Greenpeace to Abandon Whales in Antartica

[Trevor]

Greenpeace to Abandon Whales in Antarctica

Sea Shepherd Will Battle Whalers Alone in Antarctica in 2006/2007



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The Greenpeace Foundation has announced that they will not be returning to the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary for the 2006/2007 Japanese whaling season.



In a recent meeting at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Australia, Shayne Rattenbury of Greenpeace said that they have accomplished all that they could this year and there was no need to return to Antarctic waters at the end of the year to confront whalers. If they return to Antarctica at all, it will be for a global warming research mission.



Greenpeace is estimated to have spent over one million dollars in promotions over the recent campaign to Antarctica where Greenpeace crewmembers were filmed observing the slaughter of the whales.



Shayne Rattenbury said that Greenpeace had to re-evaluate their tactics after one of their crew was thrown into the ocean during a confrontation with a Japanese whaling ship. ?If not for the fact that he was wearing a survival suit, he would have died in those frigid waters,? said Rattenbury.



Captain Paul Watson was amused at the statement. ?I thought that was what a survival suit was for,? he said. ?My crew all jumped into the water on New Year?s day to swim with the penguins and they were only wearing bathing suits. Rattenbury seems to forget that risk is what this is all about. Of course it is risky. Of course it is dangerous. If it was easy then everyone would be doing it. Now it looks as if only Sea Shepherd will be taking these risks against the pirate whalers next year.?



Greenpeace had two ships in Antarctic waters including the Esperanza that had the speed capability of being able to stay constantly with the Japanese fleet. The 30 million dollar Esperanza was the perfect ship for shutting down illegal Japanese whaling. Instead, Greenpeace used it as a filming platform. Greenpeace also had a refueling ship to re-supply their two vessels. Despite this the Greenpeace ships stayed only one week longer than Sea Shepherd and returned to Cape Town with plenty of fuel in their tanks.



?I visted the Esperanza in Cape Town,? said Farley Mowat Chief Engineer Trevor Van Der Gulik. They had enough fuel left onboard to have stayed with the Japanese fleet for another two weeks. When we arrived in Cape Town after a voyage of 8,500 miles we had only a days supply of fuel remaining. I cannot believe they abandoned the whales when they still had the means to stay down there.?



Greenpeace also refused to cooperate with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and refused to post their coordinates on their website to prevent Sea Shepherd from getting the information.



?Greenpeace had the capability of helping us to stop the whalers, ?said Farley Mowat 1st Officer Alex Cornelissen. ?They knew that the whalers stopped whaling and ran every time the Farley Mowat approached. Instead they allowed dozens of whales to die that could have been saved.?



The much slower Farley Mowat was able to intercept the Japanese fleet three time and each time, the Japanese ships ran. In total the Whalers fled over 4,000 miles and it cost them 15 days of whaling.



?Greenpeace is taking credit for this,? said Captain Watson. ?Despite the fact that the whalers killed whales as Greenpeace watched. I have been reluctant to publicly criticize Greenpeace because despite their tactical limitations they were still down there and their filming of the whale killing was educational to the general public. But now that they have announced they are abandoning the whales of Antarctica, I have no problem in being critical of them. As far as I?m concerned, they used the whales to raise money and that money should be spent on returning to Antarctica and not for purposes other than what people donated it for.?



The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is putting all efforts into securing a faster ship to return to the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary to once again pursue the illegal whaling vessels from Japan. There is no doubt that the Japanese whalers are afraid of Sea Shepherd?s policy of intervening against their illegal operations.



?If we can match their speed, we can shut them down.? Said Captain Paul Watson. ?If people are sincere about stopping these outlaw whalers then we invite them to help us raise the funds to purchase the ship needed to do the job. A donation to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a donation directly to the whales and not to the administrative overhead, fund-raising machine and salaries of an eco-bureaucracy that has officially abandoned the campaign to stop the whalers in the Southern Oceans.?



