IWC Wipes Out In Chile
Seascape
06/27/2008
IWC Wipes Out In Chile
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Whales Weep to Witness No Win for Whalers or Whales,
When Weak Kneed Whale Wimps and Wanton Weird Whale Whackers
Wrap Up Worthless Whale Week in Santiago
Report on the 60th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling
Commission
It has been a very strange week at the Sheraton Hotel in Santiago
where 72 of the 81 nation members of the International Whaling
Commission have been meeting all week to essentially not resolve
anything at all.
The amount of carbon expended on airfares alone without any results to
show for it is a crime in itself.
Japan has had the IWC in a stranglehold for two decades as this
criminal whaling nation continues to violate IWC regulations,
continues to bribe nations to support their positions and continues to
pontificate on their eco-imperialist campaign to slaughter the world's
whales in complete disregard for the concerns of the civilized world.
Outside the hotel young Chileans demonstrate, lock themselves to the
hotel door and are routinely arrested while most of the delegates are
completely oblivious to their actions. The IWC delegates seem to exist
in a fantasy world of their own creation where they are bending over
backwards to be polite to each other as Japan manipulates the agenda
so that nothing can, or is being done at all to end their high seas
serial killing spree against the Cetacean Nations. They talk using the
maximum number of words to essentially say nothing at all.
The IWC is not even voting on anything this year. Japan reasons that
if there are no votes than they won't have to return to Japan having
lost any of the resolutions. So the delegates decided to an informal
agreement to not vote on any controversial issues and to avoid any
confrontations. It's a strange way to resolve conflicts and an even
stranger way to enforce the regulations of the IWC. Not one of these
losers wants to appear to be a loser. They would rather that the
whales lose their lives to the outlaw harpoons. So for the first time
the annual verbal slug fest became a love fest with everyone
pretending to respect each other's positions or as Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd recently said to Japan's Prime Minister Fukuda,
"we have agreed to disagree."
Denmark however decided to force a vote on their proposal to slaughter
more endangered Humpbacks in Greenland in addition to the whales they
already kill, despite the European Community's adamant (and except for
Denmark,) unanimous decision to stand strong for the whales. Denmark's
proposal was quickly shot down with evidence that their so-called
indigenous slaughter of whales is in fact a commercial operation. The
Danes with less political savvy than the Japanese were defeated 36 to
29 although the USA voted for the deaths of the Humpbacks probably in
deference to the desires of the Makah Indians of Washington State to
resume the murder of the whales.
What sums up the hypocrisy and the ineffectiveness of the IWC for me
is that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the only organization
that upholds the regulations of the IWC and we are the only
organization that is banned from attending the IWC yet Japan, Norway
and Iceland blatantly violate the rulings with contempt yet are never
admonished for doing so and are allowed to perpetuate their whaling
crimes year after year in the name of their bogus research. The real
research that Japan is undertaking is to determine the limits of
Japanese bullshit that the other member nations can swallow.
The only real voice for the whales is coming, as usual, from
individuals and small organizations. Skye Bortoli with Teens Against
Whaling although only 15 years old has had security agents stalking
her every move. Hannah a professional mermaid baffled the security
when she attended a media conference wearing her tail. They detailed
extra men to surround the swimming pool to ensure she did not get
close enough to dive in. Apparently the image of a mermaid protesting
the killing of whales from the middle of the pool had spooked the
Japanese. It was probably for the best for Hannah, she may have been
harpooned. The Japanese seem to be possessed with killing any
intelligent aquatic citizen with a tail fluke.
At high noon on the last day of the conference, four Chilean
protestors jumped out of a cab and stormed the door of the hotel
bringing their very vocal protests directly to the lobby of the
Sheraton for the first time. The Chilean police quickly removed them
and hauled them off in handcuffs. What a difference it would make if
even a small fraction of the passion that we see on the outside of the
hotel could be brought inside the doors to challenge the Japanese
killers on the floor.
The Chileans have displayed a strong show of support for the whales
ranging from in the street protests to the declaration by President
Michelle Bachelet of the establishment of the Chilean Whale Sanctuary
to protect all whales in the Chilean Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ).
The Chilean surfing community has been very high profile in their
support for the whales and Chile's top surfer Ramon Navarro attended
the demonstrations for the whales and voiced his strong support for
the actions of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Dave Rastovich had come from Australia to rally the Chilean surfing
community and has taken the leading rope in recruiting surfers to the
defense of the dolphins and the whales.
Howie Cooke also came from Australia as an artist opposed to whaling,
and Kylie Heard from Sea Shepherd Australia flew at her own cost to
Santiago to deliver 5,000 photos for the visual petition. In total
some 15,000 photos were emblazoned on the banners of the visual
petition.
