Voice from the Deep!

It looks like Sea shepherd are wasting their breathe again by asking Greenpeace to co-operate during the next whale hunting season…

I actually hope that Greenpace will “snap out of it” and they will all be singing off the same hymn sheet!

An Appeal for Cooperation from Captain Paul Watson

Okay, here we go again, but nothing ventured and nothing gained.

This is the official 2008 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society request to the Greenpeace Foundation to work in cooperation with each other to defend the whales of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary for the 2008 and 2009 Antarctic summer.

The targeted whales need all the help they can get when the Japanese whaling fleet returns to illegally slaughter endangered whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary in December 2008.

During the last season we stopped them for 50% of the time and cut their quota by 50%. If only we had two ships and sufficient funding we could stop them up to 80% percent and perhaps to 100%. But we are a small organization with only one fast ship to deploy and we need to raise funds to finance the campaign.

But there is a solution. If both the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Greenpeace Foundation could cooperate in a joint coordinated effort to oppose the Japanese whaling interests we could stop the pirate whalers cold in Antarctica.

Every year Sea Shepherd has supplied Greenpeace with the Japanese coordinates when we have found the fleet although Greenpeace has refused to return the favor. And yes there have indeed been harsh words between Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace over the years but the word Greenpeace does include the word “peace” and therefore I am appealing to Greenpeace once again in the name of peaceful cooperation to work with Sea Shepherd to protect the whales.

Let the past stay in the past and let’s deal with the present with a focus on a constructive future. There really is no practical reason why Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd cannot work together.

After all, I am an original Greenpeacer and a co-founder, not just of the Greenpeace Foundation in 1972 but also of Greenpeace International in 1979.

Both Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace work towards our goals in a non-violent manner although our definition of non-violence is not harming sentient life. As Martin Luther King once wrote, “violence cannot be committed upon a non-sentient object.”

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has never caused a single physical injury to a single person in our entire 31 years of operations. Nor have we ever had any crew convicted of a felony crime anywhere in the world. And we have never been sued.

The Dalai Lama is a Sea Shepherd supporter and he describes the Sea Shepherd approach as being consistent with the spirit of Hayagriva or the compassionate aspect of Buddha’s wrath meaning that we should never injure anyone but sometimes we need to be intimidating to intervene against violence.

I don’t believe our tactics are really the reason for the refusal by Greenpeace to cooperate with Sea Shepherd. After all Greenpeace has worked cooperatively with Earth First! whose tactics against property are far more extreme than Sea Shepherd.

Sea Shepherd is even willing to accept and forgive the violence of Greenpeace that causes harm, suffering and death to sentient beings that the crew consume on the Greenpeace ships as food.

Our ships are vegan vessels and thus we have fully embraced Ahimsa in our tactics whereas unfortunately Greenpeace has not. We do not however judge Greenpeace for this and request only that Greenpeace not judge us in return for our destruction of machinery utilized in the illegal slaughter and exploitation of sentient life.

I have asked this before and I will ask it again but how can Greenpeace ever hope to promote peace between nations and between humanity and nature when Greenpeace refuses to embrace peace within its own family?

This ridiculous animosity between Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd has lasted for three decades, longer than most wars between nations. In fact no one seems to remember just what the reason for the animosity is. The hostility seems to have become institutionalized. Sea Shepherd would like to see an end to this disharmony to allow both organizations to work together.

It has never been my intention to destroy Greenpeace. I am responsible in many ways for the birth and rise of Greenpeace originally, and why would I want to destroy such an achievement?

It is of interest that Greenpeace incorporated the word “foundation” in 1972 because of the book Foundation by Isaac Asimov. In that story there are two foundations, the large one and the more flexible smaller one – the Second Foundation. The role of the Second Foundation was to keep the Foundation on track and that involves strategies that include some that are tough. I have criticized Greenpeace in the past because Greenpeace needed to be criticized and that was not a negative thing although a negative response to criticism can escalate into a feud.

But feuds can be ended and I have attempted to end our feud many times over the years. But ending a feud takes both parties and unfortunately the offers have never been received and accepted and Sea Shepherd, and in particular I, have become objects of scorn and derision amongst some in Greenpeace. 

But we should agree that our petty human squabbles are trite and trivial in comparison to the violence assaulting the defenseless species of the planet. Strength lies in diversity and it also lies in unity. A movement that is both diverse and united is the most powerful of social movements.

