperd vessel is willing to risk imprisonment or their life to fight the cause. This is a big black flag towards the poachers and they know it. It's working and getting results and I support Sea Sheperd 100%.

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Rupert said..
Great read.

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.


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.

I completely agree with tis statement. But there are not doing anything so should we all just sit on our hands and ignore them

www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-01/government-orders-japanese-whalers-out/4495166

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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

"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.

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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

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Japanese whaling vessels are not permitted with in the 200 NM zone.

And your source of this information is? Unless a vessel is engaged in hunting whales it is just another ship exercising its right to free navigation.

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They are also not allowed to refuel below the 60th parallel

And your source of this information is?

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apply for permission to enter Australian waters with a "Ship of war"

BS Australian Warships regularly transit through Territorial waters when steady steaming, your source of this information is?

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they had armed troops on board

What proof do you have of this? Name your sources?

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The 'MV Bob Barker" was along side the Nishan Maru steaming and YES blocking the illegal transfer of said fuel.

So was the Bob Barker stationary? Or was the BB a vessel being overtaken? Or was the BB the overtaking vessel? C'mon JB your a maritime trader, you know who is the give way vessel in these situations, surely? Why initiate a collision when the rules for avoidance are pretty bloody cut and dried. Do you advise YOUR customers on the basics of the Rule of the Road? If you don't you are failing in your Duty of Care, would you allow a novice to depart Fremantle en route to Rottnest without knowing the basics? The Sea Shepheard organisation are ignoring these basics.

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manage to transfer fuel, they spilt a huge amount..

You are seriously starting to sound like you did on the latest Shark thread - Name your sources!

I am a mariner of 30 years standing, I have a Bridge watch keeping ticket, I have steamed solo and in company in day and night in open waters and within the GBRMP, I would do everything under the international rules to prevent a collision at sea, unfortunately the Sea Shepherd organisation do not share my concerns for the Safety of Lives at Sea (SOLAS) and it appears neither does jb. Maybe we should employ SS to police the Gulf Prawning industry, the Scallop dredgers in Tasmania or the WA Rock Lobster (Crayfish) industry? Unless your own backyard is 100% clean........and it aint, I can buy "amateur caught" live Rock lobster or Dhufish fillets within 30 minutes of the Perth CBD - and you know it.