Japan once again called for the condemnation of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society for our interventions against their illegal
whaling operations. Brazil, the USA, the Netherlands, India, Mexico,
New Zealand, Australia responded with statements that did not say much
at all except that they were opposed to "violence and unlawful acts"
at sea.
The Institute of Cetacean Research circulated a paper and a media
release entitled
Decisive Action Required to Protect Seafarers.
The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) said today that the IWC
member states must actually take demonstratable action in
maintaining the safety of lives at sea.
"The IWC resolution on safety at sea must be followed up with
decisive action - especially by the country providing the flag that
allows Sea Shepherd vessels to commit illegal and life-endangering
actions in the Antarctic," said Dr. Minoru Morimoto, the Director
General of the ICR.
"All flag and port states must take responsibility for enforcing
international safety regulations and demonstrate tangible results
to ensure the safety of workers at sea.
"Flag states should decline to register any Sea Shepherd vessels
and, in addition, port states must deny access to ports when they
are used by this group to launch violent attacks in the Antarctic.
"Furthermore, countries in which these organizations are
headquartered, and from where their members conspire to carry out
criminal acts, must bring these perpetrators to justice," Mr.
Morimoto said.
"The ICR supports the rights of people to peaceful protest.
However, it has been clearly demonstrated over years that the
actions of Sea Shepherd are far beyond peaceful. Over the 2007/2008
research season in the Antarctic, the ICR was required to defend
its research vessels against increasingly violent attacks.
"In the absence of these flag and protest states taking
responsibility, the ICR supports initiatives by the Government of
Japan to protect its vessels by all means possible," Mr. Morimoto
said.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is also opposed to violence and
unlawful acts at sea, especially the violence of the whalers against
our crews and especially against the whales so we agreed that violent
actions at sea should be stopped - by the Japanese who fire guns, hurl
concussion grenades and ram our ships.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society by contrast has not used
firearms, has not injured any person and has never rammed a Japanese
whaling ship. The most "violent" thing we've done is to save the lives
of over a thousand whales by aggressively but non-violently
intervening against the violent and illegal killing of whales by the
Japanese whalers.
None of the nations defending the whales have indicated that they take
Japan's "call to action" seriously.
"We take it as a somewhat amusing joke," said one official delegate.
"You can't quote me on this using my name but quite frankly, the
Japanese are full of crap and they are not fooling anyone."
The Netherlands has already sent a letter of protest to Japan for
their actions last season in the Southern Ocean and Japanese fishing
activities have been curtailed in U.S. waters since 1988 in
retaliation for Japan's on-going violations of IWC regulations
protecting the whales.
This annual whaling commission charade has been going on for 60 years
and has become a regular vacation opportunity for many of the
delegates, especially the nations that have sold their vote to Japan.
They get to travel to a different location each year, stay at five
star hotels, eat expensive meals and all they have to do is to pretend
they are making a difference. Japan pays all the expenses - it's a
great gig if you're a politicians from some puny nation that has never
even see a whale and wouldn't recognize one if they did. But hey,
Chilean wine is superb and the Chilean farm raised salmon is something
to literally die for. A little mercury never hurt anyone, just ask the
brain damaged citizens of Taiji where mercury has made swiss cheese of
their grey matter.
The only serious suggestion with any merit to emerge from this year's
meeting came from former Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell
who said that it is ridiculous for the "Japanese to be calling for the
"normalization" of what has become a very abnormal organization. All
we need to do is to drop the "ing" from the International Whal(ing)
Commission and convert it into what it should naturally evolve to be -
a whale conservation organization."
Ian Campbell who previously came to the IWC meeting to represent
Australia had been the most passionate and out-spoken defender of
whales and is the reason today that Australia holds the leading
position of whale defending nation.
"I was once an activist Environmental Minister," said the Honourable
Mr. Campbell. "Now I am just an activist."
So with nothing much worthwhile accomplished the delegates are already
thinking of the sunny beaches and excellent wine of the Portuguese
island of Madeira where the 61st meeting of the IWC is scheduled for
2009.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society intends to return to the IWC
again with even more victories at sea and lives saved from the
ruthless killers of the most gentle, intelligent and socially complex
sentient beings in the sea.
Between now and then we intend to rock the boat and battle it out like
samurai in the most remote and harsh waters on the planet with an
international crew of volunteers ready and willing to risk their lives
in Operation Musashi to defend endangered whales in the Southern Ocean
Whale Sanctuary.
We intend to sink the Japanese whaling fleet - economically and we
intend to save as many whales from their horrifically cruel harpoons
that we can.
We intend to stop them!