Surfpolitik Skinning Cats and Saving Whales

In: Surfpolitik by Stu Nettle 35 Comments Mon 15th Feb '10

Tags: Sea Shepherd , Greenpeace , Whaling , Paul Watson

Stuart Nettle
February 15, 2010

When it comes to saving whales there's more than one way to skin a cat. Not a turn of phrase that would please the animal activists I'm sure, yet it's a statement that holds true.

Last year I wrote an article that criticised Sea Shepherd's activity in the Southern Ocean. In it I was critical of the violent tactics that Sea Shepherd employed because, I believed, they had the potential to jeopardise the work that Greenpeace was doing in Japan. The response I got was - to keep the animal theme going - positively venomous.

So after being bitten once you would think I'd be twice as shy, but then I've always been a slow learner...

The supporters of Sea Shepherd, at least those who contacted me and those that make all the noise on the internet, hold the view that if you don't support Sea Shepherd then you must be pro-whaling. In their eyes violent confrontation is the only solution. To do any less is to take no action at all.

I'm not sure how those Sea Shepherd supporters feel about George Bush but their level of argument is scarily similar to one used by ol' George Dubya. 'You are either with us against us' said the former US president when he defied the United Nations and took us into a long, drawn out and ultimately pointless war.

You are either with us or against us. When it comes to halting whaling you are either with Sea Shepherd or you are against them.

Captain Paul Watson runs Sea Shepherd. He was an early member of Greenpeace until he was expelled in 1977 as a result of his divisive actions. He formed Sea Shepherd the same year. Tensions between the two organisations have wavered between fragile tolerance and open hostility. In recent years it has tended toward the latter.

In the summer of 2008 Greenpeace opted not to go to the Southern Ocean and confront the whalers but instead try and skin the cat a different way. After nearly twenty years of confrontation they decided to move the campaign to Japan amid the group who has the most power in this issue: the Japanese people themselves.

Since 2008 Greenpeace has funded the court case of Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki - the 'Tokyo Two' - who are being put on trial after exposing a corruption scandal in the whaling industry. The rationale is they can make media waves in the Japanese homeland and get the Japanese people behind the anti-whaling movement.

For this Paul Watson labelled them 'Yellowpeace', the inference being that they are cowards for not sailing to the Southern Ocean to confront the whalers once again. Regarding the schism between Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace Watson said: 'I am more than willing to cooperate with Greenpeace as long as they use the large sums of money they collect to defend whales, to actually defend whales'.

Thus, according to Watson, the fight can only take place on the water down in the Southern Ocean as it has for twenty three years. Sea Shepherd blocks Japanese boats. Japanese whalers spray water cannons. Sea Shepherd throw stink bombs. Japanese whalers erect wire barricades. They each meet back there next year with even greater resolve. Etcetera etcetera etcetera...

Military strategists use a saying, 'perpetual war', for when the initial disgreement, and also the terms for peace, get overshadowed by the methods, tactics and ongoing assertion for political power. The Arab-Israeli conflict is one such war, the George Bush-instigated War on Terror another. Watson's Whale War bears many similarities.

There has to be another way...

The trial of the Greenpeace funded 'Tokyo Two' began in Tokyo yesterday. It received wide coverage in the Japanese and international media.