We all are sadly quite aware of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the international threats from Iran, occasional airliner bombing and hijacking attempts, and many other conflicts among nations, causes and people in our troubled world. But one of the strangest, most dangerous and most ridiculous confrontations occurred recently in the icy seas near Antarctica, at the bottom of our world.
As a Japanese whaling ship was on the hunt, it was challenged aggressively by a boat occupied by “anti-whaling” enthusiasts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
In physically challenging the whalers, the anti-whalers’ boat struck the Japanese ship, with the bow of the anti-whalers’ boat being sheared off. Fortunately, the six crewmen aboard the anti-whalers’ stricken boat were able to board an accompanying ship safely, so no lives were lost. But collisions at sea are very serious in any case, and especially so in icy Antarctica.
Whether you are for whale harvesting or for whale conservation in international waters, reasonable people should view violent confrontations involving ships at sea as neither reasonable nor effective ways to try to settle conflicting points of view.