For years I have been reporting on the incredible waste of marine wildlife for the purpose of feeding domestic livestock.

Feeding rendered fish to livestock has made the pig and the chicken two of the most prolific aquatic predators on the planet.

As the incompetent government fisheries bureaucracies around the world scream that seals, dolphins, whales and sea-birds are eating up all the fish, entire populations of numerous marine species are being scooped up to feed factory farmed chickens and pigs or to raise captive salmon in over-populated aquatic concentration camps.

But there is another terrestrial based dominant marine predator – the voracious house cat!

A recent study by Dr. Giovanni Turchini and Professor Sena De Silva of Deakin University in Australia lends credibility about my past reports that domestic house cats are eating more fish than many seal species.

According to the report, 2.48 million tons of fish is used globally by the global cat food industry every year.

Compared to this the Grey seals of the ..North Atlantic.. consume a mere 314,000 tonnes of fish. Harp seals, the species that the Canadian government has demonized as a voracious fish eater (who would have thought, they eat fish, eh) eats, according to the Canadian government, 890,000 tons of capelin, 186,000 tons of arctic cod, 37,000 tons of Atlantic cod, and 350,000 tons of sand lance each year for a total of 1,393,000 tons of fish.

Harps seals and Grey seals combine eat an estimated total of 1.7 million tons or 780,000 less than the world’s domestic housecats.

In Australia alone domestic housecats consume an average of 13.7 kilograms of fish a year which exceeds the Annual per capita consumption of 11 kilograms of fish and seafood consumed by Australian hominid citizens. Cats alone are eating more fish than people.

Most of the fish fed to cats includes sardines, herring, anchovy and capelin, the same fish that provide the foundation for a food chain that supports the larger fish like cod, tuna, swordfish, as well as marine mammals and birds.

It is these same so called forage fish that are caught in enormous amounts for use as fishmeal for livestock and farmed raised salmon. These fish are also utilized for fish oil and even fertilizers.

These small fish are literally the grass that the larger fish, seabirds and sea mammals graze and depend upon. Their mass exploitation has led directly to the crash of major fisheries.

It is one of the greatest crimes of irresponsibility for the fishing industry to be wiping out these small fishes for fish meal, cat food, and fish oils.

“While much of the criticism has been on the grounds that forage fish could be better used for human consumption directly, particularly amongst the poorer nations of the world, rather than in the production of food for farmed fish, little attention has been paid to the amount of forage fish used by the pet food industry,” Dr. Giovanni Turchini said.

“Pet ownership is increasing globally. The pet food industry is moving towards a constant increase of production and manufacturing and marketing premium and super-premium products. These gourmet pet foods contain a significant amount of fish that may be suitable for direct human consumption, while different raw material unsuitable for human consumption, such as by-products of the fish filleting industry, could be used.”

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Wave piercer: The ship can submarine up to 23 feet underwater and runs on renewable biodiesel fuel

Sleek: The Ady Gil is capable of up to 50 knots and will be used to block harpoon ships from illegally slaughtering whales

Similar: The Ady Gil looks like the Batmobile, right

 

The underside of the boat is armed with two giant propellers capable of hitting speeds of 50 knots

 

Star support: Captain Paul Watson is joined by ardent environmentalist and Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah prior to his anti-whaling missing last year

 

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26342065-953,00.html

by Bissme S.Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society predicts grimly: "If the oceans die, civilisation ceases to exist, and we die. Protecting whales, protecting the oceans, is really a question of self-preservation."

Watson was raised in a fishing village in eastern Canada, and this, perhaps, explains his innate love for marine life. Even as a schoolboy, he was known for releasing animals from traps and at 18, he became the youngest founding member of the Green Peace Foundation in Vanco

..

.. © 2009 AAP

 Captain Paul Watson
 

Why We Love to be Hated

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1

Captain Paul Watsons Ten Greatest Experiences of His Life

Captain Paul Watsons Ten Greatest Experiences of His Life

Environment  (tags: conservation, paul watson )

Claudia
- 26 seconds ago - blogs.myspace.com

This was difficult to compile. I have been blessed with so many adventurous experiences in my life.

1

Sad News - Reno the Lobster Did Not Make It

Environment  (tags: Reno the Lobster, paul watson, sea shepherd )

Claudia
- 6 minutes ago - blogs.myspace.com

Report by Captain Paul Watson

The Laws of Ecology and the Precedence of Natural Law

On the High Seas.

  I have the utmost respect for the law. Indeed, it is our duty as citizens of the Earth to live harmoniously within a community of complex interspecies interactions in accordance with the primary laws of ecology.

            Species survival is not dependent upon intelligence but rather upon adaptability and adherence to the laws of nature. These laws come under the category of lex natura (Natural Law) as opposed to the written and unwritten laws of nation states known as lex scripta (written law) and lex nonscripta (common law or unwritten law) respectively.

            When lex natura is combined with lex ethica (ethical laws) these form a foundation for human behaviour that can be described as natural law.

            Law in human societies is a bastion against social chaos. The laws of nature

transform chaos into order.

            Laws of nature can be divided into the primary and secondary physical laws.

