14 DAY TRIAL // The Sea Shepherd organization is well known for being willing to go to extreme lengths in order to protect marine mammals against various groups of people who set out to hunt them.
Apparently, these activists' commitment to protecting these animals at all costs has recently been dubbed no more and no less than an embodiment of piracy by a court in the United States.
Long story short, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski in the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that the tactics employed by the Sea Shepherd organization when pursuing Japanese whalers and other such hunting vessels abide by the rules and regulations of piracy.
Thus, said judge has concluded that, due to their resorting to violence in order to get their way, these greenheads can and should be labeled as pirates. Furthermore, they should be treated accordingly.
Sources report that the judge's exact statements on the matter at hand were as follows: “You don't need a peg leg or an eye patch.”
“When you ram ships; hurl glass containers of acid; drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders; launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate, no matter how high-minded you believe your purpose to be.”
As far as Judge Alex Kozinski, the Japanese whalers benefit from legal protection when setting out to hunt whales, simply because their activities were authorized by the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
This, the latter agreed to issue a permit allowing said Japanese ship to hunt whales in the Antarctic, which is why the Sea Shepherd organization has no business interfering with their working agenda.
“That the perpetrators believe themselves to be serving the public good does not render their ends public. The activities that Cetacean alleges Sea Shepherd has engaged in are clear instances of violent acts for private ends, the very embodiment of piracy,” the judge wished to emphasize.
Following the activists being dubbed pirates by this US Court, Japanese whalers can ready themselves to take legal measures against the organization and its members.