This text is taken from the Courrier de la Planète. Click here to subscribe.
Opponents of whaling promise to prevent Icelandic whalers from spearing fin whales in the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean this summer. They have just left New York aboard a ship which should enable them to physically oppose this increasingly controversial hunt.
“My strategy has always been to use aggressive nonviolence. This means intervening, but also obstructing and blocking harpooning and other operations,” said Captain Paul Watson in an email exchange with The duty.
This opponent of cetacean hunting has led campaigns against Japanese “scientific” hunting in the waters surrounding the Antarctic continent on several occasions in the past, with the organization he founded in 1977, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. After a stormy divorce with this organization, he decided to set up the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, in particular to oppose whaling.
Thanks to the financial support of “ambassadors” like Pamela Anderson, Bryan Adams, Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen, he acquired and restored a 72-meter vessel which has just left the United States to hunt down Icelandic whalers who are about to launch their commercial whaling campaign.
Divided Country
Despite an international moratorium in force since 1986, Iceland has indeed decided to continue the slaughter of cetaceans. The country’s hunters have harpooned more than 1,700 whales over the years. A total of 217 minke whales and 209 fin whales (two species observed each year in the St. Lawrence) may also be hunted in the coming months, even if the market for this meat, mainly exported to Japan, is in steep decline.
The country is also increasingly divided on the issue. Even recently, a demonstration of citizens opposed to the continuation of this hunt in 2023 was organized in Reykjavik, with the participation of the artist Björk.
This event was held on the heels of the publication of a report commissioned by the government on the issue of animal welfare. This showed that several dozen whales killed in 2022 agonized for long minutes before dying, or that they had to be harpooned more than once. Despite this, the government has decided to authorize this year’s hunting campaign, while evoking a stoppage as early as 2024.
However, the organization headed by Paul Watson intends to intervene this year, despite the fact that it is “dangerous” to engage in such clashes on the high seas. “This hunting is illegal and Iceland is a priority, since they intend to kill fin whales, which are part of an endangered species,” he underlines.
Available data indicate that internationally the species is Vulnerable, having been the subject of intensive commercial hunting during the 20th century. In Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife has classified the species as “special concern” during an assessment carried out in 2019.
The right to protest
Do the Icelandic authorities fear the arrival of the anti-hunting ship? “We respect the right to protest and we understand the controversy surrounding whaling activities. But we invite all those who wish to demonstrate against the hunt to do so peacefully,” said a government spokesperson in a written response to questions from the Duty.
Paul Watson assures us that his interposition action is “non-violent” and that he does not intend to limit himself to campaigns against Icelandic whalers. He says he wants to fight against the slaughter of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands, which is repeated year after year. He also plans to return to battle Japanese ships, against the backdrop of Japan openly resuming commercial whaling in 2019, following Tokyo’s decision to quit the International Whaling Commission.
The Japanese company which practices commercial whaling has even started the construction of a new “factory ship” which will be able to skin cetaceans harpooned in the waters off the archipelago, but also up to in Antarctica. Proponents of this controversial hunt hope to keep the “whaling culture” alive in the country.