Each year for the last eight years, I have successfully led high-profile campaigns out of Australia to intervene against the shadowy operations of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.
These have been extremely dangerous operations in the hostile waters off Antarctica, against a whaling fleet backed by one of the world's most economically powerful nations.
During this time our ships and crew have been shot at, rammed, one of them sliced in two and destroyed by a Japanese security vessel. At the same time, our tactics have been strategically designed to not cause injury or property damage and to stay within the boundaries of the law.
Most importantly, every Sea Shepherd action has been thoroughly documented for the Animal Planet show, Whale Wars. Although this provides us with the evidence to defend ourselves against bogus accusations, it has also been a source of embarrassment for the Japanese government.
We have demonstrated that their "research" whaling is nothing more than a mask for commercial operations.
The Japanese insist that their shady whaling operations are legal. Australia and many other nations disagree. My position is that they should not be killing whales in a whale sanctuary.
Through cutting kill quotas by blocking their lethal operations, we have reduced kill numbers dramatically, saving more than 4,000 whales and costing the whalers their profits.
Our strategy of blocking the whaling fleet has driven this commercial whaling operation into substantial debt. They have continued to operate only because of massive government subsidies.
As a result, in September of 2011, the Japanese prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, said that this was no longer about whaling but about not surrendering to Sea Shepherd, and in October, the government allocated £19m from the Tsunami relief fund to the Japanese Fishery Agency for the purpose of stopping Sea Shepherd interventions.
They immediately filed a lawsuit in the United States seeking a preliminary injunction to stop our ships from returning to the Southern Ocean. The injunction failed and the most recent Sea Shepherd campaign prevented the whalers from taking 74% of their kill quota.
Japan had made a deal with a former crewmember after he was arrested for boarding the Japanese registered Shonan Maru #2, the ship that destroyed our trimaran. This man was taken back to Japan and received a suspended sentence for trespassing in return for accusing me of ordering him to board the ship. The Whale Wars episode where this happens clearly shows me advising him not to board the Japanese vessel.
The Japanese captain refused to co-operate with the Australian and New Zealand investigation into the sinking of the Sea Shepherd vessel and suffered no consequences for destroying the $1.5m boat. Yet based on false accusations, Japan is demanding my arrest. Why?
Because they have the influence to do so and we do not have the financial resources and political power to have the Japanese captain charged.
On 8 December 2011, Costa Rican president, Laura Chinchilla, travelled to Japan and met with Noda. At around the same time, Costa Rica made a request to Interpol for my extradition for an incident in April 2002 when Sea Shepherd had stopped an illegal Costa Rican shark-finning operation in Guatemalan waters. We did so with permission of the Guatemalan government and without injuring any of the poachers.
Interpol had dismissed that decade-belated request, but Germany decided to detain me nonetheless. I was then tipped off from a source in the German Ministry of Justice that Japan's request to Germany to hand me over had been granted. I had no choice but to leave Germany.
If not, I would now be in a cell in Japan.
The question now is what should I do from the safe haven I currently occupy?
There is only one answer. I have no choice but to continue to serve my clients, the whales. I can do that far better at the helm of the Steve Irwin commanding the Sea Shepherd fleet of four ships, aircraft and my intrepid crews than I can defending myself from bogus charges by Japan.
If I can return to my ships, I will. If not, my captains and their crews will return without me to once more defend the whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.
I have never suffered under any delusion that saving the whales in the Antarctic sanctuary would be easy, but the one thing I am certain of is that I and my passionate crew of international volunteers will never quit defending life in the seas from poachers no matter what consequences we must endure to do so.
• Captain Paul Watson is the founder and president of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Comments
31 August 2012 3:24PM
Good luck to you!
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Share31 August 2012 3:57PM
I'm no eco-warrior, but this guy is a legend and is totally doing the right thing. Keep on fighting! Also...Whale Wars is well worth a watch.
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Share31 August 2012 4:09PM
Brilliant - good luck to you! You are doing a good job and I hope you can carry on helping animals. People like you are the real heroes!
