Amid scrambling to presentations at the World Science Festival and a United Nations screening of a remarkable new film, the “Journey of the Universe,” I slipped in 45 minutes to interview Paul Watson. He’s the founder of the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and central character in the popular “Whale Wars” show on Animal Planet, which began its fourth seasonon Friday night and may have a new focus next year.
The producers had to draw on a smaller lode of content this year, given that Watson’s aggressive harassment of Japan’s whaling fleet, along with economic and diplomatic pressures, cut short the killing season in February. As reported at the time by Martin Fackler, this greatly reduced the harvest:
The Agriculture Ministry, which runs Japan’s widely criticized research whaling program, said harassment by the group, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, had kept its catch far below its annual target of whales. A spokesman for the ministry said on Friday that 170 minke whales and two fin whales had been caught this season, far below the annual targets of 850 minke and 50 fin.
Watson, as ever, is unrelentingly blunt, rejecting Japanese claims that he is an ecoterrorist and criminal. If that’s the case, he told me, “Shut up and arrest me.” His only goal, he said, is to prevent the killing of whales, and he was thrilled to see Japan’s retreat this year.
For its part, the Institute of Cetacean Research, the mouthpiece of Japan’s whaling operation, has posted video from the whalers’ vantage point showing some activities that seem to me to cross the line from harassment to assault.Firing flares onto the deck of a ship (video) cannot be seen as anything else, to my mind.
Still, this is an arena where Watson insists he has the moral imperative to take strong action. “You don’t walk down the street and see a woman being raped and do nothing,” he said in the interview. “And you don’t stand there and watch whales die and do nothing but hang banners and take pictures.”
My sense, in this case, is that efforts by environmental and animal-welfare campaigners to track and document this whale hunt in international waters have provided a vital public service. Governments don’t have the capacity to patrol those waters and journalists certainly don’t, either.
The decision by Watson and his crew to take things further, intervening directly, is justifiable to me (I wouldn’t do it personally) only as long as he sticks to his pledge (in the video and elsewhere) not to hurt people or break laws. That’s a fine line and open to lots of varied interpretation, particularly on the high seas.
Every environmental and animal-welfare campaign, in theory, has the goal of putting itself out of business. It appears that, for now at least, Watson is able to shift from his longstanding prime target — the Japanese fleet harpooning in Antarctic waters under a program described as research but widely criticized as an end run around a moratorium on commercial whaling.
As you’ll hear in part two of our chat in a couple of days, Watson’s group is, for now, shifting its focus to waters off Libyawhere rogue fishing fleets are plundering Atlantic bluefin tuna in the absence of any effective governance.
Another focus this summer may be the Faroe Islands, where an annual roundup and beach slaughter of pilot whales has received far less attention than Japan’s slaughter of dolphins and whales.
The producers had to draw on a smaller lode of content this year, given that Watson’s aggressive harassment of Japan’s whaling fleet, along with economic and diplomatic pressures, cut short the killing season in February. As reported at the time by Martin Fackler, this greatly reduced the harvest:
The Agriculture Ministry, which runs Japan’s widely criticized research whaling program, said harassment by the group, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, had kept its catch far below its annual target of whales. A spokesman for the ministry said on Friday that 170 minke whales and two fin whales had been caught this season, far below the annual targets of 850 minke and 50 fin.
For its part, the Institute of Cetacean Research, the mouthpiece of Japan’s whaling operation, has posted video from the whalers’ vantage point showing some activities that seem to me to cross the line from harassment to assault.Firing flares onto the deck of a ship (video) cannot be seen as anything else, to my mind.
Still, this is an arena where Watson insists he has the moral imperative to take strong action. “You don’t walk down the street and see a woman being raped and do nothing,” he said in the interview. “And you don’t stand there and watch whales die and do nothing but hang banners and take pictures.”
My sense, in this case, is that efforts by environmental and animal-welfare campaigners to track and document this whale hunt in international waters have provided a vital public service. Governments don’t have the capacity to patrol those waters and journalists certainly don’t, either.
The decision by Watson and his crew to take things further, intervening directly, is justifiable to me (I wouldn’t do it personally) only as long as he sticks to his pledge (in the video and elsewhere) not to hurt people or break laws. That’s a fine line and open to lots of varied interpretation, particularly on the high seas.
Every environmental and animal-welfare campaign, in theory, has the goal of putting itself out of business. It appears that, for now at least, Watson is able to shift from his longstanding prime target — the Japanese fleet harpooning in Antarctic waters under a program described as research but widely criticized as an end run around a moratorium on commercial whaling.
As you’ll hear in part two of our chat in a couple of days, Watson’s group is, for now, shifting its focus to waters off Libyawhere rogue fishing fleets are plundering Atlantic bluefin tuna in the absence of any effective governance.
Another focus this summer may be the Faroe Islands, where an annual roundup and beach slaughter of pilot whales has received far less attention than Japan’s slaughter of dolphins and whales.
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