Behind the screen with Sea Shepherd

Behind the screen with Sea Shepherd

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Captain Pete Bethune takes aim at Japanese whalersYou have to wonder where nonviolence would get activists on the high seas. Whales can be grateful the Sea Shepherd Society heros don’t opt to sacrifice the whales to save them. Captain Paul Watson is visiting Colorado College tomorrow to elaborate, but I have no illusion he’s at liberty to detail his provocative strategies. First off, he can’t spoil the upcoming TV season of Whale Wars and second, doesn’t playing for the media really turn on illusion?

Sea Shepherd’s fight to defend whales scored big when the cameramen began to film their adventures for the Animal Planet network. Even for veteran activists the reality TV format has necessitated they take some stage direction, and meant that the documentary lens presuming to take viewers behind the scenes, created a layer behind that one.

For example, look at the action shot at the top right, where a Sea Shepherd inflatable comes in close to harass a whaling ship. Everyone is helmeted and goggled, except leading man Pete Bethune aiming his stink bomb launcher as the camera focuses in. He doesn’t even have gloves or the bulkier dry-suit of his comrades. Are we to imagine protection from the Japanese water cannons is optional? Obviously adventuring with a script requires taking greater risks to get more drama in the shot. I’m contemplating now about the controversy surrounding the ramming of the Ady Gil. It was certainly dramatic.

When I went to check out one of two Whale Wars DVDs at my public library, I discovered a waiting list fourteen borrowers long. Certainly Sea Shepherd got its money worth from the sinking of the Ady Gil, whether by accident or not. After the collision the whale warriors demanded the Japanese whalers be charged with attempted murder. There could have been casualties, if anyone had been below deck. Skeptics suspect the Ady Gil’s helmsman sneaked his bow into harm’s way. How will we ever know?

By all appearances the Ady Gil was coasting slowly, all hands on deck, when the Japanese ship suddenly turned on her. Unseen might have been a quick lunge to intersect with the whaler’s bow. It’s hard to tell from the footage, taken from just the right angle by the Bob Barker coasting nearby. The Ady Gil was an innovative speed boat designed to pierce waves, not ride them, and could well disguise a last forward thrust.

I don’t think Paul Watson is about to fess up.

The third season of Whale Wars promises to reveal what happened behind the scenes, at Sea Shepherd, because they don’t have cameras following the Japanese fleet. And I think we’re going to see where reality television hits the wall. Whale Wars is not documentary filmmaking, it’s advocacy and drama. I love it, and I’d like to see more of it.

I’m not such a kill-joy to say that fashioning 43-minute long narratives prevents telling the truth. But I suspect filming the whaling renegades is something akin to televised poker, pretending to film behind the dark glasses. After seasons of strategies and bluffs, some inferred, some revealed, Watson and co now have to play close to the chest, and certainly must never been seen by their adversaries to have something up their sleeve.

I already lament the distance which official history keeps in relation to historical truth. What really happened, the story of mankind, is reserved for the student with no whale in the race.

Cool Runnings vs selling out the whales

Forget putting together a Winter Olympic delegation to tap into your nationality’s PR budget, the real money is in the International Whaling Commission. Right now Japan is showering aid to nations willing to enroll in the IWC, to help Japan overturn the whaling moratorium. The IWC convenes a special session tomorrow in Florida and Greenpeace reports the whales have just lost the majority.

Of great concern is that the US and New Zealand appear to want to switch sides, despite Candidate Obama’s pledge to support the whaling moratorium.

The traditional pro-whaling nations of Japan, Norway, Iceland, Peru and Russia have allied with land-locked entities to vote to resume whaling. Mali and Mongolia are among recent recruits. Other aid recipients include Antigua, Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, Panama, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St Kitts, and the Solomon Islands.

Anti-whaling leader Australia is joined by Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Switzerland and San Marino.

Other members include Argentina, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Kiribati, Laos, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Nauru, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Palau, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Tanzania, Togo, Tuvalu, United Kingdom and Uruguay.

If your nation isn’t on the list, contact your state department. Forget assembling a tropical bobsled team, you’ll be able to pay your own way to Sochi, because the big money is in killing whales.

Sea Shepherd ripostes with broadside

Sea Shepherd ripostes with broadside


This time when the Japanese whalers came abreast their eco-defense adversary to douse them with water cannons, the Sea Shepherd crew surprised them with a torrent of superior caliber! Yes, it sounds like a pissing match, the essence of swashbucklers. This one is worthy of Patrick O’Brian but we’ll have to wait for Whale Wars Season III for the full adventure. Score: Japanese fleet chaperoned now for three days with no breaking free in sight.

Japan owes somebody A NEW BOAT!

Japan owes somebody A NEW BOAT!

sea shepherd collision ram bow
The Japanese whaling fleet, whose inhumane hunts pretend to serve the Institute for Cetacean Research, have deliberately rammed the high-tech trimaran Ady Gil, formerly the Earthrace, operated by their arch nemesis the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Pseudo-science spokesman Glenn Innwood was quick to declare the footage showed otherwise, saying the accusation “is just not vindicated by the video.” Obviously the Japanese need a cover who speaks better English. It’s a Freudian slip to seek to be not vindicated.

Au contraire for Kiwi Innwood-sen, the videos from both ships show the Ady Gil floating idle to the Shonan Maru’s starboard side before the whaler turns straight for it. The whalers are perhaps counting on not enough people seeing the video. That might have worked before YouTube.

If the Japanese believe “The obstructionist activities of the Sea Shepherd threaten the lives and property of those involved in our research, are very dangerous and cannot be forgiven” then aiming to ram the smaller vessel must constitute attempted murder, however unpremeditated the crime of passion may be.

Whether or not the action is ruled a crime, it’s without any doubt a violation of maritime code. The Ady Gil had right of way both by its position, and by being stationary.

Here’s the collision from the perspective of the whaler Shonan Maru 2, a highly maneuverable harpoon chase ship, as broadcast on Al Jazeera:

And here is the footage released by Paul Watson’s Sea Shepherd Conservation Society:

UPDATE: I’d say this footage clinches it, from the Animal Planet Whale Wars cameraman aboard the Ady Gil. Read a detailed description from NZ.