Fuzzy-Wuzzy Whales And The Sea Shepherd

Words: Gabe McCauley, with Sean Radich

There's no doubt that whales are beautiful and magnificent, awe-inspiring creatures. Photo: Wayne Levin Photography.

What exactly then is the big deal with whaling? Are organizations such as the Sea Shepherd stirring our most animalistic instincts and bringing out our innate, lingering post-WW2 feelings of racism and xenophobia against the Japanese (as an opinion piece in The Australian would suggest)?

2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has said that whaling is a sustainable environmental practice in Australian waters. The scientist and climate change crusader says that the Japanese whaling program, which kills around 935 minke whales each year, is not a threat to the species.

Is it possible that so called “eco-terrorist groups”, such as the Sea Shepherd, rather than instigating hatred for the practice of whaling, are actually igniting Japanese hatred in Australian society? Thanks to the media and anti-whaling organisations, very few Australians would even be aware that the Japanese are not the only ones who harvest whales.

Can you trust an organisation whose logo plays on the pirate flag skull and crossbones? Where do you draw the line between conservation, activism and piracy on the high seas?

In 2009 The Guardian stated that Norway, Denmark and Iceland proposed to hunt 1,478 whales -  the first time in many years that Europeans were planning to hunt more than Japan’s stated quota of 1,280. This figure will be astounding to some who might have believed that Japan is the only whaling nation. And Japan isn’t even close to the most prolific per-capita whaling nation. Despite being the tenth most populous nation on earth (with 128 million in habitants) Japan hunts and kills less than the total of three small Scandinavian countries with just 11 million or so people combined.

Australian society has in recent times almost blindly thrown their support behind anti-whaling organisations and groups. Since 2007, with the release of Electric’s Save the Big Fat Whales, surf culture has been intricately involved with the support of anti-whaling groups and particularly the Sea Shepherd. The craze has taken over throughout Australia and most of the world. On a recent episode of Triple J’s Hack, the support for Sea Shepherd was resounding, with very few of the station’s ‘lefty’ audience showing any negative feelings towards the violent actions of the Sea Shepherd. People seem to love whales … but why?

A war raged on the high seas between the Sea Shepherd activists and the Japanese whaling fleet.

Is it that whales really are hugely endangered and it is a disgrace that people want to eat them? Yes, whales are endangered, but if limits are placed on whale harvesting then it is easy to see how whaling can be sustainable. Whaling is one of the easiest forms of overfishing to keep track of as whales are very visible and their distinct migration patterns allow them to be easily kept track of.

"In terms of sustainability, you can't be sure that the Japanese whaling is entirely unsustainable," Professor Flannery said in a recent News.com.au article. "It's hard to imagine that the whaling would lead to a new decline in population."

And back in 2003 he went even further with his assessment of fishing the smaller-brained, and non-endangered, minke whales. "If these animals are closer in intelligence to the sheep than the dog, is it morally wrong to eat them if they can be harvested sustainably?" he wrote in a paper for Quarterly Essay.

In 2009 the outgoing International Whaling Commission outgoing chairman, Dr William Hogarth, even suggested that a regulated hunt would be better than currently unregulated "scientific" whaling conducted by Japan. "I'm not sure you'd need nearly so many whales if it were strictly for sustainable use," Hogarth said. “I am probably convinced right now that there would be less whales killed if we didn't have the commercial moratorium," Dr William Hogarth told BBC News.

So what then drives this anti-Japanese whaling sentiment? Is it our innate xenophobia and fear of foreign things? By this token all cultures should stop eating their “weird” traditional foods (Koreans eating dog is just one example). If this is the case (as I’m sure it is for some of us), we need to change our views and become more accepting of other cultures.

Whale meat. I wouldn't eat it ... but others might like to. Apparently it tastes a bit like beef, but with less flavour.

Many of you will be horrified to hear that in 2010 Greenland’s native Inuit were granted permission to hunt endangered humpback whales, claiming that 4000 years of indigenous tradition should be kept alive. However, the licence allows only 9 humpbacks to be caught each year, which would not affect a worldwide population that has recovered considerably since the moratorium on commercial whaling began in 1986.

