Sea Shepherd in Shetland

[suuusssiiieee]

All you saddos need to get a life, i've seen the lasses off the Steve Irwin in da pubs and sum of them are HOT!! (if their not getting paid , ie their volunteers how do they afford drinks etc).

 

Anyhow if they use this harbour fair play to them, listen the faroese have shafted us in the past (smyril line) so who gives a monkeys if this lot interfere with them, if they want to protest let them it's nowt to worry about, and to think this discussion alone contributes three pages on shetlink what does that say about our lives.... saying that i wish they could hound out this present useless council...

[Ghostrider]

^^ Any lass that's been suckered in to crew that boat doesn't have a brain I want to play with, even if she is the hottest chic that ever walked. Maybe fine for trophy hunters, but for some of us engaging the brain means as much as looks. Fanaticism is highly unattractive.

[fartypants]

EM ...I think you maybe should think about the court cases that's coming up against Shetland and Scottish skippers before you mention recent mackerel quotas..!!!!!!

[Evil Inky]

In 2003, I took part in the march opposing the invasion of Iraq, in an (unsuccessful) attempt to get the government to, er, not invade Iraq. Should I have been barred from local businesses?

No. You were (I assume) a UK national exercising your right to peacefully protest a decision of your national Government. You weren't (I assume) using force to prevent UK military personnel, ships and aircraft from departing for Iraq.

I distinctly remember at the time being accused of undermining the decisions of a democratically-elected government, damaging the morale of our armed forces, and that the anti-war marches would endanger UK military personnel.

 

And if I had taken part in non-violent direct action back in 2003, how long should I have been barred from local businesses?

[Medziotojas]

the majority of Shetlanders understand, and sympathise with, Faroe's right to whale.

 

 

Where did you pull that statistic from?

[shetlandpeat]

And the Japanese??

[ISOT]

the majority of Shetlanders understand, and sympathise with, Faroe's right to whale.

 

 

Where did you pull that statistic from?

 

Exactly!! What a pile o sharn gets written on here, killing a thousand sea animals for a bit o fun, bloody disgrace, got get em Steve!!

 

....also if the LPA didn't allow them to berth here and the wholesalers didn't stock them they would got to Orkney, Scrabster etc but what does that matter lets all put the blame at the door of the LPA and LTCA for harbouring known criminals. Pathetic!

 

Cheers

[Dagfinn]

What about the Co-op who are supplying them food? Captain Flints and The Lounge are selling them drink! The oil companies supplying fuel, the engineering companies doing work on their boats!

 

The local media are even giving them publicity! Whatever next? Will the Pipe band be going along to serenade them?

Living abroad I'm looking foreward to see some stunning scenery from my beautiful native islands on the programme 'Whale Wars' on Animal Planet

[klanky]

I wondered how long it would be before someone remembered the fact that the Faroese are happy to shaft their 'brothers' on Shetland when it came to mackerel quotes.....

 

....not exactly a shining example of working together with their nearest neighbours, is it?

 

I like the Faroese, I like Torshavn, I like Faeroe, but they are insisting on rounding up and slaughtering animals to pander to 'tradition'. As someone else posted - if we rounded up a field full of cattle and killed them in such a manner then all hell would break loose.

 

Let's get this straight - this is not a necessary kill for food stocks, nor is it done with minimal stress to the animals. To ruthlessly herd animals aground and stab and slash them to death on some obscure twisted notion of necessity is not the mark of a civilised society.

 

I believe that there are certain circumstances where animal numbers need to be controlled. Seals for example. If they needed culling - then it should be done efficiently, quickly and with virtually no stress to the animal. ie: Shot.

Can you imagine how Shetland would be viewed if they herded 300 common seals ashore and stabbed them to death on a beach in the name of 'tradition' and 'food dispersal to the elderly' whilst cheered on by a crowd of onlookers?

 

You'd have more than a bunch of activists on a couple of tubs to worry about up here......

[Dagfinn]

listen the faroese have shafted us in the past (smyril line)

Really? the faroese did that? Including me? I wasn’t aware of that, I thought it was a board of 6 directors, 4 from Faroe 1 from Iceland and 1 from Shetland who made a decision in an attempt to save a company from going down the drain.

 

Investing in that huge ship was a suicidal decision for Smyril Line, they should have stuck to the Denmark-Faroe route the whole time, there was never really a customer basis for that 'North Atlantic Link' service in the first place.

 

BTW, maybe I should blame all you brits for every stupid decision made by british directors?

[Ghostrider]

In 2003, I took part in the march opposing the invasion of Iraq, in an (unsuccessful) attempt to get the government to, er, not invade Iraq. Should I have been barred from local businesses?

No. You were (I assume) a UK national exercising your right to peacefully protest a decision of your national Government. You weren't (I assume) using force to prevent UK military personnel, ships and aircraft from departing for Iraq.

I distinctly remember at the time being accused of undermining the decisions of a democratically-elected government, damaging the morale of our armed forces, and that the anti-war marches would endanger UK military personnel.

 

Perhaps so. I can't comment though, as those are not opinions I share, nor understand the reasoning for.

