TOKYO — A Japanese court on Wednesday convicted an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand of assault and obstructing Japan’s whaling fleet in the Antarctic. But his sentence was suspended, meaning he will not be jailed.
Peter Bethune, a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, boarded a Japanese whaling ship from a Jet Ski in the southern Antarctic in February, and threw bottles of butyric acid at the whalers. One bottle cracked open and three crew members suffered minor burns, prosecutors charged.
The Tokyo District Court also found Mr. Bethune, 45, guilty of trespassing, vandalism and possession of a knife. The presiding judge, Takashi Tawada, sentenced Mr. Bethune to two years in prison, with the sentence suspended for five years.
Mr. Bethune pleaded guilty to all charges except assault at the start of his trial in May. Under a suspended sentence, those convicted do not have to serve the prison term unless they are charged with further criminal offences. - NY Times
I figured that they would have made an example to him, if for no other reason than to put a real fear into other Sea Shepherd activists of facing the same fate if they are foolish enough to also board a Japanese whaling vessel. Still, I would like to think that spending a month confined on a Japanese whaling ship and then being a 'guest' in a Japanese jail is disincentive enough.
Personally, I think the Japanese need to hit back harder. Sinking the ADY GIL was a step in the right direction. There is lots more they can do like disabling the small boats and helicopter while on the deck. Hell, where are their potato cannons? Also, if I were them, I would target the camera crews. Simply because they are a tool for the Sea Shepherds and taking out their camera equipment has a real cost. (Note, I am against all Japanese whaling.)
9 comments:
Fred - Well put. I see a need for protecting endangered species and I think WE do have laws established. As far as fair punishment, several "viglante" groups and pirates (under international law of the sea were hung from the yardarm. Makes you think what ratings that we would see from that
Wow, I am glad the Internet allows idiots to blog about nothing, thanks for wasting my time.....
Shame on the lot of you! I don't see either of you doing anything to stop the slaughter.. just a bunch of ranting about those with the guts to get out there. I hope the Nisshin Maru ends up on the bottom of the ocean! And you call yourselves human.. You sit there on your pompous asses and watch the slaughter if magnificent whales and talk about what the Japanese should do to get way with it? You need to move to another country.. TRAITOR!
This has nothing to do with being a traitor. This however has everything to do with idiots electing politicians who insist on compromising for the sake of 'Good Relations'. This has come to a head with the election of Obama who has called for a return of legal whaling. So who is the traitor now?
Me. I am against whaling and I am for electing people man enough to stop the killing of whales.
You are an idiot.
So is Sea Shepherd.
First off FRED FRY if you were against Japanese whaling, you would not be sitting there bashing the sea shepherd. Saying all that bull about taking out the camara crew. You sound just like the murderers that call themselves scientist. Have you seen the show Blood Dolphins? All Japan does is kill marine animals so they can feed there over obsession for sushi. They are a bunch of murders that use cover stories to cover up there illegal activity.
I think that the USA should stop giving them stuff and instead use our US NAVY to put a stop to it. Cause i can tell you what, if they did, whaling would be over in about two minutes and the killing of dolphins and other protected animals would come to a great stop.
Keep up the Great Work Sea Shepherd.
FRED, WELL SAID. Thought you might like to see this email exchange between Paul Watson and one of his acolytes in British columbia, Canada. Wtson is refering to a family documentary bout the Troake family of Twillingate Newfoundland, Canada. the film has very little to do with sealing per se other than the family has been involved to generations, a hve many families in Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec and Nunavut. This type of rnt from Watson is not uncommon.
Cheers
Jim Winter
Wed, 2 Nov 2005 11:44:50 -0800
Subject: A Very appropriate Title for the Film I Think
Dear Sinikka,
My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers. How nice! It appears to
be an appropriate title. Her ancestors were indeed rogues and murderers
although I am surprised anyone would take pride in this fact. The Troake family are sealing families and one Troake was quoted in the media a few years ago as saying he would love to slit the throat of the last harp seal, yes a man who is indeed a credit to his ancestors.
I don't see what this has to do with Amnesty International - a very strange connection indeed.
Why Annie would think that I or anyone else should see this documentary
makes little sense. What will we learn? Absolutely nothing we don't know
already and that is that Newfoundlanders will always find some cultural peg
to hang their justification of slaughter and cruelty upon.
It is a law of ecology that the survival and interests of a species must take precedence over the interests of a few individuals of another species.
Newfoundland culture is dead and good riddance to it. The funeral is long overdue and the more Newfoundlanders move to the West the better, for
Newfoundland, although not necessarily for the West. They have caused
hundreds of years of destruction to that rock in the Atlantic. They extirpated the white bear and exterminated the Newfoundland wolf, the Labrador duck, the giant Auk and the original Beothuk people. They decimated the fish,
destroying the Northern cod and completely transformed the ecology of the Northwest Atlantic eco-system. Newfoundlanders have been a blight and a curse to the fragile eco-system they invaded and after the few centuries they have occupied the rock, most of them indeed rogues and murderers, they have diminished the land and the sea to an incredible extent.
And now they wallow in self pity because they have rendered the land
incapable of supporting themselves and turn their blame, their anger and their sadistic tendencies onto the seals, the whales, the birds, in fact anything that moves and breathes that is not human.
I have no respect for Newfoundland or Newfoundlanders. They debased
Canada when they joined the nation in 1949 and they continue to embarrass us in the eyes of the world as they inflict bloody carnage on innocent creatures, peddling seal penisis and their silly seal flipper pie to the ecological perverts who actually pay for these obscenities.
Newfoundland is a place where priests rape orphans where majestic pilot
whales were ground into mink food, where the fishermen torture seabirds for
fun and where their biggest hero is a mass murderer of seals and men, a psychopath by the name of Captain Abraham Kean.
It is a place that has given us corrupt and despicable politicians like John Crosby and John Efford and idiotic commentators like Rex Murphy.
Yes, I think the title of this film is appropriate and accurate and I'm sure it will be the darling documentary of the anthropocentric crowd who love to embrace primitivism and view the arrogant ignorance of those quaint seal slayers and cod butchers as something to be perversely admired.
The great thing is that this film will not have much of an audience in the civilized world where people view the crimes of their ignorant ancestors with regret and not admiration.
Captain Paul Watson
I have to say, I am stunned that anyone would condone violence on either side. Why does all of this have to go on? If they were really using the whales for research, then they would not need thousands of these creatures. I mean, we want to do research on all endangered species, but seldom if ever do I see anyone shooting or killing any of these creatures. Is the demand for whale meat that great? I don't think I have ever even seen it, so where are the billions of people lined up for some whale jerky? If international authorities don't see that this is exploitation of a loop-hole in the system, then it is a lost cause. While you are out chasing the nishin maru...they may already have gotten another factory ship, and led you on a goose chase. God bless you for your efforts, but it seems that this is a war that will go on and on
Kevin B....
Fred Fry... what a dush bag you are. Do you have any balls?
the japanese are a bunch of pricks, they have no idea what they are doing, pete did nothing and the japanese twats nearly killed him. personally i think all japanese people can go and die
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