Japanese whaling in Australian waters

The motion passed by the Senate yesterday read:
That the Senate-
1. calls on the Japanese Government to immediately desist from its brutal whaling program; and
2. calls on the Australian Government to warn Japan that it will close Australian ports to Japanese whaling boats and other vessels owned by the companies engaged in whaling (such as occurred over the southern blue fin tuna dispute) if Japan continues its whaling program.

THEY have sunk half of Norway's whaling fleet. Poachers hate them and seal hunters attack them. But the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is likely to be warmly welcomed in Melbourne as it prepares to fight Japanese whale killing.
Its vessel, the 50-metre, ice-breaking Farley Mowat, arrived in Port Phillip Bay yesterday on its first Melbourne visit. On December 5 it will travel to Antarctic waters in a bid to "harass, hinder and obstruct" the Japanese whaling ships from their prey, which this season will include up to 935 minke whales — double the previous catch.

I read today how a group of courageous and compassionate divers cut loose an exhausted humpback whale just outside of San Francisco. They removed over twelve crab traps weighing 90 pounds each with the ropes tangled around the tail and flippers.
“When I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at me,” said Diver James Moskito. “When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles,” Moskito said. “It swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one. It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that’s happy to see you. I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience.”
So much effort and courage to save one whale. At the same time that the Japanese fleet is firing horrific exploding harpoons into the backsides of fleeing whales. Then the whalers electrocute them as they thrash and struggle and bleed profusely into the frozen sea for up to twenty minutes as their screams gurgle through the water in bubbles of blood and explode into the air with humanlike outbursts of unimaginable pain. I cannot express to you, my friends, just how it pains me to know that these butchering criminals are even now pursuing helpless whales as we search for them.
At this moment, the hot blood of a whale is most likely pouring into these frigid waters.
Every day that passes means the oceans are robbed of the life of more of these gentle giants. What sort of beings are these whalers?
They slaughter the whales without thought, without mercy or remorse. What sort of culture can support such a barbarously cruel industry?
How can the nations of the world stand by and allow Japan to contemptuously continue to kill the whales and get away with it just because they are the economic bullies of Asia?
Right now, an intelligent, sociable, incredibly unique creature is being hauled through the anus of a belching steel factory ship where men scurry like cockroaches over the warm body slicing through the flesh with their efficient knives, spilling the entrails onto the deck, and ripping the fetuses from the bodies of mothers who will never feel the joy of birthing and nursing their offspring.