 

And if I had taken part in non-violent direct action back in 2003, how long should I have been barred from local businesses?

 

I don't think barring would have been appropriate in that case, and for the record I'm not saying demanding SS be barred from local businesses is appropriate right now. I'm saying I am disappointed that some local businesses do not feel it is appropriate to bar SS themselves.

 

Its an arguable point whether SS's have a track record of non-violent direct action or not, some of the acts they openly admit to IMHO are borderline at best, so I'm not entirely happy its a like for like comparison in the first place. However that aside, for the sake of the argument I'll assume they were "non-violent".

 

If you had taken part in "non-violent" action in 2003, whether or not you were barred from any local businesses would as far as I'm concerned have been a decision for each individual business owner. However had any done so, I wouldn't have felt I could support their action.

 

Firstly any action(s) you took would have been subject to the scrutinty, and whatever (in)actions they saw as appropriate, of the UK justice system. Folk may or may not agree with them, but its such as we've got at this moment in time. Secondly, you, assumedly a UK national and local resident, are entitled to live somewhere and have reasonable access to the necessities of life, you (assumedly) were alreadly a resident here when any hypothetical actions would have occured, so if the UK justice system did not see fit to remove you as a consequence of those hypothetical actions, it became pretty much "case closed".

 

As I've said before SS are an American based organisation, run by a Canadian national, they have no tangible connection with Shetland, they have no "need" to be here, they have chosen to be here. Shetland, with a harbour, perhaps has a moral responsibility to allow them to dock if they request to do so, on humatarian grounds. But beyond that I don't see we owe them anything than to ensure their vessel is seaworthy, all onboard is well, and that they have enough food and fuel to reach the nearest available port(s).

 

SS are a controversial foreign organisation, their mission and methods IMHO are extremely questionable. As a Shetlander I would be a whole lot happier if they were in no way associated with Shetland, and Shetland them, especially given their advertised planned destination and action(s) at this moment in time.

 

If other Shetlanders, either private individuals or businesses wish to support them, that's their business and right, and I respect their right to do so. It is however a stance I do not support, and will exercise my right to have that opinion and voice it when I see fit, and I will be considerably more reluctant to use the local businessess in the future which have supported SS, due to their actions and apparent stance on the subject.

[Ghostrider]

....also if the LPA didn't allow them to berth here and the wholesalers didn't stock them they would got to Orkney, Scrabster etc....

 

Then it would be Orcadians or Caithnessians that were dirtying their hands, not Shetlanders. Their choice, their problem, fine by me.

[Snaz]

^^ So Shetlanders are dirtying their hands over this are they? Odd view.

 

I reckon its the folk in Faroe with their tradition are the ones with dirty hands.

[EM]

EM ...I think you maybe should think about the court cases that's coming up against Shetland and Scottish skippers before you mention recent mackerel quotas..!!!!!!

I'm not clear on your point here. I don't see why the local/Scottish black fish issue is directly relevant to the perception of Faroe's "long standing friendship" with Shetland. I listed the unilateral Faroese mackerel quota as an example of Faroese news which has been reported locally, as well as noting that it could hardly be classed as being in the friendly category.

 

If anything, the local black fish story could be added to the list of issues highlighting the lack of particularly warm feelings between the island groups. Remember that the local black fish industry was going on for a lengthy period at a huge scale, and this was well known at the time to be taking place. The fact that the local establishment, including the media, chose to ignore what was common knowledge, could be argued to be an unfriendly act towards the Faroese, amongst others.

[Kavi Ugl]

the majority of Shetlanders understand, and sympathise with, Faroe's right to whale.

 

 

Where did you pull that statistic from?

 

From the real world i.e not Shetlink.

 

I loathe this sad attitude of blaming the Faroese for the Smyril Line problem and infact, for the record I have been told that many Faroese feel ashamed by what the directors at Smyril Line have done/are doing. It now affects both Bergen and Iceland btw with no schedule or calls there too.

 

As Dagfinn says, the new Norrona was/is simply far too big to pay for itself. However, I, for one, understand what the SIC was trying to do when they invested in Smyril Line. They were doing it with an eye to getting the north boats contract which would have been a tremendous economical boost for Shetland, but as usual too many Shetlanders swallowed the Radio Shetland and Shetland Times venom and blamed everything in life on Smyril Line. I mean,we really, really don't want control of our own shipping services do we?, nah, perish the thought of many jobs on the vessels, sea cadetships, servicing the vessels etc, etc

 

The Faroese and Icelanders took a stand on the Mackeral issue because as usual the EU were shwoing no regard or respect to them and trying to dictate what should happen.

 

As mentioned, we'd do well to remember the shenanigens of wir own pelagic fishermen before critisising the Faroese or Icelanders. But then, as usual we don't want to control and be responsible for our own seas and fisheries do we?. No, we'd much rather have it controlled by eurocrats and fished by every other Tom, Dick and Harry.....

 

And for the record, my sarcastic tone is not done in a bad way, it's more done out of sadness at how limp and pathetic Shetland, as a community, has become

 

The Faroese and Icelanders demonstrate more will to stand up for themselves in their little finger than what the whole of Shetland does.