Paul Watson: Greenpeace abandons whales after collecting donations

Paul Watson

The Greenpeace Foundation has announced that they will not be returning to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in Antarctica 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 this year to confront whalers. If they return to Antarctica at all, it will be for a global warming research mission he said.

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 fell 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.

I must admit I was somewhat amused at the statement. I thought that was what a survival suit was for.

Rattenbury seems to forget that risk is what this is all about. Of course it is risky. Of course it is dangerous.

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 which had the speed to stay constantly with the Japanese fleet.

The Esperanza was the perfect ship for shutting down illegal Japanese whaling. Instead, Greenpeace used it as a filming platform.

Greenpeace also had a refuelling shi[, but stayed only one week longer than Sea Shepherd and returned to Cape Town with plenty of fuel in their tanks.

My ship, the much slower Farley Mowat, was able to intercept the Japanese fleet only three times and each time, the Japanese ships ran. In total, the whalers fled over 4000 miles and it cost them 15 days of whaling.

Greenpeace is taking credit for this despite the fact that the whalers killed whales as Greenpeace watched.

I have been reluctant to publicly criticise 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 to protect the whales.

I was a co-founder of Greenpeace back in 1972 and I was also the man who first developed the tactic of blocking the harpoons with Zodiac inflatable boats. Robert Hunter, the first President of the Greenpeace Foundation, and I were the first two people to place our bodies on the line to protect whales in June 1975.

Greenpeace was a cutting edge grassroots organisation in the seventies. 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 haven't changed. Greenpeace changed when they exchanged gutsy, effective intervention for ocean posing, public relations, and fundraising.

Sea Shepherd is putting all efforts into securing a faster ship to return to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to once again pursue the whalers.

* Paul Watson is founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.