Our ships all fly the same flag – the flag of the Netherlands. Some of my crew have served on Greenpeace ships and some Greenpeace crew have also served as Sea Shepherd crew. I myself served as 1st Officer on Greenpeace voyages between 1971 and 1977. Many of the original founders of Greenpeace like Robert Hunter, Lyle Thurston, John Cormack, David Garrick, and Rod Marining have sailed with Sea Shepherd.

So how about it Greenpeace? Together we can keep the Japanese fleet on the run. Let’s trade coordinates and relieve each other as the other ship refuels. Let’s deploy our crew and our tactics together in a united front on common ground.

You are not my enemy and I am not your enemy. The whalers and those who seek to destroy ecological harmony on this planet are our common enemy. We make them stronger when we are divided and we make them weaker when we unite.

This year presents us with a renewed opportunity to unite against the outlaw whalers of the Southern Ocean. Shall we do it?  Shall we work together in cooperation with each other? Shall we both contribute to a stronger effort and a stronger movement? Shall we fly the Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd flags side by side as we point our bows southward?

I hope for the sake of the whales and for this planet that we can and that we will.

I think it would be amazing if Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace could host a joint media conference in Santiago, Chile at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission to announce a working cooperative alliance to oppose the outlaw whalers.

My fellow Greenpeacers, (I am a lifetime member) I await your reply.

Sincerely in the Spirit of Cooperation to Defend the Whales,

Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Co-Founder of the Greenpeace Foundation (1972) and Greenpeace International (1979)

Good luck Paul…  you’ll need it against the Greenpeace big wigs!

3 Comments »

Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd conservations Society has given a frank and fair interview for the record…

The questions were asked by Peter Brown, a film director who has worked with Sea Shepherd since 1982.

Interview With Captain Paul Watson

Peter Brown: The Canadian government has seized your ship the Farley Mowat. Is this a bad thing for Sea Shepherd?

Captain Paul Watson:  No it’s a good thing. The Canadian government took our ship in international waters with an armed boarding party. That was an illegal act of piracy and I am confident that Alex Cornelissen and Peter Hammarstedt will be exonerated. I mean when you really think about it, the entire affair is ludicrous. Our ship was seized and two men arrested for taking pictures of seals being killed.

We will win this case and when we do, the government will have to return our ship and they will have to return it in the condition they took it and we will sue them if they do not.

Peter Brown: So do you regard the seal campaign for this year as a success or a failure.

Captain Paul Watson: I regard it as a success beyond our expectations. We brought attention to Canada’s seal slaughter internationally and especially in Europe and this will contribute tremendously towards encouraging European Parliamentarians to vote on a bill this year to ban seal products.

Peter Brown: You did not win many friends in Atlantic Canada. Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams called you a terrorist and said you are not welcome in his province. Loyola Hearn said that he was the new Wyatt Earp and you’re not welcome in Dodge City anymore. Does that bother you?

Captain Paul Watson: It amuses me. I know that Canada is a nation that has produced some great Comedians like Buster Keaton, Jim Carey, John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, for example and Danny and Loyola should be included in that list. Wyatt Earp really breaks me up – I love it.

What they don’t understand is that we don’t care what people in Atlantic Canada think of us. We are not playing to them. We are reaching out to inform Europeans because the Europeans have the power to end this slaughter. We discovered years ago that the only tactic that will work is to destroy the market for the grisly products of the seal trade.
           
Danny Williams should either arrest me or shut up. Calling me a terrorist may be cute but it has no foundation in reality. I’ve never injured anyone, been convicted of a crime, nor am I under investigation for any crime. And if I want to go to Newfoundland I will – I am a Canadian citizen and Danny Williams has no right to restrict my access to a province that is a part of my country. He is arrogant in the extreme if he thinks he can do so.  

Peter Brown: You seem to have had a good crew for the seal campaign?

More of the same here…

1 Comment »

The Canadian seal hunt (if walking up to a seal pup and clubbing it with a “hak-a-pik” can be called hunting!) has brought a world of disgrace down on the Canadian country as a whole.

But not all Canadians agree with the hunt as promoted by the Canadian government and the DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans)..

There are some promentant Canadians speaking out against the slaughter… Read about it here.

If you are reading this in the UK.. or an Ex-Pat… then sign up to the following :

Number 10 Downing Street - E-Petition: Ban Seal Products

The annual Canadian seal hunt is the largest slaughter of any marine mammal in the world. Defenceless Harp seal pups between three to twelve weeks old are being bludgened to death on the ice with wooden clubs and hakapiks (large ice pick clubs) in a seal nursery in front of their mothers on the ice floes off Canada’s east coast. This is extremely brutal and cruel! It has been proved that previously around 42% of these seal pups had been skinned alive and there is footage which shows seals being dragged accross the ice by boat hooks hooked in their mouths whilst still concious and dead and dying seals being stock piled. They are mainly killed for their fur which is exported mostly to Europe and Japan for fashion purposes. This is an absolute disgrace, and the U.K along with other nations should not be supporting such a cruel and barbaric massacre by allowing the imports of seal products.

No Comments »

David Jonas, a New Hampshire resident, described the tense confrontation to The Canadian Press early Sunday after he was released from custody in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

He said an RCMP tactical squad boarded the ship at 11 a.m. ADT Saturday while the Farley Mowat’s crew members were observing the annual seal hunt in the Cabot Strait - the body of water between Cape Breton and Newfoundland. 

Google Earth link to the locations involved

“We were placed under arrest, forced to lie down on the deck,” said Jonas, a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. “We were then escorted to the stern of the ship and kept under armed guard.”

Jonas said some of his shipmates were handcuffed once aboard the coast guard icebreaker Des Groseilliers, which brought them to port in Sydney late Saturday night.

Jonas said the Mowat’s 17 crew members were told they would be charged with violating Canada’s sealing laws.

However, once on shore, they were told the charges would be dropped against all but the captain and chief officer, who both made a brief appearance early Sunday in a Sydney courtroom.

Jonas said Canada has no legal grounds to detain them.

“Canada did not have a right to board us and bring us to Sydney. We were in international waters. We’re a Dutch-registered vessel and had the right of free passage.”

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has insisted the Farley Mowat was seized legally in Canada’s “internal waters.”

The Farley Mowat’s crew maintains their vessel never entered Canada’s 12-nautical-mile territorial limit, but Hearn said the Fisheries Act gave him the authority to take action beyond that line.

In Sydney, several members of the Mowat’s crew were detained Sunday after they refused to comply with immigration and customs checks, Jonas said. They refused the sign the immegration forms.

“Half of us have denied that opportunity, and will be interned,” he said. “It’s clearly an unusual circumstance for all involved.”

Until they’re released, the crew is going on a hunger strike, Jonas added.

The Farley Mowat will be detained in Sydney for as long at it takes Transport Canada officials to conduct a full inspection, Hearn said. No doubt they will drag their feet about it and delay it as long as possible.

Sea shepherd had the last laugh…

It took the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society a little while to arrange the $10,000 bail for the Two officers of an anti-sealing vessel arrested over the weekend.

You see, they decided to pay the ransom in Dubloonies. (2 Dollar coins)

“We have bail. We just came from the bank … We intend to give them $5,000 in coins, toonies,” said crew member Shannon Mann. “They called us pirates all the time so we thought it would be funny.”

Yes it is.. lol

I wonder if the RCMP will delete the video and images stored on the computer/laptops onboard ?

117 Comments »

At 0700 Hours (PST) and 1100 Hours Atlantic time the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat was attacked by officers from two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers the Des Groseilliers and the Sir Wifred Grenfell.

An armed boarding party took control of the Dutch registered vessel in international waters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence well beyond the Canadian twelve mile territorial limit.

Violence and intimidation both on and off the ice

Captain Paul Watson was speaking by phone with Farley Mowat communications officer Shannon Mann when he heard the voices of men screaming for the crew to fall to the floor. The men carried guns according to Mann and could be heard by Captain Watson threatening the Farley Mowat’s crew. As Captain Watson was speaking with Shannon Mann, the Satellite phone went dead and nothing more has been heard from the Sea Shepherd crew.

Canada’s federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn issued a statement on Saturday saying the government was acting in the best interests of the sealers.

A spokeswoman from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said three Australians were believed to be on board.

“We’re seeking to confirm the safety and welfare of three Australians allegedly on board the Sea Shepherd’s Dutch vessel Farley Mowat which is currently on its way to Nova Scotia,” she said.

The Candian fishermen sell seal pelts mostly to the fashion industry in Norway, Russia and China, as well as blubber for oil. The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972. The EU is soon to follow in banning of seal products.

US Humane Society video 

Cruelty documented on the ice

No Comments »