Anti-whaling activist goes on trial in Japan
Peter Bethune was captain of Sea Shepherd's futuristic boat, the Ady Gil.
The batmobile-esque, $3 million boat collided with a Japanese whaling ship, the Shonan Maru 2, and sank in January.
Weeks later, Bethune jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 and attempted to make a citizen's arrest of the captain. He was arrested and brought back to Japan to face criminal charges.
Bethune's case is the first time a Sea Shepherd activist has been tried in a Japanese criminal court in the group's long-running battle with Japan's whalers in the icy waters of the Antarctic.
Japan annually hunts whales in the Antarctic, despite a
worldwide moratorium on whaling, under the loophole that a country may legally do so if its purpose is scientific research.
Sea Shepherd, who notes the whale meat then gets sold in Japanese markets and served in restaurants, calls the science argument a
sham.
LINK
What's interesting to me is that we just turn a blind eye to Japan's whaling. (and that the Japanese see no problem with it). But then, there are the shark-finners and plenty of other environmental rapists out there as well. Seems like the Japanese are the worst offenders though.