Anthonyve
I agree it is not black and white. Your suggestions are the most sensible (monitoring, following, recording, media attention etc) and probably the better option for organisations like Sea Shepherd. Stronger intervention brings as many detractors as supporters and ultimately I reckon any organisation who sticks within the law, holding themselves to a higher standard, will fare better.

Yes Lexi knew that read the up dates on news a few times a day.
Changes nothing however we pay to bring the fools home.
An element of dishonesty can still be seen in these actions.
And think with me, these Whalers have been pelted with filth time and again, protest?
This could have ended very badly,given current well directed concerns at Somali Piracy, what if some one fired first then asked who they are.
Is such an act not piracy.
Again would our reaction been different if they climbed aboard one of our country's ships?
Sorry OUG not understanding your post here.
Any chance green peace can be forced to pay all costs.
Thanks go to Bob Brown ,his press conference reminds us how truly isolated his team are from us.
I stand firmly against Whaling.

I am interested to know who will pay for the time and fuel expended in collecting these pirates and bringing them back to Australia. I have heard that sailors who put themeselves at risk, by not having suitable safety gear are billed for the price of their rescue. I think the same should happen to these three galoots

Comments I heard from a spokesman for the Sea Shepherd organisation gave the impression that it was a deliberate strategy designed to force the Australian Governments hand.

I was thinking that Sea Shepherd should be held responsible for the costs but would not like to see sympathy generated for Sea Shepherd by doing so. At the moment they appear to have seriously harmed their own public image with this stunt, hopefully enough to dissuade them from further such stunts.

They should be placed on notice that should any future actions of the organisation or those working with it incur costs to the Australian taxpayer the cost of the current retrieval and any future costs will be paid for from the organisations assets.

R0bert

Dear Belly,

I think the government should present the organisation
that these three came from with the bill for their
rescue. It's one thing to protest against something,
quite another to break the law. What these three did
was wrong - and there should be consequences for their
actions.

Hi folks,

Let us try stepping through a little logic.

There have been several posters talking about the three breaking the law.

In our society it is against the law to intentionally kill someone. However if you are in fear for your life and that of your family an exception is granted.

If you rammed a get-away car to delay the criminals long enough for law enforcement to arrive I doubt you would be facing a traffic infringement or criminal damage charge, yet you surely broke the law and endangered others even when there was no direct threat to yourself.

Therefore it stands if these three have assisted in hindering, through their uninvited boarding of the Japanese vessel, the commission of a crime namely illegal whaling, then what is the problem?

How can we talk of piracy when three unarmed people board a ship yet when armed Israelis storm vessels on the high seas murdering passengers it is called a justifiable intervention?

If one of my kids were to have been among the three I imagine I would be a little chuffed. These aren't multi-million dollars yachtsmen putting themselves in harm's way for a sport, they are young people willing to put themselves in danger to stop a clearly illegal activity in a non-violent manner, an activity that our own government doesn't have the balls to stop.

I might be getting on a bit but I can still remember being that idealistic so I'm not going to begrudge a dollar from my tax supporting them.

Bravo.