Japanese Whaling will Never Stop: Sea Shepherd Conservationists Branded as 'Pirates'

There's some more bad news for the conservationist group Sea Shepherd. The Japanese minister for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Yoshimasa Hayashi, has said that Japan will never stop its annual hunt for whales.

For years, the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd has chased down Japanese whalers, attempting to disrupt their annual hunt. They have clashed with other ships, causing collisions and damage, and have blocked others from refueling at tanker ships. While both parties blame the other, though, the U.S. courts have decided to step in and take a stand.

Recently, Judge Alex Kozinski announced that the conservationist group's "aggressive and high-profile attacks" on the Japanese whaling fleet has endangered lives. He has ordered the group to stop any further attacks. In fact, just last year the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction  that banned Sea Shepherd from going within 500 yards of Japanese whaling ships. The most recent ruling, though, has cleared the way for Japan to file legal action against the group.

"I don't think there will be any kind of an end for whaling by Japan," said Hayashi in an interview with the French news service Agence France-Presse. "In some countries they eat dogs, like Korea. In Australia they eat kangaroos. We don't eat those animals, but we don't stop them from doing that because we understand that that's their culture."

Despite a worldwide moratorium, Japan annually hunts whales. The country actually uses a loophole in the law that allows them to kill the mammals for scientific research. Yet whale meat usually ends up in the Japanese market rather than in a research lab. This, in particular, has prompted environmental groups like the Sea Shepherd to confront the whaling ships head on and stop the hunting. Yet the Sea Shepherd has allegedly rammed ships, hurled glass containers of acid and dragged metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers. This in turn has prompted the U.S. court system to label the environmental group as "pirates."

Other groups are seeking other means to stop the whaling, though. Australia is currently taking legal action against Japan over whaling.