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Share31 August 2012 4:25PM
Just yesterday I had mentioned the case of Paul Watson in a post (commenting Monbiot's article: "Along with the Arctic ice, the rich world's smugness will melt". Actually I wrote a sequence of 3 posts and mentioned him in the first and third of those posts, together with the German environmental activis Hanna Poddig). I wrote:
Link to the page with my 3 posts.
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Share31 August 2012 4:28PM
From the other Guardian article about Paul Watson:
This is really rich of them.
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Share31 August 2012 4:30PM
I salute your bravery and dedication. The work you do in protecting our brothers and sisters the whales is essential, and representative of humanity and human nature at its most noble. Please do everything you can to save as many of these beautiful and intelligent creatures as possible.
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Share31 August 2012 4:33PM
Good luck indeed.The criminal charges against Mr Watson seem totally bogus. Another example of countries using crminal law and international extradition treaties being used, not to fight crime, but to chase people who they consider have insulted them in some way. This is the equivalent arresting the ship's carpenter while he's trying to stop a catastrophic leak in the ship's hold, because he failed to show sufficient deference to the Captain in a moment of crisis.
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Share31 August 2012 4:45PM
Guardian,
is there any wiki-leaks shit on whaling ? ... we´d like to know.
Mr Watson,
You are the dogs bollocks !
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Share31 August 2012 5:02PM
May the force be with you
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Share31 August 2012 5:35PM
May you always enjoy, Fair Winds and Following Seas.......
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Share31 August 2012 5:37PM
This chap is clearly bonkers. Protecting Whales is wonderful but Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars are bonkers. The man said the rather devastating tsunami was nature's revenge on Japan for eating whales, he's crazy.
Also, whales can't be clients; they are whales.
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Share31 August 2012 6:15PM
You sir were mocked in South Park, as far as I'm concerned that says it all.
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Share31 August 2012 6:31PM
Paul,
I suspect that mammals with bigger brains than ours are that much more intelligent. I wonder if, not being tool makers, they live in a state of grace.
You and your brave companions are winning the war to save whales from extinction. May you always enjoy fair winds and following seas.
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Share31 August 2012 6:39PM
If that's the money i gave to Tsunami aid, i want it back. Wft, is that legal???!!
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Share31 August 2012 6:57PM
Except that this is a rather "special" interpretation of the actual events.
(1) this "former crewmember" was in fact the captain of the ship that sunk, Pete Bethune.
(2) "received a suspended sentence for trespassing"
That's 25% right.
You forgot three of the other charges against Bethune:
obstructing commercial activities, vandalism and carrying a knife.
(3) it was for pleading guilty to those four charges that he was given the suspended sentence.
Not for "in return for accusing me of ordering him to board the ship".
In lieu of actual evidence to the contrary, Bethune only made such allegations three months after he received his suspended sentence.
(4) you also forgot to mention that during his trial, your group expelled him.
They claimed afterwards this was a legal move to (somehow??) help him. His lawyer disagrees with the legal help this provided.
(5) the investigation into the sinking of the Sea Shepherd boat found fault with both parties.
The list of "irregularities" in the above goes on and on...
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Share31 August 2012 7:04PM
Just to make sure Paul Watson knows that's a very big compliment ;)
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Share31 August 2012 7:08PM
maiaH
Thank you for the very kind and generous donation. The Japanese people are very grateful for the support and solidarity that was shown to us by people from all the world following the terrible disaster.
To clarify:
No donations were used to support whaling.
All donations were administered by NGOs and charities like the International Red Cross and no money was passed to the Japanese government from them.
The relief fund mentioned in the article was made from Japanese government funds raised by taxes in Japan and not donations.
LINK
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Share31 August 2012 7:09PM
But the Japanese say they're scientific ships, NeverMindTheBollocks. They carry big signs saying the whaling is for scientific purposes. What gives?
Misdemeanour.
In the Antarctic on a boat. Clearly the knife was for mugging someone with....
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Share31 August 2012 7:14PM
Even if all those things were true, no-one was hurt in the incident. I still applaud the Sea Shepard fleet and their crew - their heart is very much in the right place!
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