However, if you think about it, this quota licence for humpback whaling is more regulated, controlled and less damaging than the unregulated permission given to indigenous Australians to hunt critically endangered dugong and sea turtle. But wider Australia has given permission for this sort of “traditional” hunting, even if it is conducted with a shotgun from the bow of an aluminium tinny.

Is our whale-craze due to a lack of environmental education? Or is it simply just a case of the fuzzy-wuzzy whales and our mammal-to-mammal connection with these ocean giants? For many, unfortunately, this appears to be the case. It has almost become politically correct to support whales and everything to do with anti-whaling. This article itself is likely to be the subject of much criticism due to the fact that it doesn’t resoundingly support anti-whaling organisations.

Heath Ledger began the direction of the film clip for Modest Mouse “King Rat” before his death in 2008. The video whereby sailor whales hunt for human prey was then finished by Terry Gilliam and a collective of directors and released in 2009 with the iTunes proceeds from the first month of sales going to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

This blind faith and love for the ‘cuteness’ of whales is the wrong reason to support anti-whaling groups. Here’s a cheeky little fact for you to take home: whaling is not the biggest environmental problem in Australia’s waters and is not even the biggest problem created by Japanese fishing vessels.

In 2007, the Japanese admitted to 20 years of fishing Atlantic Bluefin Tuna to an extreme extent. This damage to the ecosystem has caused a significant reduction in krill, small crustaceans and other essential parts of the ecosystem. The biodiversity is only going to be further reduced with the worsening effects of global warming. Thus, it is clear that this reduction in biodiversity is probably a more significant threat to whales than Japanese whaling vessels themselves.

So why do we support these anti-whaling groups which encourage violence and flare hatred between the Australian public and the Japanese? Perhaps it is easier to throw our full support into these groups instead of actually taking action and trying to prevent global warning, the true whale killer. All I suggest is that before supporting vicious anti-whaling groups and blindly screaming hatred for whaling, you should take time and look at the facts. 

Sea Shepherd crew lob unidentified missiles at the Japanese "research" whaling fleet. Whether these two guys are seen as conservationists, activists, terrorists or pirates can depend on your point of view.

Take time and look at what’s really the issue. As surfers we should care about the environment, take time and actually support the real issues. At the moment it seems that too many surfers waste their time buying Sea Shepherd apparel to clear their conscience instead of focusing on what’s really affecting our much adored water environment. Don’t waste your money on these eco-terrorists, as Japanese harvesting of whales is not as big an issue as you may have been led to believe.

The Australian Government’s attempts (or lack thereof) to prevent Southern Ocean whale “scientific research” hints that the federal politicians think there are much bigger fish to fry (excuse the pun). But Australian media has taken an anti-whaling stance. And that’s because the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is brainwashing you!

There have been numerous "collisions" between Sea Shepherd craft and the Japanese fleet. Each side likes to blame the other for the crashes

UPDATE:

Thank you everyone for all the feedback. Clearly an article like this was always going to draw comment, but we were not expecting such a massive response.

Just to clarify, the premise of the article is not to say those who want to protect whales in the Southern Ocean from the Japanese whaling fleet, including Sea Shepherd, are racist, but the contributing writer wanted to pose the question: Does some of the anger and resentment that most people feel toward Japanese whaling stem from more general anti-Japanese sentiment?

This idea came from an opinion article in The Australian (referenced in the first line above, and again here <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/shades-of-open-prejudice-in-war-on-whalers/story-e6frgd0x-1226243925289>; ). Following on with that theme, this article explores a few of the other sides of the whaling debate.

Yes, perhaps some of the language was too emotive, and a couple of interesting points raised have been lost. No, ASL does NOT support whaling. We have supported Sea Shepherd, Surfers For Cetaceans and Transparentsea over the years and will continue to do so. But, we also stand by the right to open up ideas to vigourous debate.

In reference to all the comments about "research", all the links to articles and points raised have been included in the text, and we encourage you to follow the links.

The Captain of Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson, who has commented a few times himself, has been contacted to provide his reply and we look forward to hopefully posting his response.

- ASL Online Editor, Sean Radich

UPDATE 2:

Read Capt Paul Watson's response to Surfing Life here.