Your Message on a Butyric Acid Bottle

This is absolutely beautiful. Sea Shepherd is affording their supporters an opportunity to have their personal messages printed on the bottles of butyric acid they’ll be throwing at Japanese whalers this winter.

Sure, many bottles crash on the sides of ships. And even if they do land on deck they likely won’t be read. But it’s an awesome idea all the same. What’s more, if you believe in the power of words, having powerful messages printed on these bottles is enough, even if they aren’t read by the whalers.

I am going to send an email to UCONN’s quarterback Johnny McEntee, asking him to join Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Just imagine butyric acid or pseudo corpse in his hands on the deck of the Steve Irwin or the Bob Barker.

That said, Sea Shepherd is on their way to destroying Japanese whaling this winter. So with all luck, there will be no need for a masterful thrower anytime in the foreseeable future.

Meet Three Sea Shepherd Crew Members

Those who watch and love Animal Planet’s Whale Wars get comfortable with a handful of Sea Shepherd’s crew members. But many of the crew mates who put their lives on the line for three months in a harsh Antarctic environment, never make it on the screen. In fact, there aren’t even complete rosters of crew members on the Sea Shepherd website.

This year the crew comprises 88 people on 3 vessels. Journalist Madeleine Coorey spoke with three of those crew members: Steve Irwin deckhand Georgie Dicks, Steve Irwin Communications Officer Doug O’Neil, and Gojira Electrical Engineer Kevin McGinty.

Photo: Barbar Veiga, Getty Images

Madeleine’s article reinforces the efforts of people willing to put their life below that of whales. Therein McGinty jokes about the harsh conditions they face on their journey stating “if you want no pay and tough conditions, you’re in the right spot.”

But every single person on the three Sea Shepherd vessels is very serious about their participation or they wouldn’t endure three months of grit. And, fortunately, there are rewards to be had beyond saving whales. Aside from the experience itself, crew members are able to see Antarctica up close and personal. Georgie recalls one such moment when their vessel was greeted by some Fin and Humpback whales:

It was really a weird time because the harpoon ships were on the horizon. Just to see these beautiful animals here and to know that we think of these whales so differently to how they think of them. It was just one of those moments…an epiphany.

There’s something blissful about the thought of hurling butyric acid and pseudo corpse at Japanese whalers. But there’s something equally blissful about the serenity of being within an earshot of a pod of whales in their natural environment.

Butyric Acid Alternative: Pseudo Corpse

This article talks about Sea Shepherd’s new Gojira interceptor vessel, and how Japanese whalers are still at port. It also notes something I’ve previously mentioned, that Japan continues to slaughter whales even though they have a plethora of frozen whale flesh piling up due to a lack of demand.

But my favorite part of this article is mention of how Sea Shepherd is armed with a new chemical by the name of Pseudo Corpse. It denotes:

Captain Watson said controversial “rotten butter” butyric acid thrown to taint whaling ships’ decks will be replaced by a chemical called Pseudo Corpse, which is used to train sniffer dogs to find bodies.

Is that absolutely brutal or what? They are going to cover Japanese whaling ships with the smell of dead bodies! Sea Shepherd is hard fucking core. Man, they’re awesome.

New Sea Shepherd Interceptor Unveiled

Oh, hell yeah! Sea Shepherd unveiled their new interceptor vessel, the Ocean Adventurer, and it’s a beast! This thing looks wicked fast and intimidating as hell. Moreover, it appears to have some launching pads on its deck for giving the gift of butyric acid.

Come this winter, it will suck to be a Japanese whaler. And thanks to Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, those of us too bound to our land-locked lives to join Sea Shepherd in the Antarctic waters will get to see the Ocean Adventurer up and close anyway. With the Bob Barker, the Steve Irwin, and the Ocean Adventurer, those whalers are in for a rough ride.

Japanese footage of Sea Shepherd launching butyric acid onto the Nisshin Maru. It’s interesting to see it from their ship. And it makes me laugh.

Dreams of Butyric-Acid Attacks

I have a few dreams in life. But few of them parallel my desire to pick up a bottle of butyric acid with my bare hand and throw it aggressively at a Japanese whaler.

When I watch old episodes of Whale Wars and witness Sea Shepherd mates partaking in this activity, I have to get up off the couch and yell at the television like an avid sports fan. “Fuck yeah! Get those fuckers!” My blood pressure rises and I my adrenalin starts flowing.

I’m not violent by nature, so this urge bewilders me. That said, there’s nothing violent about it, save for the action of hurling objects into the vicinity of others. I just salivate at the thought of making life miserable for those homicidal, backward thinking, environmentally unconscious, capitalists.