The primary physical laws includes the law of gravity, the law of entropy, the law of thermodynamics, the chemical, nuclear, biological, electrical laws, and the law of conservation of energy or mass.  

            We don’t ever have to worry about the primary laws. There are no loopholes in the laws of physical nature. Not only is gravity a good idea – it’s the law. Step off a cliff without a parachute and the consequences of the law of gravity will be quickly appreciated.

            We can even formulate a Law of Immediate Consequences. Violations of primary physical laws result in immediate consequences. Enforcement is usually ruthless and completely non-discriminatory. These laws are definite. They cannot be repealed, altered, or amended. These laws are beyond question, beyond criticism, and thus unbreakable.

            Humans and all other organisms have little choice but to respect the primary physical laws of nature.

            Secondary physical laws can be broken without immediate retribution. The results may not be drastic or immediate. Consequences can range from things just not working to catastrophes brought about over time.  

            The laws of ecology are secondary physical laws. These are the relatively simple laws that make up the second realm of bio-physical laws. These are secondary physical laws in that they can be broken with non-immediate consequences.

            Violation of the ecology laws are possible, although escape is temporary. The consequences are just as ruthless and non-discriminatory with the only difference being that the penalty is delayed.       

            For a species to survive and prosper, instinct or common sense disallows violation of the primary laws. You don’t stick your hand in the fire. You don’t walk on water and you don’t walk off a cliff.

            For a species to maintain itself within an eco-system, the adherence to the laws of ecology is a necessity.

            Finally every species develops a code of conduct within its special structure that organizes behaviour amongst its own kind for the common good. This ethical code is ancient and evolving but it is required to ensure social survival, which has a direct bearing on biological survival. Humans have both universal ethics and cultural ethics. All other species have their own internal ethical disciplines.

See the full article with references at Paul Watson's blog at Myspace.com:

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The bizarre trial of Captain Alex Cornelissen of the Netherlands and 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden continues into the fourth day in Sydney Nova Scotia. It's a one sided trial. The defendents were not allowed to enter the country to defend themselves. They were actually sentenced to deportation for life last April which meant they had already been found guilty before the trial. The Farley Mowat was also seized and sold without being arrested and without a court hearing. The Judge declared that the defendents were properly served with an order to appear and thus declared the trial valid and clear to proceed. The Court did not explain how the two defendents could have appeared when they were denied entry into Canada.

Both Alex and Peter are facing a year in prison and up to $100,000 in fines for the "crime" of witnessing and documenting the slaughter of seal pups which in Canada is a violation of the Orwellian "Seal Protection Regulations."

Any penalties will be unenforceable because the two defendents are not in Canada and are prohibited from entry into Canada and the penalties can only be enforced in Canada.

What the court will accomplish for the Canadian government may be to achieve a verdict of guilty without the requirement of introduction of evidence that conclusively proves that the Farley Mowat never came within the 12 mile territorial limit of Canada. This evidence is contained in the Sea Shepherd logbook and GPS Unit which the government confiscated last April and refused to return to Sea Shepherd.

The court will also seized the $10,000 (5,000 doubloons) that Sea Shepherd posted as bail for Alex and Peter. Failure to appear may mean forfeiture of the bail  to the government although the men were prohibited from appearing by the government.

It's tough to win a case in court when the Crown (the government) holds all the cards.

Despite the one sided nature of the trial, the Judge was not buying the accusation that the Farley Mowat deliberately rammed a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker. The court viewed the video footage from the Sea Shepherd website and decided that the evidence was inconclusive. It is interesting that the Coast Guard did not provide video of the evidence. Video taken from the Coast Guard icebreaker would have shown the collission much more clearly and thus it was not in the interest of the government to show it.

The government has been providing a string of government witnessess to testify that the Farley Mowat approached the area where the seals were being slaughtered.

The Sea Shepherd position is that the Farley Mowat was a Dutch registered yacht that had right of passage outide the 12 mile limit and that the government of Canada violently assaulted and seized the ship at gunpoint, stole the property of the crew, stole the ship and held the two officers until a ransom of $10,000 was paid.

"It was an act of piracy by the Canadian government and the seizures were carried out without due process of law and the two officers have been deprived of their right for a fair trial by being denied entry to attend the trial, " said Captain Paul Watson.

Source: Captain Paul Watson's MySpace Blog

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Controversial killing fleet tastes failure as Japanese lose their appetite for whale meat

JAPAN: The slaughter continues despite 3000 tonnes of blubber lying in storage
From Stephen Phelan in Tokyo

WHALING SEASON in Japan has been a relative failure this year. The fleet recently returned two weeks early to home&ensport at Shimonoseki, after several months of clashes with protesters in the Antarctic Ocean, who effectively prevented the Japanese vessels from reaching their target quotas of 935 minke and 50 fin whales.

Another hunt was launched last week from the north-eastern port of Ayukawa, with the stated aim of catching at least another 60 minkes in domestic waters before the end of May.

According to campaign group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, this new mission is a transparent attempt to recoup the financial losses of the Antarctic hunting season before the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Portugal in early June, where Japanese whalers are likely to be censured again for their ongoing programme of so-called "lethal research".

"They need to kill at least 765 whales to break even," reported Sea Shepherd, in a written statement which also alleged that Japan's whaling industry is a "criminal" enterprise perpetrated by "mad dog killers" and controlled by the Yakuza (Japanese mafia).

While no other environmental groups go quite so far - Sea Shepherd's opposition is proactive to the point of ramming its own ships into whaling vessels - most at least believe that Japan is using marine science as a cover for its ongoing trade in whale meat.

Commercial whaling has been subject to a worldwide moratorium since 1986, but Japan has carried on killing non-endangered species of whale with recourse to Article VIII of the IWC's founding treaty, which permits lethal sampling for the purposes of research, and allows for the public sale of whale meat as a by-product.

For their part, however, the public is not really buying. While the Japanese Fisheries Agency claims that up to 5000 tonnes of whale meat are consumed every year in this country, estimates suggest that at least 3000 tonnes are now sitting unwanted in cold storage.

Despite falling market prices, and regular government efforts to "educate" the population by way of academic lectures, food festivals, and compulsory school lunches, whale meat remains a dish that few modern Japanese have eaten more than twice. Not because it is scarce, they just don't like it.

Daiki Fukuda is owner of a traditional izakaya restaurant called Paddock, in the northern coastal prefecture of Ishikawa.  His reasons for not serving whale meat are purely culinary. "It doesn't taste good," he says.

"I think it's very strange to go hunting for whales near the South Pole when we have other meat and fish that are much more delicious. I tried whale meat once at school when I was a kid, and I hated it. We all did."

Customer Uma Mori agrees on the taste, but adds that eating whale meat is not considered "wrong" in Japan.

"In our culture we believe everything has life, even a grain of rice," he says. "There's not so much difference between killing an animal or cutting a piece of grass. Whale might not be food in Western countries, but it is for us." While this view may not be entirely representative, it does help explain why Japan has so far resisted pressure to abandon its whaling programme, and ignored the censures of the IWC.

In the absence of sound economic or scientific reasons (conservationists argue advances in DNA testing, fecal analysis and tagging have made lethal sampling unnecessary), there remains the question of national pride.

As Ayako Okubo of the Ocean Policy Research Foundation recently put it: "It's not that the Japanese want to eat whale meat they don't like being told not to eat it by foreigners."

This resentment is especially pronounced, because it was foreigners who told them to eat it in the first place.

Only a few villages around the edges of Japan can claim a legitimate historical tradition of whaling.

Most of the rest of the country had never tasted whale meat until after the second world war, when American occupation forces promoted it to the impoverished and malnourished populace as a relatively cheap and abundant source of protein.

Those who still claim to enjoy the taste tend to be older citizens and nostalgic baby-boomers. Japan's major political parties - all of which support whaling - are well stocked with those.

It's possible that the practice will die out as they do. But for now, says Nanami Kurasawa of Japan's Iruka and Kujira (dolphin and whale) Action Network, it is difficult for the small domestic anti-whaling lobby to be heard over the quasi-scientific rhetoric of politicians and the tacit, if silent, complicity of the general public.

"Our activities are not supported here," says Kurasawa. "The issue is too controversial for ordinary people, who believe that the government's science is neutral, and that Japan is the only nation conducting valuable whale research in Antarctica.

"The whaling community will not accept that whales are special animals. As long as they polish up' their arguments every day, it is not so easy for us to present the counter-arguments."

Meanwhile, the Japanese fleet have caught and killed 679 Minke whales this year, and coun

Why Boycott the 2010 Winter Olympics?

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Captain Paul Watson
 

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We who fight for nature, for wilderness, for life and for justice for nature are modern day knights charged with the task of defending this wondrous and unique planet.

The definition of a medieval “knight” was the same as the Japanese “samurai.” Both words mean “to serve”.

Today we need knights dedicated to serving this planet, serving our forests, our wetlands, our deserts, our rivers, our mountains, our oceans and our fellow Earthlings of all species.

Modern ecological knights are men and women who serve the cause of defending the natural world.

Medieval knights held to a code of Chivalry and the Eco-knights of today also hold to a Code of Ecological Chivalry. 

I have taken the liberty of defining the modern day Code for Ecological Chivalry using the ancient Medieval Code as a guide.

In the Legends of the past we had the Knights of the Round Table. In the myths of the future we have the Jedi Knights and in the reality of the present we have the Ecological Knights that Serve the Planet Earth or Eco-Knights.

1. Thou shalt trust in thy mother the Earth, and shalt observe all her laws.
   
2. Thou shalt defend and honour thy mother the Earth and her children with thy life.
3. Thou shalt respect the Law of Diversity recognizing that the strength of an eco-system is dependent upon diversity of species within it. Strength lies in Diversity.
4. Thou shalt respect the Law of Interdependence, recognizing that all species are interdependent and thus are equal.
   
5. Thou shalt respect the Law of Finite Resources, recognizing that there is a limit to growth and a limit to carrying capacity.
6. Thou shalt reject the anthropocentric beliefs and attitudes and view the world from a biocentric perspective.
   
7. Thou shalt recognize that water is the sacred blood of the Earth and must not be wasted nor defiled with filth.
8. Thou shalt recognize that soil is the sacred flesh of the Earth and must not be wasted nor defiled with filth.
9. Thou shalt recognize that the air is the sacred breath of the Earth and must not be wasted nor defiled with filth.
10. Thou shalt recognize that the Oceans are the foundation of all life on Earth and must not be abused nor defiled with filth. If the Oceans die than we all die.
    
11. Thou shalt recognize that all sentient beings are equal and all must be respected and shall not be abused, tormented, exploited or slain for our pleasure, amusement, or material satisfaction.
12. Thou shalt recognize that thy body is a sacred vessel and must not be abused nor defiled with filth.
13. Thou shalt volunteer thy services to defend thy mother the Earth and all her children.
    
14. Thou shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word.
15. Thou shalt not suffer fools. The enemies of the Earth do not command respect.
16. Thou shalt not bring a child into this world unless you pledge to love, nurture and educate the child as thy first priority.
17. Thou shalt not debase love nor friendship and shall demonstrate respect and equality to all fellow ecological knights, both men and women.
18. Thou must respect life and thou must avoid causing injury, pain and fatality unless for reasons of immediate self defence and survival.
19. Be not afraid of death and live one’s life with courage and honour.
20. Protect and defend the innocent, the weak and the persecuted.
21. Never betray a friend or a comrade no matter what the consequences.
22. Be true to thy heart and dreams and never submit to the dictates of others.
23. Be loyal to any authority that you have pledged your respect and loyalty to, and do not betray the confidence of that authority.
24. Thou shalt not pity thyself, complain, spread malicious gossip, or engage in trivial and petty social conflicts.....
25. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Earth, the Oceans, the Forests, the Rivers, the Wetlands and the Soil.
26. Captain Paul Watson
    

Japanese Fisheries Agency says less whales killed because of disruptions by
anti-whaling activists (AAP: Institute of Cetacean Research)

A former Australian Environment Minister, who is now on the boardof the Sea Shepherd Society, says he is thrilled the group's campaign this yearreduced the Japanese catch.

The Japanese Fisheries Agency yesterday said it had planned to kill close to a thousand Minke whales in Antarctic waters this year. That number was reduced to 670 because of disruptions by anti-whaling  activists on the protest ship Steve Irwin.

Ian Campbell, who is on the Sea Shepherd's international advisory board, says that is music to his ears. "They went down there to destroy over a thousand and they came back with many hundreds below their quota," Mr Campbell said.

"That's what the Sea Shepherd sets out to do. We set out to save whales and the Japanese Fishing Agency are telling all of the supporters of Sea Shepherd around the world that we've been successful. So I thank the Japanese for their support."

The Oceans are like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. As long as it was alive it laid a golden egg each day but then the greedy farmer decided to kill it to get all the gold inside and found nothing and the Goose laid no more golden eggs because it was dead.

For centuries, the oceans have fed humankind. But in the last century, human greed has raped and pillaged oceanic eco-systems remorsefully with an ecological ignorance that is staggeringly insane.

I don’t eat fish because I am an ecologist and I have seen the diminishment of fish in the seas all of my life. I was raised in a fishing village and I was raised on a diet of cod, sardines, mackerel, smelts, clams, lobsters, flounders and trout. I have seen with my own eyes the steady diminishment of fish, lobsters and crustaceans. And what I ate as a child I choose not to eat today for the simple reason that there are to many of us on land eating so few of them that live in the seas.

The fisherman has now become one of the most ecologically destructive occupations on the planet. It’s time to put aside the outdated image of the hardy, independent, salt of the sea, hard working fisherman working courageously to feed society and support his family.

No longer does the average fishermen go to sea in dories with lines and small nets. Today’s industrial fishermen operate multi-million dollar vessels equipped with complex and expensive technological gear designed to hunt down and catch every fish they can find.

One manufacturer of electronic fish locators (Rayethon) even boasts that with their product, “the fish can run but they can’t hide.”

And for the fish, there is no safe place as poachers hunt them down mercilessly even in marine reserves and sanctuaries.

We humans have waged an intensive and ruthless exploitation of practically every species of fish in the sea and they are disappearing, and if we don’t put an end to industrialized fishing vessels and heavy gear very soon, we will kill the oceans and in so doing, we will kill ourselves.

Scientists this week revealed that widespread malnutrition is affecting the fish, bird and animal populations of our oceans. Not only are we depleting their populations, we are starving the survivors.

We are feeding fish to cats, pigs and chickens and we are sucking tens of thousands of small fish from the sea to feed fish raised in cages. House cats are eating more fish than seals, pigs are eating more fish than sharks, and factory farmed chickens are eating more fish than puffins and albatross.

With other factors like increased acidification, global warming, chemical pollution and ozone depletion causing plankton populations to decline, we are waging a global assault on all life in our oceans.

The fish cannot compete with our excessive demands. We have already removed 90% of the large commercial fish from the sea. Chinese demands for shark fins is destroying practically every species of shark in the ocean.

