Thursday, March 15, 2007

Sweep the Seas of plundering murderers... I ran across a small item in the Chronicle last week, one of those environmental posts buried back by the weather map. It reported that Japanese fishermen in the small village of Tajii had killed 20,000 bottle-nose dolphins since last October! I was incredulous and sickened. They perform this wholesale slaughter of our aquatic counterparts once a year. The Tajii fishermen coax and herd the dolphins into coves, then begin to shoot or harpoon those not drowned in the nets, until the water runs red with the mammals' blood. The dolphins that aren't murdered are trapped and sold to acquariums and carnivals. Genreally, the captured ones are very young.

Is nothing to be done before the Japanese deplete the seas of all marine life? They have practically overfished their own Sea of Japan, using mammoth vacuum hoses that suck everything from the water. Their factory ships continue to illegally hunt whales. They've found loopholes in the law to get away with hunting other species as well, claiming it is not for consumption but research. There is an organization called SEA SHEPHERDS who are doing something about this. Often referred to as Greenpeace, they are far more aggressive. And effective. Take a look at their website... www.seahshepherd.org

These people harrass and even fire on the hunters, who now become the hunted, until they are disabled and forced to stop and return to port. It's drastic, indeed, but apparently the only way to get them to stop.

Al Gore is winning Oscars and making money from his investments in carbon offset services while scaring people into believing we are in dire danger from global warming. Everyone is talking about it, even young children. I personally believe the inconvenient truth is science fiction, and the Earth is cycling as it has done since creation. Some scientists predict a cooling period in the next 40 years.

We should be conserving energy and stopping pollution for thousands of better reasons than the hype surrounding global warming. It's just common sense and best for everyone worldwide to cut back on the wholesale gluttony of fossil fuels. Frankly, it won't matter much when the seas have been depleted of life. Humans and much of nature are dependent on the Oceans, far more than the Japanese, the Russians and Icelanders are dependent on whale meat and fish to the point of decimating the populations.

Read about it, then do something. If nothing else, try to stop this vile practice because you are moved by the heartbreaking tragedy inflicted on these intelligent and innocent creatures. The founder of sea shepherd said he began the group after looking directly into the eye of a harpooned whale and... well, see for yourself on their website.

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