Captain Paul Watson is not happy to be criticizing Greenpeace. He was a co-founder of Greenpeace back in 1972 and he was also the man who first developed the tactic of blocking the harpoons with Zodiac inflatable boats. He and the late Robert Hunter, the first President of the Greenpeace Foundation were the first two people to place their bodies on the line to protect whales in June 1975. Robert Hunter?s daughter Emily Hunter was a crewmember on the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat for the recent campaign to Antarctica.



?Greenpeace was a cutting edge grassroots organization in the Seventies, ?said Captain Watson. ?Back then we were not afraid of being controversial and we were not afraid of taking risks. Sea Shepherd is now what Greenpeace was then. I never changed, Greenpeace changed when they exchanged gutsy effective intervention for ocean posing, public relations and fund-raising. They are rich and we are poor but we give a greater bang for the buck and we are the organization most feared by the pirate whalers and outlaw fishing operations.?



The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society cannot compete with the expensive ad campaigns and direct mail operations of Greenpeace. Despite this it will be a Sea Shepherd ship confronting the whalers in 2006/2007 and not Greenpeace.







Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President - Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Director - Sierra Club USA
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - Atlantic Grey Whale Society
President - Oceanic Research and Conservation Action Force
P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
Tel: 360-370-5650 Cell: 310-701-3096
E-mail: Paulwatson@earthlink.net
Website: www.Seashepherd.org

[Pirates Armada]

greenpeace's actions in germany with the beached whale at the embacy was amazing, they should get credit for that. it seems they were a little soft on the water although. one good thing about all this is that while this whaling was taking place a helpful boost in japans snow fall was pelting their county with record breaking snow, causing economic problems and other problems resulting in more money loss then they could earn back at 10 whaling journeys. what was it like 30 feet of snow or something? at the same time the same weather was hitting the west coast with huge rainfall. maybe this 06/07 year will be dismil for the whalers cause their numbers are declining. cheers to the sea sheppard.

[Trevor]

So sad our Thermodynamic views are:

Although it is true that some of Greenpeace's actions have credit and credit is givin where credit is due, it is very hard to sail along side a 300 million dollar a year organizetion with the ability to shut down antartic whaling forever and not even acknowledge our exsistance even when the founder of Sea Shepherd is one of the founders of Greenpeace! If Sea Shepherd had 1 tenth of there money no whale on this planet would ever die again. And worse yet about 20 persent of the money donated to Greenpeace is really ment for Sea Shepherd, bucause most think SS is GP. It's time to get the job done and stop thinking about personal goals.
Trevor

[Pirates Armada]

yep! sad state of affairs when the whales only defense against hunters is protection in small scattered numbers. green peace seems more like a controlled orginization that follows strict guide lines from like the government or something. my question to them is why follow the rules when the whalers are not following them? they have no chance of winning. by the time they wake up it will be to late for some whales i'm sure, but atleast they will have pockets full of cash and bellies filled with yummie delicacies!!!!

and as far as the thermodynamics are concerned, yeah sad i know but that's just me....look for the positives in the worst situations.

i have an idea to start something much like sea sheppard but on a worldly scale, well much like green peace is or was i guess. a GWO (green) not NWO.
i would take a stab in the dark and go as far to say once the world is finally deemed out of whack in laymans terms, the NWO will use this as one of their primary themes.

Paul Watson is a revolutionary in my book....

[Trevor]

Mr. Pirate
Your comments are truly great and look fwd to your revolutionary idea in combating the world issues upon our generation in which we must respond. As for on a more worldly scale I can only hope that another group can come out of the grass roots and be more international that SSCS has been. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has visited every continent on the planent and has confronted every pirate whaling nation, and will do so unill there are no whalers left. At that point they hope to retire and go home to there families unlike other "eco agencies" where the decline of our enviroment is profit and good for biz!!!
I truly look fwd to hearing more about you ideas and think anybody doing anythig is good, even GP is good on the education front. All things in time, just hopefully not to late!
Trevor
P.S. Captain Watson is truly an eco-lutionary

[Pirates Armada]

Trevor, how long have you been with sscs? and where have you gone with them? i know they're based out of the san juan islands in washington. is there a group in canada as well?