Payday Loans Won’t put it Back Together Again
Photo: flickr via yimhafiz
“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. Sure, it may provide employment and a large number of export products (making payday loans unnecessary for the beneficiaries), but the dangers of excessive hunting and the resulting legacy of blood are too hard for many to ignore. Japan is one of the few nations that still permit whaling, its ships hunting whales “for research purposes and the sale of surplus meat” in the Antarctic. 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 Andy Gil was blasted with water cannons by the Shonan Maru 2 while the vessel stove a hole right through the middle of her, battering the hull in half.
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 was injured.
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. Might payday loans be necessary?
“They’ve really upped the ante this year,” Hansen said. “But we definitely won’t be leaving.”
