Captain Paul Watson is on the run, possibly sailing the high seas or at least aiming to.
The head of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is wanted by the German authorities for extradition to Costa Rica in what he says is a heavily-funded drive by Japan to extradite him to face charges in a Japanese court over the damage he is doing to their whaling industry.
Watson has escaped the net. His aim is to stay at sea to continue the battle to protect whales, sharks, seals and other marine life from the slaughter. These animals are crucial to the health of the oceans and their loss could directly affect man.
Message from a “pirate”
Watson has just issued a note to explain how he views his situation.
Here is it in full:
Hi everyone. I have been out of contact. The Japanese government allocated $30 million dollars to stop Sea Shepherd this year and part of this strategy is to target me indirectly through Costa Rica and directly through allegations based solely on false accusations provided from a deal they made with a former crewmember have brought this situation about. For those who say that I should submit myself to the Japanese courts I can only say that will not help the whales much and that is my priority – to lead the Sea Shepherd fleet of four ships and over 120 volunteers against the Japanese whaling fleet when Operation Zero Tolerance is launched in December. We have the Japanese whalers on the ropes and we need to blockade them aggressively with the objective of preventing them from killing a single whale. Can we do it, especially while under financial and legal assaults by Japan? Yes, I think we can and the tougher the whalers hit us, the tougher we need to be. I have never been under an illusion that what we do is easy.
The challenges are daunting and sometimes it feels like we are fighting the impossible mission. But we should never forget that we are winning. For the last two years especially we have cut the Japanese kill quotas to under 30%. Our mission this year is to reduce this to zero percent. I would like to thank all our supporters for the incredible help that I and Sea Shepherd have received during my time in Germany and over the past month that I have been preparing for my return to the field campaigns. We have four ships being prepared. The Steve Irwin is returning from a successful campaign to Northwestern Australia to defend the nursing grounds of the Humpback whales. The Bob Barker is getting her generators overhauled in Sydney. The Brigitte Bardot will complete her anti shark-finning campaign in the South Pacific by the end of the month. And before the campaign begins, our new fast ship the Sam Simon will be unveiled. The Japanese whalers will not get the injunction from the U.S. Courts they are seeking to stop us. As the Japanese whalers toss up obstacles, we knock them down or find ways around them as we remain focused on the objective of returning to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to defend the whales and returning to Taiji, Japan to defend the dolphins.
Watson is at sea, being hunted, though international waters afford him some sanctuary.
But the good news is that he is not alone.
Many volunteer to be “pirates”
While he may be the high-profile head of Sea Shepherd, the organization has teams of people carrying on the battle, their ships carrying the pirate emblem, the skull and crossbones.
Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd is not about to disappear from the map just because Watson is being hunted. In fact, the publicity may be galvanizing even more support. Watson has actually called on supporters to use his persecution to further highlight the cause.
Sea Shepherd is well organized and high profile, using innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of the delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, the organization works to ensure their survival.
Where’s the captain?
Sea Shepherd doesn’t need Watson to keep running its operations.
As he wrote in the Guardian newspaper:
“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.”
If we judge by the actions of the governments of Germany, Costa Rica and Japan, Watson is a pirate. After all, they might say, doesn’t he fly the skull and crossbones? Interpol has been alerted and they seek to blacken his name.
Yet one can’t help feeling that here is an activist who should take pride in such a label.
We are all “pirates”
Governments are failing to protect the oceans. Worse, they are aiding in the destruction of marine life and the pollution of the seas.
If it takes “pirates” to protect the oceans, maybe we should all become “pirates.”
For information of Sea Shepherd’s work, check out their website, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Fighting to protect the marine life of the oceans
