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Tag: Japan

Is Sea Shepherd really saving whales?

Posted on June 7, 2010December 28, 2010 By Andrew Thaler 51 Comments on Is Sea Shepherd really saving whales?
Conservation, Popular Culture, Science

Sea Shepherd claims that their actions in the Southern Ocean opposing Japanese whaling fleets has effectively reduced the number of whales killed. What always rubbed me the wrong way about these claims is that they always compare their success against the Institute for Cetacean Research (the Japanese organization that oversees ‘scientific whaling’) Quotas. So at some point you have to ask the question, in absolute numbers, has Sea Shepherd really reduced the number of whales killed?

To answer that we need three pieces of information:

  1. When did Sea Shepherd begin it’s campaign against Japanese ‘scientific whaling’?
  2. What are the ICR quotas for that time frame?
  3. What are the absolute catches for that time frame?

Sea Shepherd provides a comprehensive timeline for their whaling campaigns that indicates serious opposition in the Southern Ocean began in December 2002. For the two other questions, we turn to Whale and Dolphin Conservation International, who have produced a truly exceptional interactive graph of the history of whaling since the inception of the International Whaling Convention by the numbers. The relevant figure is reproduced below:

Read More “Is Sea Shepherd really saving whales?” »

Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars

Posted on June 3, 2010February 16, 2011 By Andrew Thaler 19 Comments on Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars
Conservation, Popular Culture

We have been and continue to be critical of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Although their goals are admirable their methods are not only ineffective, but in some cases impair the achievement of those goals.  With the premier of Whale Wars season 3 tomorrow evening, we’d like to take a moment to highlight the issues we’ve raised concerning the SSCS. Over the last two years we’ve written a number of post summarizing our problems with Sea Shepherd:

  • Sea Shepherd – Friend or foe of shark conservation
  • Guestpost: In defense of Sea Shepherd by Craig Nazor
  • Sea Shepherd FAIL
  • What a good conservation organization looks like

Our friends at Deep Sea News and Underwater Thrills have been critical of SSCS, too:

  • Deep Sea News – Sea Shepherd
  • Underwater Thrills – Sea Shepherd

The above links cover many of the issues we have with this organization. The New York Times recently published an excellent breakdown of the Japanese Whaling Industry. Below are our main criticisms of SSCS:

Read More “Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars” »

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