Commentary and Editorial

The Politics of Pretending to Save the Whales

Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

How can you sleep Peter Garrett when the whales are dying?

When is the Australian government going to get serious about saving the whales?

The Labor government of Kevin Rudd came into power a year ago on the crest of numerous promises to the people of Australia. One of those promises was to get tough with the illegal activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.

As someone who has spent a lifetime defending whales, I have to say that the performance of the Australian government in regard to the defense of the whales has been dismal and impotent. There has been plenty of posturing and posing, meetings and diplomatic ping pong but the plain simple truth is that the government has done nothing at all.

The Japanese whaling fleet is at sea, steaming south with the intent to slaughter the same number of whales as they targeted last year. 935 threatened Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales.

The verdict is plain - Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett have failed to convince the Japanese whalers to budge an inch on their illegal activities.

The Japanese intend to kill endangered whales in an established whale sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling and in direct contempt of an Australian Federal Court ruling specifically barring Japanese whalers from killing whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

They are giving a finger to Australia as they pass by on their way south. They arrogantly view Australians and New Zealanders with contempt. They know that the elected officials of both nations lack the courage, the passion, the motivation and the desire to do anything that might harm trade relations with Japan.

But the politicians have a problem. Australians and New Zealanders deeply love the great whales. Aussies and Kiwis have both the passion and the desire to protect the whales. In Australia last November they voted for a government that would take an aggressive stance against the whalers.

Fighting an Economic Goliath in the Southern Oceans

"Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only, Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me, For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all."

-         Walt Whitman

Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

The fight to end illegal Japanese whaling will not be won by winning the hearts and minds of the Japanese people and it will not be won in the boring and increasingly irrelevant annual mutual masturbation sessions held in different exotic locations every year by the International Whaling Commission.

It will be won in the remote and hostile seas off the coast of Antarctica by an unyielding anti-whaling crew that will never back down to the threats and machinations of the whalers. We must communicate with the whalers in the one language that they truly understand, the one universal language every ocean raper and earth plunderer on this planet understands - economics.

It's all about profit and loss and our objective is to keep the whaling industry in the red. Our objective is to sink the Japanese whaling fleet economically.

We can win this battle and we can drive the pirate whalers out of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by never retreating and constantly intervening. Every whale we prevent from being killed is a negative entry in their ledger. Every mile they run from us is a negative usage of fuel and another loss entry in their books.

Some say that educating the Japanese public is the answer. We disagree. Educating an entire society can take years, even decades and there is no indication that Japanese society is anywhere near being sympathetic to the cause of ending whaling.

The whales are dying now. Our clients are the whales and they can't wait for the outcome of media propaganda campaigns that may or may not work sometime in the future. The Japanese public has already had three solid decades of efforts addressed to it by anti-whaling organizations without a hint of any will or desire on the part of the Japanese people to support the end of whaling.

Whalers Fearful of Television Spot Lighting Their Crimes

Captain Paul Watson Responds to the Japanese Whale Killers Once Again

The Japanese whale killers are not very happy with the fact that Whale Wars Begins airing on Animal Planet Friday evening at 9:00 P.M.

The Institute of Cetacean Research has its public relations people around the globe working overtime desperately trying to discredit Whale Wars with one ludicrous accusation after another.

But try as they might they will lose this battle for the hearts and minds of viewers. Sea Shepherd is defending the largest, possibly the most intelligent and socially complex group of species on the planet - the whales, from the mercilessly cruel explosive harpoons of the modern mechanized Japanese whaling fleet. Only the most callous and anthropocentrically arrogant could back what the outlaw whale killers of Japan are doing.

Of course the public relations firms that Japan hires don't concern themselves with morality or even with what is legal and just. They are whores and they take the money and regurgitate their spin for their clients. Selling toothpaste or selling death, it's all the same to them.

Our clients however are the great whales and our objective is to defend them from slaughter by Japanese eco-terrorists who are spilling tons of hot blood into the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Just what is it about the word "sanctuary" that the Japanese government does not understand? These endangered whales are being targeted in a legally established international sanctuary for whales.

So once again, I will respond to the accusations by the whalers: