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Sea Shepherd Paul Watson answers questions of Renato Pichler
Feb 3, 2006

'Feeding fish, whale and seal to children is a form of child abuse'

Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson answers questions of Renato Pichler, President of the European Vegetarian Union (EVU),

31 January 2006

======================================

Renato Pichler : People everywhere have taken great interest in your confrontation with the Japanese whaling industry. I know that you cannot go into details here but would you give us a short resumé of your most recent experience?

Captain Paul Watson: We departed from Melbourne on December 8th and headed due south to the coast of Antarctica. We found the Japanese fleet on December 21st and they began to run north and west for six hundred miles. We caught up with them in extremely bad weather on Christmas Day. Once again they began to run, this time for eleven days and 2500 miles. Once again we pursued and found them again on January 8th. This time we were able to engage the Nisshin Maru in a confrontation for two hours but once again the whaling fleet began to run. On January 9th we intercepted the whaling fleet supply vessel Oriental Bluebird and we ordered them out of the Southern Whale Sanctuary. When they refused to comply, we sideswiped them hard slamming our starboard hull against their starboard hull. We then pursued them out of the Sanctuary.
The Japanese whaling fleet moved another 700 miles westward and we chased them for as long as we could before our fuel levels dictated that we head to the closest port – 2600 miles away in Cape Town, South Africa.
In total we chased the Japanese whaling fleet some 4000 miles and prevented them from whaling for a total of 15 days. The Japanese have admitted that this will impact their quotas which makes our intervention worthwhile.
Most importantly we discovered that the whalers are afraid of us and this gives us the key to shutting them down completely. We need to return in December 2006 with a faster ship. If we can keep with the fleet we can shut them down every day and save hundreds of whales.
Greenpeace had a fast ship that did keep up with the whaling fleet but Greenpeace is limited by their tactics. They do not stop the whalers. Instead they bear witness to the killing and document the deaths of the whales.
This is the big difference between Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd. We did not come to Antarctica to protest and watch whales die. We came to uphold international conservation law by shutting down their illegal activities and we are proud of the fact that we did not see one whale die. The Japanese did not dare to kill whales when we were around because they knew we would ram their ships to save a whale. Afterall we’ve sunk nine whaling ships since 1979.


Renato Pichler: What was the reason for you to take such an intense interest in sea mammals? And when did you decide to dedicate your life to them?

Captain Paul Watson: I was raised in a Canadian east coast fishing village. I even rescued and had two lobsters as pets when I was 8. When I was 10 I had a beaver friend that was killed by trappers and I retaliated by walking the trap lines, freeing animals and destroying the traps. I was a member of the Kindness Club as a child, a group that encouraged children to be kind to animals. When I was 18, I was a co-founder of a group called the Don’t Make a Wave Committee which in 1972 became the Greenpeace Foundation. In 1977, I left Greenpeace to establish the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Sea Shepherd is not a protest group. It is an interventionist group. We oppose illegal exploitation that targets marine life.


Renato Pichler: When did you set sail for the first time under the 'Sea Shepherd Foundation' and what was your first mission?

Captain Paul Watson: I established the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in August 1977. Our first ship the Sea Shepherd was acquired in October 1978 and our first campaign was in March 1979 when we intervened against the Canadian slaughter of seals. Our 2nd campaign was in June and July of 1979 when I hunted down, rammed and disabled the pirate whaler Sierra off the coast of Portugal.


Renato Pichler: There has been a report that the food onboard your ship is vegan. Are all crew members vegan or do they 'just' adapt for the occasion?

Captain Paul Watson: Not all crewmembers are vegan or even vegetarian but they are vegan when they are with the ship. In 2002 we were the first vegan expedition ever to travel to Antarctica. Many crew members exposed to our vegan menu for months on end have converted to veganism and many have experienced the health benefits of veganism.
We were amused this year when a Japanese spokesperson for the whaling industry dismissed us as “dangerous vegans” and “circus performers.” These are the most unusual names that we have ever been called and we have been called many things.
The first Sea Shepherd ship named the Sea Shepherd was a vegetarian vessel and that was way back in 1978.


Renato Pichler: What has been your personal reason for not eating meat/fish?

Captain Paul Watson: My first concern was for fish. I am an ocean conservationist and it has always struck me as strange that we hunt down and slaughter wild animals at sea in such vast numbers. People would not tolerate the mass slaughter of wildlife on land like they do with sea animals. Fish are essentially bush meat. Many people think it is deplorable that West Africans kill and eat gorillas, chimpanzees, lions and giraffe from the African bush yet think it is perfectly alright to hunt down sharks, swordfish, tuna and other species in the sea.
Many fish are long lived animals. Halibut live to 150 years of age. Orange Roughy do not even become sexually mature until they are 45. Lobsters can live to be 200 years. Yet we give little thought to cutting down a very young fish or a fish in the prime of life for a tuna fish sandwich or a lobster salad.
More than 50% of fish taken from the sea are fed to animals. We have turned cows, sheep, chickens and pigs into major aquatic carnivores. This is not only perversely unnatural it is also contributing to the massive diminishment of life in the seas. Thus I don’t eat meat in order to save fish.
My wife has been a vegan for twenty year and I do the cooking so I’ve learned to be a good vegan cook. In my opinion vegan meals are more diverse, more imaginative and more delicious than eating meat and fish.


Renato Pichler: The alarm bells regarding overfishing are getting more threatening by the month. It becomes obvious that some fish species are at the brink of eradication and it becomes also clear that in some cases it seems even too late for a moratorium. What are your ideas about sustainable fishing?

Captain Paul Watson: There is no such thing as sustainable fishing. I very much dislike this word “sustainable.” It has become the justification for business as usual. There are no sustainable commercial fisheries anywhere in the world.
Human fisheries have eradicated 90% of the fish from the ocean. This is insanity and we must put an end to the massive commercial exploitation of these aquatic wild animal populations.


Renato Pichler: How to you view the booming aqua-farming industry? Can this scheme take any pressure of dwindling wild fish species?

Captain Paul Watson: Absolutely not. It takes some fifty fish caught from the wild to feed and raise one farm raised salmon. The aquaculture of shrimp in Ecuador has destroyed vast areas of estuaries and mangrove swamps in that country and that is a major cause of natural fish populations. Fish farms attract marine predators that are shot in huge numbers by fish farmers as &ldquoests.”
Aquaculture is not a solution to over-fishing, it is an additional burden and stress to wild fish species populations.


Renato Pichler: Many people eat less red meat but increase the consumption of fish. Some even think that humanity is doomed without fish. What is your opinion about that situation?

Captain Paul Watson: Fish are certainly doomed because of humanity. We are literally plundering fish species to the brink of extinction and beyond. I have always found it amusing that people can eat fish and call themselves vegetarians. Fish are not vegetables. They are animals, wild animals.


Renato Pichler: It is now well known that animals on top of the food chain suffer from a record high contamination with a great number of poisonous agents. How do you view the fact that in Japan (where whale meat is even served to school children), Norway and a few other countries this tainted meat ends up on dinner plates?

Captain Paul Watson: Feeding fish, whale and seal to children is a form of child abuse. The children of the Faeroe Islands have the highest concentration of mercury in their brains of any group of children on Earth because of their heavy consumption of pilot whales. The higher the animal is on the food chain, the greater the toxicity. It is recommended in the United States that children and pregnant women should not eat tuna. So if it is unhealthy for children and pregnant women than why would it be okay for men and non-pregnant woman?


Renato Pichler: In our world, where everything is interconnected, the disappearance of one species has an impact on many others. What, in your opinion, will be the ecological consequences when one whale species after the other is pushed into oblivion?

Captain Paul Watson: If we cannot save the whales, we will not save the oceans and if we cannot save the oceans we will not be able to save ourselves.


Renato Pichler: And what is your comment about the fact that whales, non-human animals that have been on earth long before humans, are being massacred with official blessing and under the protection of some nations?

Captain Paul Watson: Humans are a predatory species but more ominously the human species behaves like it is above the laws of ecology and any species that does not live in accordance with ecological laws is a species on the road to the perdition of extinction. We must live in accordance to the law of diversity, the law of interdependence and the law of finite resources. We must preserve diversity and value interdependence and realize that there are limits to growth.


Renato Pichler: As we have seen, the word 'sanctuary' does not mean much these days. Fishermen and whale hunters do pretty much what they like. How are the prospects for international support for sanctuaries which are efficiently protected by either neutral forces (NGOs), national police or Navy?

Captain Paul Watson: We have plenty of international laws and regulations that no one enforces. We have hundreds of marine sanctuaries with only a few that are actually sanctuaries in more than name. There seems to be an international lack of will or motivation on the part of national governments to enforce laws and to protect sanctuaries. Fishing corporations wield significant financial clout and politicians and bureaucrats are bought with ease. There is great financial motivation to plunder the sea and not much motivation to protect the oceans.


Renato Pichler: You are the expert in marine life. If any, what kind of future do fish and marine mammals have in oceans which are swept clean by trawlers and heavily polluted by toxins and noise?

Captain Paul Watson: No future at all, and if marine life has no future than we have no future. The oceans give us something far more important than food. The oceans are the source of 80% of our oxygen supply. The oceans provide the very air we breathe. We can survive without eating fish but we cannot survive without oxygen.
Diminishment of whales and fish coupled with global warming and ozone depletion is having irreversible consequences on marine eco-systems. The oxygen produced by phylo plankton can be diminished by an ecological imbalance triggered by massive fish extinctions or the extermination of whales.
We must abolish the commercial exploitation of marine animal life. People must stop consuming fish. Some may see this as a radical proposal but it is in reality a conservative proposal. If we continue to ruthlessly plunder the living sea, the oceans will die in our lifetime.


Renato Pichler: What changes and improvements do you want to see and what are your recommendations to consumers? How can individuals help to make the situation better? How can people assist Sea Shepherd?

Captain Paul Watson: The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the only marine conservation society that promotes 100 percent non-consumption of fish and marine animals. Ocean species have been savaged by commercial exploitation to the point where every commercial fishery is on the verge of economic collapse. Life in the sea has been dangerously diminished. There are simply not enough fish in the sea to continue to feed the ever increasing human populations.
People can best help Sea Shepherd by contributing to our efforts to secure a new and faster ship to enable us to hunt down and shut down the Japanese whaling fleet.


Renato Pichler: After having safely reached South Africa - what are your next plans?

Captain Paul Watson: We are campaigning to raise funds to purchase a faster ship, a vessel that can keep up with the Japanese whaling fleet. If we can keep with them, we can stop them from killing whales. That is our priority for this year. We will be reflagging our vessel Farley Mowat and devoting it to intervening against illegal fishing operations off the coast of Eastern Africa.
We also have a full time patrol vessel in the Galapagos working in partnership with the Galapagos National Park to intervene against poaching in the Galapagos Marine Reserve.
While in South Africa, Sea Shepherd crew will be working to rehabilitate injured South African fur seals and we will be opposing the slaughter of fur seals in Namibia.


Renato Pichler: I am sure that many would be thrilled to see you and your crew in European ports. Do you intend to set sails for Europe in the near future?

Captain Paul Watson: Over the years we have indeed been in European ports. We have been in Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Monaco and I am sure we will return to Europe in the future.



Renato Pichler: Captain Watson, on behalf of the European Vegetarian Union I thank you very much for taking the time for this interview.
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Posted: Friday February 3, 2006, 9:38 pm
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