Jun 22 2010
Screw You, Furuno
This in, from Sea Shepherd:
Furuno Inc. Supports the Slaughter of the Whales
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society does not hold Japanese companies or Japanese citizens responsible for Japan’s illegal slaughter of the world’s whales.When people have complained that we have Japanese equipment on our bridge, we have always answered that we cannot victimize individual Japanese companies unconnected with whaling just because the Japanese government is pro-whaling.
But one Japanese company has now made it perfectly clear that they support the killing of the whales and that they oppose our conservation efforts. That company is Furuno Inc.
The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin is equipped with Furuno navigational instruments like radar, depth sounders, and global positioning systems.
This week in Athens, Greece, we put in an order to replace an old failed radar system. We were given a quote and placed the order. The next day we were informed that Furuno has a policy that their equipment cannot be sold to Sea Shepherd.
Apparently, the Japanese government is not happy with seeing Furuno equipment onboard our ships in every episode of “Whale Wars.”
So it appears that we are not allowed to buy any Furuno products. Damn, we guess a donation from Furuno is definitely out of the question!
This is the letter that we received today from Furuno’s sales representative in Greece
“Dear Sir,
Ref to our various telecons / exchanges on the subject, we regretfully advise you that, we, finally, are not in the position to supply you requested Arpa Radar, since we have such instructions from our Head Office in Japan.
Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Best regards
Capt. Spyros Dovelos
Sales Manager”FURUNO ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
9-52 Ashihara-cho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo 662-8580, Japan
URL: http://www.furuno.co.jp/en/
Beyond the support of whaling, which I find reprehensible, this is a company denying their product, which happens to be safety-related, to a ship that plys oceans all over the world.
The crew of the Excellent Adventure will be eliminating Furuno products from our boat, and we are going to throw our energy behind encouraging everyone we know to boycott Furuno as well. If you are in a position to participate, I would encourage you to share this information, and to link back here, so we can show our strength in numbers.
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Well, I never liked their crappy gear anyway! Fuck ‘em!
Ok…maybe I’m dumb, but why is an Italian company (Furuno) getting involved with international polics, the Japanese government, and Sea Shepherd? If Furuno stuck to making RADAR and GPS equipment and kept their mouths shut, this crap wouldn’t happen.
Seth, they’re Japanese, not Italian.
Un-freaking beliveable! Well, ours never worked anyhow. So, sayonara!
[...] off their nautical shopping list just because of Sea Shepherd's accusation, no matter how much it rattles around the blogosphere. But here's the weird thing: As obnoxious as Watson is, I do think he has a [...]
[...] blog post: Screw You, Furuno http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/06/22/screw-you-furuno/ #seashepherd #boycottfuruno [...]