Payday Loans Won’t put it Back Together Again
“He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.” – Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”
Whaling is an ancient practice that most of the modern world views with abject horror. It may be a source of income and employment, and certainly keeps some people from needing payday loans as a result of the exports, but excessive hunting and the tainted legacy of whaling are a stink too big to ignore. Japan is one of the few nations that still permits whaling, and they harvest from the Antarctic “for research purposes and the sale of surplus meat”. They can take in excess of 1,000 whales per season thanks to a loophole in international law that permits this activity.
Groups protesting whaling are labeled often as “terrorists” by the whaling industry. The Ady Gil, a Sea Shepherd anti-whaling pursuit craft, appears to have been a casualty of the whale wars, bearing the brunt of that hot heart’s shell. The Japanese whaler Shonan Maru 2 blasted the Ady Gil with water cannons – before, during and after the time that they sawed the smaller vessel in half via collision.
You Can’t Stop that Great White Whale
The Ady Gil is a small pursuit craft belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an activist group that opposes Japanese each season in the Southern Ocean, which is south of Australia and New Zealand and encircles Antarctica. Though the New York Times were informed by Sea Shepherd Australia Director Jeff Hansen that the Ady Gil wasn’t sunk, but “it’s in two pieces, and we’re trying to salvage what we can.” Ady Gil crewmembers were picked up by an accompanying vessel, the Bob Barker. One crew member sustained injuries.
The Price is Wrong, Whaler Man
The video below shows the Shonan Maru 2 plow through the Ady Gil, breaking off the nose of the smaller ship. No doubt the Japanese Whaling Industry considers it payback for all the stalking and harassment the Sea Shepherd group has caused their whalers, but they have yet to come forward with such a statement. Not surprisingly, Sea Shepherd is not undaunted. The whale wars will continue, at no doubt a great expense.