Whereas the fishing industry once targeted and destroyed the large fish, they are now focusing on the smaller fish, the fish that have always fed the larger fish. Of the top ten fisheries in the world today, seven of them now target the small fish. If to small to feed people, they are simply ground up into fish meal to feed domestic animals and farm raised salmon and tuna.

Aquaculture has also now emerged as the most wasteful utilization of fish and is the economic engine driving the intensive exploitation of the small fishes.

And now Japanese and Norwegian fisheries are extracting tens of thousands of tons of plankton from the sea to convert into a protein rich animal feed.

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We are the Ladies of the Night of the Marine Conservation Movement. Many people revile us, and many others may support us in the night, in secret, but do not wish to be seen with us in the daytime.

We are not respectable. We are not nice. We are not polite. We’re down and dirty and we get wet in the most hostile of seas as we get into people’s faces, pissing people off as we make enemies – oh yes, lots and lots of enemies.

Enemies! The more the merrier actually, for I believe that the number of enemies that one cultivates is in direct proportion to how effectively one is intervening against other people’s interests and the interests of a great segment of the human species is directed towards the destruction of our planet and especially to the destruction of our oceans.

I read every critical blog, every media indictment, every gossipy lie and every fabricated accusation with amusement.You see we don’t have to answer to any government, to any society, tradition, culture or to any human being at all.

We answer only to our clients.

I have never been under any illusion that what we do is easy, or will lead to any quick or clear victory on behalf of our clients. Nor have I ever suffered the illusion that our ideas are welcome to most people. Unlike ....Saint Paul...., we don’t try to be all things to all people. Instead we remain true to our objective – unswerving and unwavering.

We save them one at a time, or pods, or schools, or herds, or colonies, or flocks at a time actually. Every whale saved from a harpoon is a victory, every shark or turtle cut from a longline is a victory, every albatross released from a net or a hook is a win for us. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society exists to save lives and to buy time and most importantly to intervene to uphold the international conservation laws that nations have neither the political or economic will to uphold themselves.

We have also never expected to receive the praise or even the support of the media, of politicians, bureaucrats, or the majority of the public. We’re not here to win the Chevron Environmental Award or even the Nobel Peace Prize, or to be rewarded with money or acclaim or recognition.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society does not exist to serve the interests of any group of people. We are not a people organization. This society was established for the sole purpose of defending marine wildlife species and marine habitats from poachers.

We represent whales, sharks, sea-turtles, sea-birds, dolphins, seals, fish, invertebrates, and plankton and we do so within the context of a world dominated by a humanity intent upon the destruction of both marine species and marine habitats.

The very nature of the foundation of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society invites hostility, anger, violence and condemnation from anthropocentric society.

 myself have been called a racist, a communist, a fascist, a misanthrope, a pirate, a Nazi, a right winger and a left winger, a anarchist, an egotist, a megalomaniac, and oh yes, let’s not forget that favourite title bestowed upon us by our critics – an eco-terrorist.

One thing for sure, we can’t be all of these things to all people and it matters not what some people call us. After all people are causing the very problems we are trying to solve.

What is important is that we know who we are and what we are doing and what we are doing is carrying out a strategy of sailing close to the wind, as close as legally and morally possible to intervene against illegal and immoral activities for the purpose of saving lives from the avarice, arrogance and wilful ignorance of humanity.

You see, we met the enemy long ago and saw that it was us and thus we are in a war to save ourselves from ourselves.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been in existence since August 1977 and during that entire period encompassing 32 years we have never injured a single person, sustained a single serious injury or been convicted of a felony crime anywhere in the world.

Despite this, the stories are spread throughout the media that we are pirates, extremists, criminals, even terrorists.

Why is this?

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The Endless Quest
By Captain Paul Watson

