O.R.C.

The BBC and Reuters are reporting that Japan succeeded in only catching 551 minke whales out of the 850 it had hoped to, and 0 of the 50 fin whales it had desired.

These lessened numbers are the direct result of the actions of direct action protestors The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who boarded vehicles, threw foul-smelling liquid, and generally harassed the Japanese whalers for months. Self-touting Greenpeace, on the other hand, were on hand to document the hunt and claim dissapointment that whales were caught at all; yet the liberal group refused to share information on whaler’s locations with the direct-action oriented Sea Shepherd.

Japan is, of course, calling the protestors terrorists.

Japan has signed onto the 1986 moratorium on whaling for food, but continues to kill [and eat] large numbers of whales for “scientific research” purposes.