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Point Of View! with Barb Sumner Burstyn
Minke Sushi -
August 2002
 Some
issues are so black and white they are never examined, let alone
criticized. Like whaling. It’s obvious that every pro whaler
is bad and all anti whalers are good. That’s why, when a
guy like Paul Watson, the icon of anti-whalers weighs anchor in
Auckland Harbour we welcome him unquestionably.
Watson who describes his conservation group, Sea Shepherd, as
a self-appointed policing organization for whalekind is famous
for his Robin Hood like tactics. To make sure whalers and any
fisherman breaking Sea Shepherds rules get the message he sails
up close, flouting international sailing conventions and declares
them under arrest. When they ignore him he begins his campaign
of harassment, including water cannons, firing gunpowder and his
piece de resistance; the "can opener", a tool apparently
capable of ripping open the steel hulls of ships, a technique
that has often lead to boat sinkings and a number of close calls
for sailors.
Excuse me, but am I missing something here? Here’s a known
saboteur, a man the Norwegians call a terrorist and whose organization
is said to have solid links to the frightening Animal Liberation
Front (ALF) and whose activities come under the FBI’s Animal
Enterprise Terrorism watch floating happily in Auckland Harbour.
As if that isn’t enough Watson has been branded a blatant
racist by Native peoples across North America. Not only for his
attempts to stop the legal capture of a Grey Whale by the Makah
Indian tribe but for his writings, where, using discredited and
racist anthropological models he argues racism is a mere ‘human
triviality.’
Then there are the criminal convictions. Watson, who claims he
speaks on behalf of the Cetacean nation, has served time in several
foreign prisons. Holland sentenced him to 120 days of unconditional
imprisonment for attempting to scuttle a whaling vessel in 1992.
He’s been charged with criminal damages after steering another
of his ships into a Coast Guard vessel in 1994, he’s been
accused of transmitting false alarm signals and for illegal entry
into Norwegian territorial waters. He’s had multiple arrests
on criminal mischief charges and recently faced attempted murder
charges and criminal charges for ramming a Costa Rican fishing
boat.
With such a list of unlawful activity, the presence on board
of a ‘powder’ used to fire his deck mounted canon, not
to mention his tools designed to facilitate the sinking of another
vessel, it seems remarkable that Auckland police have done no
more than pay a cursory visit.
But, you reason, he is saving the whales. Well that may not be
all it seems either.
At few decades ago Watson’s crusade did make sense. Commercial
whaling had devastated many whale breeds, pushing some to the
point of extinction. But today the U.S. National Marine Fisheries
Service estimates there are more than two million sperm whales
worldwide. The International Whaling Commission calculated years
ago that there were more than 900,000 minke whales and 780,000
pilot whales worldwide, and the numbers are higher now. Milton
Freeman, a whaling expert at the University of Alberta, estimates
that the number of minke whales has trebled over 30 years and
that humpbacks are exploding at a rate of 12 to 17 percent annually.
And the Makah hunt Watson tried to shut down? That’s been
a part of the culture for 2000 years. Deeply embedded in spiritual
and cultural traditions the Makah’s carefully managed hunt
poses no threat whatsoever to the conservation of the Pacific
Gray whale as their own rules forbid the killing of more than
20 whales every five years (or an average of four whales a year)
from a stock estimated to be at around 20,000.
Writing recently in the New York Times Nicholas D. Kristof commented
that while most large whales remain at risk, for some species
we can no longer argue that we need to ‘save the whales.’
They've been saved. He adds that whales now eat at least 300 million
tons of marine life, three times as much as humans and there’s
speculation that rising numbers of minke whales may be holding
down the population of blue whales that compete for similar food.
So is Paul Watson really the Robin Hood of conservation? I don’t
think so.
Watson’s crusade is not about the protection of endangered
species. It’s about one obsessive man with a cause. Certainly
it’s a cause that wins the feel-good prize, but one that
ultimately doesn’t stack up. And even if it did have merit
beyond our romantic need to feel connected to another species,
his actions are still criminal. Imagine if Watson were using New
Zealand as his base for other terrorist activity, say blowing
up buildings, would we have welcomed him to our shores? Under
the spurious cover of animal rights we seem to have suspended
our common sense and allowed this extremist to set up shop in
Auckland Harbour trading his propaganda, touting for new recruits
and planning his next attack.
So think about it. Does the end justify his means? And should
those of us who, nonetheless support that end, ignore the means
of a fanatic who believes animals have equal rights with humans
and is willing to go to any lengths to promote his cause? Minke
sushi anyone?
Have your say on this column:
Barb Sumner Burstyn.
© Barbara Sumner Burstyn
August 2002.
P.O.V. with
Barbara Sumner Burstyn @
http://www.spectator.co.nz/POV
and
now @ http://www.mensnewsdaily.com
www.scoop.co.nz
and www.nzherald.co.nz
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