Adieu my darling, the whales of the sea are dying and we know why, Slaughtered by pirates, we must follow their cry, The engine hums, turns, moves slow, so far to go, The cry of "T’har she blows" erupts, as hot blood from gaping wounds do flow.
The cold sea is so embarrassed for us, all certainties disappear, We need only empty our sad hearts of fear, We voyage so far, so very far from land, To a so very lonely place, very lonely, where we make our stand.
A ship of heroes? Or a wise ship of fools? What is wrong? What is right?
People of peace forced into a complex fight, In a crazy charge against insanity, We are such a small insignificant fraction of humanity.
So many self righteous cynics, so much hatred, selfishness and greed , For humanity to grow, the world must bleed, We can feel the anger, the fear and the hate, Staring into the cold eyes of bureaucratic minions of the State.
The harpoons thunder, pierce, and explode in a fiery vicious rape, Pantheistic shields repelling waves of hate, Her dying screams echo darkly inside my mind, Gasping, thrashing, in agonized horror at the cruelty of mankind.
Into this wild sea of slaughter we voyage, sailing close hauled with the law, Jagged open wounds torn, ragged, red and raw, Humanity destroying life in God’s name, Cowards coveting blood money, searching for other species to blame.
Humanity has lost the desire to endure a selfless quest, In serving this living Earth there is no rest, Enduring ridicule and the ignorant jests, Humankind has long forgotten that we remain temporary guests.
The magical nature of this voyage is shrouded in mystery, The magic can be glimpsed in our history, Upon this great black ship, we all are blessed, Unless and except those whose treacherous natures remain unconfessed.
Tragedy has struck those few who have lied, sabotaged and betrayed, Mediocrity followed those who have strayed,
Powers sprung forth from an unfathomable source, We keep to our course guided by the light of this benevolent force.
Over the dark shroud of the sea we move, wedded to the tidal flood, The rising moon provokes the salt in our blood, Songs of whales vibrate the rhythm in our souls, World changing songs transcending time, lapping on uncaring coral shoals.
Be’twixt the dimensions of reality defined by human thought, Nature’s world that humanity has long fought, Imprisoned in our encyclopedia, Replaced by the trivial hysteria of modern media.
Hypnotized by charismatic whores peddling utopian dreams, Bread and media circuses masking schemes, Truth is distorted to what they want to hear, Manipulating mass movements to govern by false hope and by fear.
Willing the wind, waves, weather and currents to carry out her commands, The spirits of the victims scream their demands, Harnessing the strength of her intrepid knights, To sally forth in forest, desert, plain and sea in a thousand fights.
Ahead lies violent death, inspired by the coal black heart of culture, A ship that laps steaming blood like a vulture, Three little killers with deadly little dicks, Blowing holes in the holy mind of the sea for profit and for kicks.
Hominid cockroaches scurry evilly over mutilated whales, Nations weigh decisions on corrupted scales, Talk, the excuse for doing nothing at all, Diplomacy, the justification for the Japanese to stall.
The resolute spirit of the samurai has long been laid to rest, Seppaku, a mere step upon Sedna’s breast, Seaman swallowed by a cold blooded kraken, A sacrifice, that the consciousness of Moana may awaken..
The albatross guides this fair black ship protected by a karmic shroud, Southward under the land of the long white cloud, Onward to the edge of the far Southern Sea, As the whales flee from the deadly harpoons, the killers before us flee..
 
- Captain Paul Watson
- January 23, 2009

Captain Paul Watson
 

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

From Captain Paul Watson

The Death of a Whaler

Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

I never met Hajime Shirasaki. I'm sure that if I had met him, we would not have agreed on much. He was a whaler and I detest whalers and I'm sure he detested us for our efforts to protect his victims.

But Hajime Shirasaki was also a human being with a family and friends who will miss him. And for that we sympathize with his family for their loss.

Hajime died yesterday. His body was claimed by the Great Southern Ocean and chances are it will not be recovered. To fall off a ship in these waters in the night means death and every sailor knows it. The water temperature is zero degrees Celsius. Death comes quick in these seas. Still, to watch your ship sail on as you lay helpless and freezing in its wake is a terrifying experience.

Hajime was a young man of 30. Why he decided to join the crew of a whaling ship is unknown to us but it was a decision that he made.

Apparently Hajime, an engine room oiler on the Kyosin Maru No. 2 a scouting ship for the Japanese whaling fleet, went outside at night by himself dressed only in coveralls. He never came back inside.

There are three possibilities. He accidently fell overboard. He was pushed or he committed suicide. We will probably never know. What we do know is that he is the third fatality suffered by the Japanese whaling fleet since 2007.

A crewmember of the Nisshin Maru died in a fire in January 2007 and a second crewmember on the Nisshin Maru died in the summer of 2007 in an industrial accident onboard the factory ship. He was crushed in the conveyor that loaded the whale meat into the hold.

"The Japanese whaling industry has been screaming about Sea Shepherd being a threat to safety at sea." Said Captain Paul Watson. "Yet in the five voyages that Sea Shepherd has made to oppose illegal Japanese whaling, not a single Japanese whaler has been injured and Sea Shepherd has not had any crew injured. We have an unblemished safety record. It appears to me that the whaling industry should improve their safety measures instead of scape-goating us for their lack of responsibility. The truth is that Sea Shepherd does not pose a threat to the crew on the whaling vessels. The whaling industry kills whales and whalers. It is an industry of death."

The crew of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin send their condolences to the family of Hajime Shirasaki. His death is a tragedy. And the slaughter of the whales is also a great tragedy. How many more whales and humans have to die before Japan abolishes this brutal and barbaric annual slaughter of the whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary?

Captain Paul Watson - January 6, 2009

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A poem in a bottle tossed upon the stormy sea, A message sent forth with hopes for an answer back to me.

Where and to whom will the currents and tide bring my missive?

Will wind and rocks and reef conspire to be dismissive?

A note in a wine bottle tossed in the cold Bering Sea, Delivered an answer fifteen years later back to me, Another in the warm Filipino Sulu Sea did fall, Upon an Indonesian beach where coconut crabs crawl.

Plucked from the heated sand by a fisherman's weathered hand, The note promised a small reward from a far distant land.

I wonder how many bottles float on the briny flood?

And how many messages lie buried in benthic mud?

How many last wills and testaments are entombed in glass?

How many penned floating tragedies survive from the past?

