An American Lion

I was busy this past spring, so pardon me for missing this, but someone decided to expose the Japanese slaughter of dolphins, and kudos to them for making it bloody and accurate:

And:

And, if that isn't enough, the same group is featured in another documentary that is just now coming out:

A bizarre and breathtaking high-seas adventure set in the remote, spectacular Ross Sea off Antarctica, "At the Edge of the World" is the summer season's most surprising and thought-provoking documentary. Following a ragtag group of activists as they pursue the Japanese whaling fleet through some of the planet's most dangerous waters, Dan Stone's doc makes an intriguing companion piece to Louie Psihoyos' acclaimed (but little-seen) "The Cove," which uncovers Japan's secretive dolphin slaughter. Both movies have elements of real-life action-thriller, and both may raise questions -- at least for some viewers -- about the sanity and ethics of their subjects.

While the 46 activists of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society shown in the film (who come from 15 different countries) vehemently reject accusations that they are "eco-terrorists" -- they've never done anything to cause human death or injury -- calling them radicals, vandals or pirates is pretty much accurate. In fact, they are literally pirates. Sea Shepherd's two oceangoing vessels, the Farley Mowat and the Robert Hunter, were denied national registry (by Belize and the United Kingdom, respectively) before their 2006 Antarctic campaign began; they sailed illegally from ports in South Africa and Chile, flying a self-designed pirate flag bearing a trident and shepherd's crook as its crossbones.

More mainstream groups like Greenpeace have limited their seagoing ventures to documenting annual Japanese whaling expeditions and reporting them to international authorities (who do nothing about it). Sea Shepherd takes, one might say, a more proactive approach. When the activists find the Nisshin Maru, central processing ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, they bombard it with tear gas and smoke bombs (which may spoil the whale meat), try to foul its propeller with enormous strands of unraveled rope -- and then face the question of whether to use the "can opener," a steel blade attached to the Farley Mowat's hull that could slice another vessel open.

All good stuff, if you like honest activism and dislike corporate whores. I was a corporate whore for many, many years, but now I'm retired. My perspective on whoring for corporations has obviously undergone a bit of a transformation. It's like I don't even know myself anymore. I want to cheer activists and I want to stick it to The Man, even though I used to be The Man.

Being a blue water sailor, I have had many occasions to watch the dolphins and the fishies and whoever else jump and frolic alongside the Admiral Hassenpfeffer. I used to feel pretty bad when a fish would swim into our oil-slick wake and start flopping and sputtering. I think that is why we decided to have that problem fixed after being at sea for a few months. You cannot be on the water for very long and not turn into a bit of an environmentalist.