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Reading this thread has been fun. When the moderators show up it's like the Buddha's Palm from the end of Kung Fu Hustle. Resistance is futile...
Anyway's back on topic.
What the Sea Shepards are doing is definitely pretty extreme. I'm not sure we should label it terrorism however. Some of what has been said on both sides had been right. Kirk's point about the acceptance of vigilantism on the open see is technically true. As are some of Jay's points about the Shepards overall ineptitude, and general disregard for safety. These people really are pushing it at times. However the producers & editors of the show are guilty of seriously over-sensationalizing the events their cameras capture. A casual viewing of the show makes this much immensely clear.
As for the actual whaling going on in the Southern ocean it is pretty clear that if your country is a signatory of the IWC treaty and you are collecting/hunting/killing whales in the status quo you are breaking the law. Unless you are of course a native/sustainable harvester, then you get a quota.
There is a sort of wishy-washy research loop-hole that Japan tries to use to make it's whaling look legal. I believe what has been said earlier about the Japanese having no problem hunting whales to extinction is probably false. They don't want that; they like whale meat to much. However what has been said about whales being a particularly vulnerable species due to their biological/reproductive cycles is also very, very true. That's why the IWC enacted the international moratorium in the first place.
The Japanese insist that a sustainable harvest is possible. Others do not see it that way. Part of the research the Japanese are in fact doing is striving to have a more complete understanding of whales to see if this is possible. Whether or not they get any where remains to be seen. Whether or not the amounts the Japanese take is excessive is up to debate in my mind. I'd like to know more.
As far as I'm concerned though the Sea Shepards ought to go fight the Norwegians. They're the ones who are all "F--- IWC we will whale if we want to, We practically invented whaling" (Which they didn't). At least Japan maintains a pretense of membership in the IWC and a stated desire to settle out everybody's differences.
-Cheers
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