Richard Moore: Protests that can paint 1000 words

The whaling debate has been fierce and sometimes violent.

There was a lot of champagne being popped in my house over the past week over the news that Japan would no longer be whaling in the Southern Ocean.

The decision by Tokyo to end its killing of whales for "research" in our backyard is nothing short of stunning.

I'd like to think the Japanese had a change of heart over slaughtering the magnificent sea creatures because they finally realised the harm they were doing, but that is very unlikely as the Japanese see hunting cetaceans as being a cultural right. And they will be continuing to do so in other waters around the globe.

The recent case Australia won in the International Court of Justice that led to a ruling that Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean was illegal was one of the final straws, but it would not have been enough on its own.

I don't think whale hunting down this way was stopped for any altruistic, or even legal, reasons.

I believe victory over whalers can be put down to the economic pressure put on the Japanese whaling fleet by Sea Shepherd.

Sea Shepherd is a highly organised, direct-action protest group that has been dogging the Japanese fleet - and others - to try to stop them killing whales.

They are hardline and up until recent times were led by Paul Watson, who was kicked out of Greenpeace for his militant actions.

Under Watson, Sea Shepherd has rammed vessels and also sunk one in port.

In the Southern Ocean Sea Shepherd's crews do all they can to ruin the whale slaughter.

They have dropped cables in front of whaling vessels to try to foul their propellers and force them to stop and thrown butyric acid bombs - foul-smelling butter-like substances - on to ships.

Sea Shepherd ships have been in direct collision with Japanese opponents and have even had one of its vessels - the Ady Gill, a sleek, fast scout ship captained by Tauranga's Pete Bethune - sliced in two and sunk by a harpoon vessel.

Bethune and his crew survived and he later went on to board a whaling ship to arrest its captain and was taken to Japan where he was jailed for five months for his protest actions.

Each whaling season Sea Shepherd has strengthened its fleet from one to two to three to four main vessels and a number of smaller, light craft.

They scout ahead with a helicopter - now unmanned drone aircraft - to find the Japanese fleet and then a cat-and-mouse naval game of tag starts as the protesters try to locate the key factory ship that processes the dead whales.

I have been watching the battles with huge interest on Whale Wars and the tactics on both sides are fascinating.

If they can get close enough to the stern of the factory ship Sea Shepherd can prevent the whale carcasses being loaded on to it. If they can block it long enough the whale meat is ruined and worthless.

In recent seasons they have been so successful the Japanese have not been able to kill their quota and have lost millions of dollars as a result.

This, I believe, is where the Japanese made their decision to stop. It just wasn't worth the cost of continuing in the Southern Ocean.

Well done to Sea Shepherd. You may have been branded pirates by one United States court, but you are true defenders of our sealife.

And you are also good examples of how, at times, direct action is more effective than words.

A BIT of a clarification on my last column. I received an email about my comments on the arts bus that transports about 9000 kids a year to Tauranga Art Gallery.

It had been said by the art gallery that if the council did not link its funding to inflation the art bus was in danger and my comment to that was it should pay for itself.

I have been told the arts bus is funded largely by fundraising by the Friends of the Art Gallery - to the tune of about $45,000.

That does then lead to the question of why the gallery would tell the council it was endangered by not getting an extra $17,000.

Something doesn't quite add up, does it?

WHY is it when announcers come out with rude comments thinking their microphones are off they then try to back out of trouble with ridiculous apologies?

Rachel Smalley is the latest to do so.

The Newstalk ZB gal was caught calling women over 70 kilos "heifers" and "lardos" while her mike was live.

Of course that would have offended a massive number of her female listeners who would be over that weight, seeing as the average weight of a Kiwi woman is 72kg.

So what does Smalley do? She has a tearful apology.

"It was stupid, it was judgmental and offensive ... it was in no way representative of any opinion I have ever held, ever and I'm sorry, I truly am."

Riiiiight. In my experience things said privately are usually what folk actually think.

I reckon Smalley was only sorry because she was caught out.

I'm glad my computer keyboard doesn't have a mike.

Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.

Richard@richardmoore.com