The international group of hacktivists known as “Anonymous” has been busy since September, telling the world that killing the whales and dolphins is ecocide.
The well being of these “doctors of the sea” – whales and dolphins, known as cetaceans – are crucial to our survival on the planet. Horrifyingly, the oceans are critically ill.
Did you know that we are missing 40 percent of oxygen-bearing oceanic plants called phytoplankton – the base of the entire marine food web – from overheating oceans due to the climate crisis, courtesy of the $5.6 trillion annually subsidized fossil fuel industry?
The filter-feeding whales are fertilizing the sea with their flocculent fecal plumes (their feces). It’s rich in iron and nitrogen – essential to grow oxygen-bearing phytoplankton, which provides three out of every four breaths of air we all breathe. The whales are helping us fight the climate crisis.
Anonymous has interrupted service of 100 Japanese and Icelandic government and commercial websites with vast amounts of Internet traffic in protest of these shameful cetacean-killing countries.
A recent poll commissioned by Sea Shepherd Australia showed that almost 80 percent of bipartisan Australians want their federal government to send a Customs Marine Unit patrol boat into the Australian quadrant of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to monitor the Japanese whale poachers.
Japan was found guilty of killing whales in the Southern Ocean by the International Court of Justice at The Hague and the Australian Federal Court.
Australian voters are now left wondering whether Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will send a customs patrol boat to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, or will he turn a blind eye and chase Japanese trade dollars versus protecting the Australian whales?
On Dec. 20, Japanese dolphin-killers drove approximately 90 exquisite bottle nose dolphins into the infamous blood stained Taiji Cove. Over the ensuing 48 hours, they slowly murdered 30 dolphins with steel rods, imprisoned another 30 dolphins for sale to inhumane dolphinariums, while 30 lucky bottle nose escaped captivity and death. Since September, these heartless poachers have impoverished the Pacific Ocean by pocketing $22.25 million in sales of 89 of the finest dolphins to dolphinariums.
I predict that Anonymous will continue to attack Internet services and punish these cetacean-killing countries.
In the meantime, here’s what each of us can do to help the cetaceans: do not ever purchase tickets to dolphinariums, support both Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians and my intrepid international friends on the MY Steve Irwin flagship embarking Perth, Western Australia for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to protect the whales!
Love is the solution.
Earth Dr. Reese Halter is the author of “Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save our Oceans.”