If you have to repay it, doesn't that mean it isn't a subsidy?

Interesting comment about the EU 'uniting' against the slaughter. I think Europe kills more whales than Japan.

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Anti-whalers resume hunting Japanese

http://news.smh.com.au/antiwhalers-resume-hunting-japanese/20080214-1sae.html

Anti-whaling protest ship the Steve Irwin is returning to the Southern Ocean to resume its chase of the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Sea Shepherd vessel has spent 12 days in Melbourne undergoing repairs, refuelling and resupplying, and new crew members have been brought on board.

Steve Irwin captain Paul Watson said Victorians had donated money for fuel and other supplies during its stay in Melbourne.

Note the misleading title to this article from the daily telegraph - in fact, only one in four Japanese oppose whaling.

Japanese turn backs on whaling

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23248740-5001021,00.html

MORE than two thirds of Japanese people do not support their country's whaling in the Southern Ocean, a survey reveals.

And 87 per cent of the Japanese population were surprised to learn their tax money was being used to subsidise the increasingly-unpopular whaling operation.

The survey, commissioned by Greenpeace, found that while 31 per cent of people backed whaling, 25 per cent opposed it and 44 per cent had no opinion on the issue.

Are you aware of how controversial whaling is internationally? Do you realise that Greenpeace campaigns heavily on the issue in Australia in order to take advantage of latent racism and our hip pockets, while barely mentioning it in Europe where it would lose them donations and where the locals kill more whales than the Japanese, completely ignoring IWC rules? How seriously do you expect other cultures to oppose Japan's right to eat whatever animals it wants? They have more to fear that we will arbitrarily object to something they do. The Indians would never consider imposing their taboo on beef on the rest of the world. The Koreans are sick of 'morally superior' westerners harassing them for eating dog. The Chinese are sick of us telling them they can't skin minks. The Canadians are sick ignorant Americans telling them they can't kill seals. How much do you think the rest of the world cares what we think, other than for something to laugh at?

http://www.ozpolitic.com/sustainability-party/why-allow-whaling.html#embarrassin...

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Anti-whalers could board Japanese ships

http://news.smh.com.au/antiwhalers-could-board-japanese-ships/20080224-1ucy.html

Anti-whaling campaigners chasing down the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters "were ready to be hauled back to Japan if that's what it took", protest leader Paul Watson said.

Seventeen Australian volunteers are among a crew of 33 on board the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) vessel Steve Irwin, which is tailing Japanese harpoon vessels 3,630km south of Fremantle, WA.

Captain Watson said on Sunday the Japanese had successfully been chased out of Australian Antarctic territorial waters and a boarding party was again being prepared to deliver new protest papers to the Japanese crew of the Yushin Maru No 2.

"We have succeeded in chasing them out of Australian territorial waters and as long as we continue to stay on their tail they will not be able to kill any more whales, which is exactly why we're down here," Capt Watson told AAP via satellite phone.

"We will continue to keep on chasing them for the next three weeks - we have enough fuel and food to be able to stay the distance.

"Before long, they will have to call it a day and head back to Japan, certainly by mid-March as the sea and weather conditions will be too bad by then."

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Anti-whaling push gets one million nods

http://news.smh.com.au/antiwhaling-push-gets-one-million-nods/20080225-1umo.html

A Victorian man has collected one million signatures on his online anti-whaling petition.

Patrick Bonello reached this target on Saturday, exactly two years after starting up the Whales Revenge website in 2006.

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Japan's whalers on the run: activists

http://news.smh.com.au/japans-whalers-on-the-run-activists/20080225-1uky.html

Japan's whaling fleet is on the run and desperate to avoid any international legal problems, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) says.

The anti-whaling group's main protest ship, the Steve Irwin, is continuing to chase the seven-vessel Japanese fleet through squally seas 200 nautical miles (370km) north of Australian Antarctic territorial waters, about 3,200km south of Western Australia.

Captain Paul Watson, master of the Steve Irwin, said he was confident the Japanese would fail to meet even half their quota before having to return home by mid-March.

"I'd be surprised if they have taken more than 400 whales by the time they return home.

"I think they're also a bit worried about the legality of staying in Australian waters to harpoon whales, especially if they tried to detain our people or take them back to Japan."

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Whalers move back into Australian waters

http://news.smh.com.au/whalers-move-back-into-australian-waters/20080226-1utc.html

The Japanese whaling fleet has moved back into Australian territorial waters, sparking a call from the anti-whaling protest ship, Steve Irwin, for the Australian government to move in.

The captain of the Steve Irwin, Paul Watson, says the Japanese have moved back into the "Australian economic zone" but have not taken any whales for the past four days.

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Activists have 'bugged' whaling ships

http://news.smh.com.au/activists-have-bugged-whaling-ships/20080226-1utc.html

Anti-whaling activists say they've bugged "several" Japanese whaling ships, allowing them to track the fleet's location for at least another year.

Activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) claim to have hidden devices on a number of whaling vessels, including the harpoon vessel Yushin Maru 2 which was boarded by two protesters last month.

Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said only that the bug was planted when the two men climbed aboard the ship to deliver a protest letter, not that they had personally stashed the device.

Other bugs - of the type normally used to track migrating animals in the wild - were aboard other vessels in the whaling fleet, Watson said.

The bugs had already been used to lead the Sea Shepherd's protest vessel, the Steve Irwin, back to the whalers after a refuelling stop in Melbourne, he said.

"The batteries are good for another year," Watson said.

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It would depend on your attitude towards animals.  Obviously most countries use inhumane methods of cultivating (if that's the right word) and killing animals for food and no doubt much of the population couldn't be bothered thinking about it too much.  Unfortunately with whales - they are intelligent mammals and suffer greatly through the killing process through their sheer size alone.  You could kill a chicken in a split second, but whales can suffer for up to an hour before death.

In Asia you can see a dozen dogs of all shapes and sizes squashed any which way like sardines in a small wire cage.  Our pigs are kept in tiny concrete pens with no room to move for months and they are also intelligent.  In China people have complained about the screaming of dogs and cats as they are skinned alive to make toys for export and so it goes on.

Surely by 2008 - we can find more humane ways of growing and killing animals for food.  But then we let a million or so children die each year through disease and starvation or even slavery - so the general consensus is - why bother about animal rights?

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Fortunately (or unfortunately) - some domestic animals now do have legal rights and there is protection for some of our native animals and endangered species.  

A few years ago if a cat was on your property, you could trap it and take it up to the local vet to be euthanased - no questions asked.  Now you have to lodge 3 complaints with council, regardless of how many native animals it has killed before it can be confiscated from the owner.  

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Yes - that's true if you look at it from that perspective.  I didn't look at it that way.  But the cat has a representative - the owner.  The same can be said for protected species.  If they are deliberately captured, maimed or killed, then the perpetrator is prosecuted by a government agency.  It would also be the same for a child.  Children have legal rights - yet they need a representative to act on their behalf.

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True - but a blue tongue lizard has the right to walk through your backyard and if you are caught hurting it - you are prosecuted.  A cat has the right to get caught twice killing native animals and be reprieved although the third time means death.

So yes from my point of view - a protected animal is one which has been granted rights.