Short notes in bottles are the last gasps of dying sailors, All that remains of ship wrecked merchants, warriors and whalers.

The most passionate of notes were those tossed upon the Main.

The most desperate of epistles written while in pain, Sailors staring into the blackness of oblivion, Fearful of dying, fearful of the unknown and beyond.

Lord George Byron tossed a cork bottled poem into the deep, A note to fair sweet Loukas for whom he missed and did weep Poems and bottled notes are the legacy of sad passion All that remains after the eating of the last ration.

Delivery is dependent upon wind, current and tide, Left to chance, fate and the abyss to reach the other side.

Is there a Buddhist prayer more sacred than a floating note?

Eternity can most plainly see what words have been wrote.

No other missive is so terribly open and bare, Hope sends forth a message with chances of delivery rare.

Words naked under the elements, sea sick with despair, Dizzy words, drunk on the brine tainted befouled bottled air.

There is no lonelier note upon this great Earth, alas, Than a message, a will, or verse, entombed in transparent glass.

Open to the radiant sun, and yet not seen nor read, Words that scream forth with very painful desire to be said.

Words of love, of hopelessness, pleas for help, questions of science, Unending odysseys and dying words of defiance, Words broken upon far foreign beaches, oozing black ink, Lost Bottles containing lost promises that float or sink.

There are many deep secrets in our mother ocean's womb, The seven seas do serve as library, museum, and tomb, Inside a scroll of glass, place and cork your verse or story, Chance will lose it forever or transport it to glory.

There is an art to placing notes in the vast open ocean, Exceptions of course for cases of panicked emotion , A natural cork preferred with a strong coloured glass flask, Acid free paper, and indelible ink for the task.

Set a course for the bottle with the current, wind and tide, Once set free upon the sea your sacred message will ride, Remember to include, position, address and the date.

Throw it well clear of the ship's wake into the hands of fate

Bottles can contain marvellous magical things its true, Treasure maps, genies, riddles and spirits to name a few, The greatest treasure of all are words tossed on a lonely beach, Profound words, poetic words of passion that reach and teach.

All modern poets should entomb their words in coloured glass, Better to be lost forever upon the storm tossed flood, Than ignored in a sad culture of apathy and mud, Where arrogant ignorance chills the soul, freezes the blood.

When I am no more present in thought, memory, or form, A part of me will still continue to weather the storm, My few words will float until on a beach will someday land, When a stranger's hand will pluck my words from the foam and sand.

Bottled messages are anxious genies seeking release.

Confessions begging for absolution from any priest.

Pathways and maps to riches for the very lucky few, A bequeathing to the unknown by an unlucky crew.

A message in a bottle remains a symbol of hope, Tying us to strangers with an immaterial rope, There are very few sailors who have sailed the vast ocean, Who have not posted letters at sea without emotion.

This very verse will be printed on a nautical chart, Into a corked brown bottle I will deliver my art, To be thrown with great hope and wondrous loving emotion, Into the cold dark embrace of the Great Southern Ocean.

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Captain's Blog

Running an Icy Gauntlet for the Whales

December 22nd, 2008. Off the coast of Antarctica.

By Captain Paul Watson

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Government of Canada Calls for Removal of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society President Paul Watson

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 8, 2008) - Comments made by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSC President Paul Watson regarding the humane harvest by Inuit hunters of narwhals trapped in ice near Pond Inlet, Nunavut, have crossed the line beyond reasonable dissent.

The offensive commentary written by Mr. Watson equates this humane harvest with the killing of civilians during the Vietnam war. It represents an invective against Inuit that has nothing to do with conservationist principles. These deeply hurtful remarks reveal an extremism that is unacceptable in our society, and we call for an immediate apology and retraction of these comments. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society should as well immediately remove Mr. Watson as their president.

The Inuit people are closely connected to their environment and have been for centuries, and will continue to practice their great culture. Inuit strongly believe animals should be respected and should never suffer as in this case. Mr. Watson's comments demonstrate a deep ignorance of Inuit society, and seek to demonize their culture and traditions. His extreme comments discredit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which he represents. These comments are deeply offensive to Inuit, and to all Canadians.

The irresponsible comments made by Paul Watson are proof that Mr. Watson's leadership as president of a conservationist movement should end immediately.

Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans

Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health.

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This is Captain Paul Watson's response.

I have absolutely no intention of apologizing for or retracting my criticisms of the cruel and unnecessary massacre of 560 defenseless Narwhals by Inuit riflemen on the orders of the Canadian government. I also have no intention of resigning.

The slaughter of these Narwhals did not need to take place. The Humane Society offered to employ Inuit to keep the breathing holes open until a Canadian government icebreaker could arrive to break them out. The Canadian government refused to dispatch an icebreaker stating that the noise of the icebreaker would "stress" the whales.

There was nothing humane about the slaughter that followed as Inuit riflemen opened fired on the frightened whales. The "stress" of an icebreaker would have been minimal compared to the horrific trauma of having family members torn apart by bullets around them. There is no humane way to shoot a whale. For the DFO to describe this slaughter as "humane" is ludicrous but then again not unexpected from a government that describes the skinning of a baby harp seal alive as "humane."

