Whale Wars

We are captivated by the new Animal Planet TV series Whale Wars and look forward to each episode.

The premise dates back 30 years. Despite being its co-founder, Greenpeace evicted Paul Watson from its ranks in 1977 because he advocated direct intervention instead of nonviolent approaches. In 1979 he launched the first Sea Shepherd boat and the group's mission statement reads:

Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.

They list among their whale highlights:

• Ramming and disabling the notorious pirate whaler, the Sierra
• Shutting down half of the Spanish whaling fleet
• Documentation of whaling activities in the Faeroe Islands chronicled in the BBC documentary Black Harvest
• Scuttling half of the Icelandic whaling fleet and whale processing station
• Scuttling of the Norwegian whaling vessels Nybraena and Senet
• Confronting and opposing Japan's illegal whaling in Antarctica

Make no mistake, this is an eco-terrorist outfit whose ship flies a pirate flag and whose captain claims the right to enforce his own interpretation of the law on the open seas in international waters. No nation gives them this mandate, they assume responsibility for their own actions. It operates outside the jurisdiction of any nation to employ rather violent tactics against operations it deems worthy of harassing. Altogether a fascinating concept, pirates claiming themselves and their actions as righteous.

In fact, the Whale Wars program makes it clear that the current whaling laws are debatable. The Sea Shepherd claims the findings of the International Whaling Commission, which established whale sanctuaries at certain latitudes, but Japan claims it is performing scientific research in a program to assess whale stocks. The heart of the dispute is whether that is accurate or merely a guise to cover a large scale whaling operation. Personally I find them red-handed when they painted the word "RESEARCH" on the sides of their boats and holding up signs in English when they dissect the whales on board - name any other scientific venture that would defend its efforts in this manner. Also, Greenpeace documents a 2008 Japanese haul at 551 whales and claims that in the last 18 years Japanese fleets killed 6,778 minke whales - hard to buy all that killing is done to measure the death rate of these whales.

Legendary crocodile hunter Steve Irwin's wife Terri said "in 2006 he was investigating the possibility of joining the Sea Shepherd on part of its journey to defend these beautiful animals" and she permitted Sea Shepherd to rename its ship in his honor. This is the ship hosting the Animal Planet film crew. It is worth noting that Terri Irwin also "will launch non-lethal research of whales in Antarctic waters next year in hopes of showing that Japan's scientific whale kill is a sham".

That's the backdrop, but the drama comes from the tension of imminent conflict. The crew (at least on the episodes aired) looks to contain primarily young idealists and a lot of very young women. It is hard not to wonder if these young women knew what they signed up far at moments when the captain challenges the crew to risk their lives for the sake of the whales. The captain fancies himself a general and recites the Art of War, yet his tactics appear not well planned out. They attack vessels with stink bombs, literally, and try to stop propellers with long lines of thick rope. Those aggressive actions warrant retaliation by the boats they attack, yet it appears Sea Shepherd is unarmed and unprepared for retaliation. One wonders if they hope to become sacrificed in the name of calling attention to commercial whaling.

The most recent, and most outlandish, tactic we saw was to place two crew members on the whaling vessel deck. Of course they were almost thrown off into the freezing waters and were instead taken as hostages. This reduces the crew of the Sea Shepherd and removed two capable crew members, including its engineer.

For a brief video demonstrating their tactics in action check out
one of Sea Shepherd's heavily edited videos.