Visit their excellent site http://www.seashepherd.org/
This is one of the organizations at the forefront of the fight for our oceans.
The man at the helm is Captain Paul Watson, an outspoken and unstoppable environmental campaigner for over 40 years. If you're looking for a lovable, cuddly captain of the high seas this is not your man. Captain Watson is a cantankerous, often unsmiling man. Warm and effusive are not exactly words you'd associate with him. Just watch the excellent series "The Whale Wars" on National Geographic Channel and you'll know precisely what I mean. One doesn't warm to him as a character. I certainly didn't. But who needs a Mr. Nice Guy when instead you have this man who, along with his many crews over the years, has been tireless in his courageous all-out campaigning against whaling in the southern ocean.
The Sea Shepherds have become (in)famous for their annual treks out into the frigid, icy waters of the Southern Ocean as they track and then hound as many of the Japanese 'scientific' whaling vessels that plow those waters during the southern hemisphere summer. These Japanese vessels wreak havoc wherever they go, killing up to hundreds of these magnificent giant mammals of the ocean, using hunting techniques that are as barbaric as whaling has ever been. And will ever be.
The confrontations between the intrepid Sea Shepherd vessels and the Japanese whalers has often been fraught with danger, even violence. This reality came to light on January 5th this year when the Japanese whaling ship, the Shonan Maru 2, deliberately rammed the Sea Shepherd ultra-modern trimarin, the Ady Gil. Two days later the Ady Gil sank. The event sent shockwaves throughout the world, with images of the ramming flooding newscasts and the Net.
It was a blatant, belligerent and illegal act of violence on the high seas by the Japanese against the ant-whaling protesters. It was assuredly an act in contravention of every maritime law in peacetime. It showed the sheer arrogance and impunity of the Japanese whalers.
Subsequent actions by authorities were appalling, both by the Japanese in their infinite capacity for righteous indignation in the face of their barbarity and the Australians, as ever kowtowing in their role as Resource Whore to the Far East, Japan included, of course.
But who the hell cares in the end. The legal and financial repercussions can never be dismissed outright, of course. But the moral imperative and unyielding spirit of those who work for the Sea Shepherds continues unabated, perhaps even more fired than ever.
This organization has come under tremendous fire from different quarters over the years. Many environmentalists question their tactics, citing the opinion that their actions against whalers are quasi-violent and possibly counter-productive. As if trying to harass whaling ships compares to what the whalers are doing to the whales in terms of violence.
They've even been accused of being attention-seekers. As if being out all alone and exposed on the frigid, often turbulent waters of the southern ocean is somehow glamorous and motivated by grabbing headlines. Yeah, for sure.
Even the well-documented antipathy between Captain Watson's posse and Greenpeace is well known. And so be it - every cause has its rivalries and its factions. Such is human nature.
They may come across like a ragged bunch of adventurers out on the high seas. And the provocative pirate-evoking flag that they use on their anti-whaling forays might be more in keeping with their true persona. But their cause is deadly serious. And for all the right reasons.
Bono is a self-important, attention-hogging wannabe activist schmuck and pompous git who deserves all my contempt. Captain Paul Watson is anything but.
These activists don't only fight for the whales of the oceans. They have campaigns for seals, sharks, dolphins and the unique marine ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands. Their latest campaign in 2010 is 'Operation Blue Rage' and is a fight to stop the overfishing to extinction of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. Their flagship, the aptly named Steve Irwin, will depart from New York this Saturday, May 1st, on its way to fight their latest battle in the Mediterranean.
It will be yet another fight by the Sea Shepherds on behalf of the creatures in our oceans, a fight on behalf of the very survival of the oceans and seas themselves.
A fight on behalf of all of us.
And for all of this I salute them.
No comments:
Post a Comment