The use of the word "harvest" also illustrates the callousness and insensitivity of the DFO. These whales were not "harvested", they were shot in cold blood like fish in a barrel. These are endangered species and the responsibility of the government of Canada should have been to do everything possible with the resources available to them to save these animals. They did not.

This is the same DFO that spends millions of dollars each year providing icebreakers to the Canadian sealers to break paths through the ice to kill seal pups. There is no excuse for their refusal to break these Narwhales out of the ice.

I said nothing hateful about Inuit culture. My criticism was for the behavior of those individuals who slaughtered 560 Narwhals when it was possible to rescue them. I maintain that the slaughter was barbaric, cruel and unnecessary. I make no apologies for that. I could not care less what race or culture these men belonged to - it was their behaviour that I condemned and I maintain that it was a viciously cruel way to execute the orders of the government of Canada.

Our clients are whales and other marine wildlife. We represent their interests and not the interests of people of any culture, of any race, of any belief. We do not discriminate on our criticisms of human culture. The defense of life, diversity and the ecological health of this planet takes precedence over any culture. I am frankly sickened by the continued use of culture to justify everything from bullfights to fox hunts, to polar bear hunting to whaling to cutting down the rainforest.

My empathy is for hellish horrific pain, suffering and loss borne by the Narwhals. They are after all the First Nations. They were there before any of us and humankind has waged bloody war on the First Nations for far too long.

And in this war between our species and the others, (non-human sentient citizens of the planet) I side most passionately with them against us, a proud traitor to my species and every whale I can save from the clutches of death at human hands is a victory.

As for my comments being offensive to ALL Canadians, that is certainly not true. I am a Canadian and I know hundreds of others Canadians who were not offended, who in fact supported my comments and most importantly my comments were not offensive to the memory of the 560 Canadian Narwhals who died under a hail of bullets.

The Canadian government could have rescued those whales, if they had the political will to do so. They did not, so they let Inuit riflemen act as the executioners of their cold-hearted bureaucratic decision.

I fault the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans first, the riflemen second and the Inuit culture not at all. More to read : http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=165320542&blogID=455651534&n

Sea Shepherd Crew Heading South to Defend the Whales

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin departed the Port of Brisbane today with an international volunteer crew of 48.

The crew includes 33 men and 15 women. 14 of the crew are from Australia and 4 from New Zealand with the rest of the crew hailing from Japan, Canada, Great Britain, the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa, Hungary, and Bermuda. 8 of the crew are representing Animal Planet for the documenting of the 2^nd season of the series Whale Wars. The other 40 crewmembers make up the crew for Operation Musashi. 23 of the crew are returning veterans and for the remaining 25, this is their first time on a Sea Shepherd campaign.

Included in the crew that departed from Brisbane is Daryl Hanna, a longtime dedicated environmental activist and actor whose films include Blade Runner, Kill Bill, Roxanne and Splash.

The Steve Irwin will make a brief stop for fuel before proceeding to the Ross Sea to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Japanese whaling fleet is targeting 935 threatened Piked whales plus 50 endangered Fin whales in an established Whale Sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling.

"Our objective is to sink the Japanese whaling fleet – economically." Said Captain Paul Watson.

The whales do not have time to wait until awareness is changed in Japan. The killing must be ended now and the key to success is to interfere with profits. Sea Shepherd intends to make sure that the financial losses of the Japanese fleet exceed their profits. This is the only language that the whalers understand.

Sea Shepherd has given the name of Operation Musashi to this year's campaign in reference to the legendary samurai ronin and master strategist Miyomoto Musashi who is to Japan what Ned Kelly, Robin Hood and Jesse James are to Australia, England and the United States.  

Musashi wrote of the "two-fold way of pen and sword" and that means that confrontation plus communication is the strategy to be followed this year. Sea Shepherd will physically block the Japanese harpoons and we will be producing a dramatic television series to communicate the problem and our solution to the world.

All Sea Shepherd tactics are designed not cause bodily injury. Last year, the whalers accused Sea Shepherd crew of throwing "acid" on them. While technically rotten butter is butyric acid, it is less acidic than beer or orange juice. But it does stink very bad and thus interferes with their work.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society expects the Japanese to be more aggressive this year. They are losing money and their image as whale butchers is becoming a growing embarrassment. Last year the whalers threw concussion grenades and fired live shots at the crew of the Steve Irwin. We expect they will be more hostile facing another year of losses.

The Sea Shepherd crew are also concerned over Greenpeace allegations that Sea Shepherd is a violent organization. "This kind of irresponsible rhetoric could get us killed," said Steve Irwin 2^nd Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden. "If Greenpeace continue to make these unsubstantiated accusations, it could serve to justify violence by the whalers against us. We would like to request that they cease and desist from making remarks that may possibly endanger our lives."

Captain Paul Watson expects to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet in the Ross Sea area around sometime during the last 10 days of December. "Hopefully we will arrive in time to give the gift of life to the whales this Christmas and hopefully we will see 2009 as the last year that these outlaw whalers continue to slaughter these intelligent, defenseless and gentle sentient creatures."