Whale of a War on Animal Planet

Today's cuppa: Mystic Monk Coffee, Mystic Monk Blend

Here's an edited version of a print story that came out last week that has yet to pop up in Google. If you missed the Friday, Nov. 7, premiere of "Whale Wars," here's a chance to catch up and learn about adventure and conflict on the high seas, with the fate of whalers, whales and eco-warriors at stake. Episode one repeats tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by the premiere of episode two.

Animal Planet enlists in 'Whale Wars'

 

By Kate O'Hare

©Zap2it

 

Last Friday, Animal Planet premiered "Whale Wars," a seven-episode series chronicling the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's two-month mission to interfere with Japanese whaling ships operating near Antarctica.

For the society's founder, Paul Watson, the choice of Animal Planet to document his activities was a calculated one.

"With Animal Planet," he says, "it reaches a lot of people that we look on as our constituency. And (the late Australian naturalist) Steve Irwin was a big supporter of ours. Our ship's called the Steve Irwin. He was on Animal Planet.

"Teri Irwin (his widow) christened it, and we launched it last year from Melbourne, Australia. He was actually supposed to come with us to Antarctica.

"I was scheduled to meet with him about it. This was two weeks after he died, that I was supposed to meet with him."

Watson co-founded the international conservation advocacy group Greenpeace but left to start Sea Shepherd in 1977.

"We're marine wildlife conservation exclusively," Watson says. "We're not a protest organization; we're an interventionist organization. We're much more aggressive."

An Animal Planet film crew was embedded with Sea Shepherd, capturing the mission from the group's point of view alone. Sea Shepherd members have been labeled as activists, heroes and eco-pirates -- the group's vessel sails under a Jolly Roger flag -- and its goal is to cut into the profits of Japanese whaling.

To do this, Sea Shepherd's tactics include ramming and disabling whaling ships. Its Web site states, "Sea Shepherd has no problem with admitting to ramming a whaling ship involved in illegal whaling."

The press release for the show also mentions Sea Shepherd disrupting the processing of whale carcasses and boarding and dispersing whaling fleets (there is controversy over a boarding incident featured in the series).

"This is our fourth year that we've been going down there," Watson says. "So this really covers the campaign as it proceeds leaving Melbourne, through the different confrontations with the Japanese, ultimately resulting in the Japanese getting half their quota."

According to Watson, his group enforces international law as defined by United Nations World Charter for Nature, adopted in 1982,

"The problem is," he says, "international conservation law has no enforcement. We are the enforcement. We operate in accordance with the U.N. World Charter for Nature, which allows for individual and nongovernment intervention."

Watson adds, "The International Whaling Commission in 1986 passed a moratorium on all commercial whaling. So what the Japanese are doing, they are targeting endangered species in a whale sanctuary in violation of that moratorium.

"Their argument is that they are doing it for scientific research purposes. However, they've killed more whales in the last 20 years than they have killed in the last 50 years prior to that for that purpose. So it's illegal, and it is deemed so by international law."

According to documents released by the Japanese Embassy in Australia (a nation that has condemned Japanese whaling), the eating of whale meat is a long-established part of Japanese culture, and the ships are conducting research to prove the sustainability of whale harvesting.

The documents assert that certain research requires the killing of whales to obtain body parts and samples for study, and that byproducts of that research (such as whale meat) are sold at fair market value rather than being wasted.

The documents also claim that Sea Shepherd's activities have endangered lives and caused injury at sea.

According to Watson, his efforts are affecting Japanese public opinion.

"Most people weren't aware of it," he says, "but because of he dramatics of the campaign this year, it got into the Japanese media. We're doing a lot of Japanese interviews. We have a Japanese crew member; we have two more coming with us.

"Now more and more Japanese are becoming concerned about it. More and more Japanese are questioning, 'Why are we doing this? It's giving us a bad name around the world, and it has no economic gain.'

"That's why we decided that there's one language they cannot ignore, and that's to keep hammering them economically."

Watson also says he came under attack.

"This last campaign," he says, "I was actually shot by one of the Japanese. We don't know who it was, but I had a bulletproof vest that stopped the bullet. That's the only reason we have the bullet."

An Associated Press story from March 25, 2008, states that the Japanese claim to have fired stun grenades that lack shrapnel.

Watson says he has footage of one assault.

"They threw concussion grenades at us," he says. "One of the cameramen from Animal Planet was knocked flat on his back. He had followed cricket games in Australia, so he naturally followed the grenade as it came in, and it exploded right int front of his camera.

"It's good footage, but it knocked him flat on his back."