Sea Shepherd Ship Captured By Canadian Coast Guard

I suppose Paul Watson just learned a few Universal truths.

1) The Golden Rule.
International Waters or not - them with the Guns Make the Rules.

2) More Golden rules
The seal hunt brings in 15 to 20 M (CAN $) to the local economy. For some First Nations (Indian) communities, this is about 1/3 of the year income. Do not try had steal money or bread from the poor, they will bite.

3) Last Golden Rule
Act like a Pirate, and you will be treated like a Pirate.

Just be thankful, Captian Watson, the Canadian Coast Guard professionals did not ram and sink your ship, spray your crew with Butyric acid or arrest and charge you and your crew as terrorists. (IWC charged this).

I find it ironic that had the MV Farley Mowat been in trouble - the "Capitan" would have dammed the same Canadian Coast Guard had they not responded swiftly and at any risk.

The level of hypocrisy by these people - people who break the law and then try to hide behind the same law to "Protect their Rights" - are one reason many thinking people eschew organizations like Greenpeace, Sea Shepard et al.-- you simply cannot have it both ways.

How many of us could actually bring ourselves to club a baby seal to death?

Who was the Captain of the Canadian Coast Guard vessel? Saul Tigh?

I couldn't club a baby seal to death, but if it was the only way I could have an income I sure could. If it was a choice between the seal or starvation I wouldn't even consider sparing the seal.

That's where these animal rights people fail to see the big picture. Because they are all well fed, have somewhere nice to live, nice clothes to wear and spare time on their hands (for protesting etc.) they cannot comprehend the circumstances of some peoples lives.

Lets get one thing straight.

The Sea Shepherd was in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, when seized. Most definitely NOT International Waters.

I'm on the fence on the seal hunt. Being an ex-salmon deckhand, I understand the need for people to make a living from the land and sea. I probably clubbed 20,000 fish to death. Is that any more humane than clubbing a seal. I can tell you... once you've clubbed a few 1000, you get good at it and I can usually knock it out with on stroke.

No, it doesn't sound very nice... and really it's not, it's dirty, hard, long, work... but it's a living, as long as the fishery, or hunt, is properly managed (and the DFO does *not* have a good record on that, but it has gotten far better), then I see no reason to keep the hunt going.

Welcome to Canada, Paul Watson. We're unconcerned about your childish declarations of victory (which, no doubt, would have been made whether or not Canada intervened). Canada will do what's in Canada's interest, and your approval or lack thereof is of no consequence.

Your recent comments that the lives of seals are more valuable than the lives of human beings have ensured that our moral high ground will be recognized the world over. You really shot yourself in the foot with that one. Real sailors will continue to go about their business regardless of the ineffectual protests of attention-seeking globe-trotters lacking real jobs.

It amazes me that this "issue" get so much coverage. If these were rats we were talking about, no one would even care.
Another Universal Truth I suppose, if you are deemed to be good looking people will care about you more. No one says we should stop shooting, poisoning, and trapping rats.
Also for the record, if I was hungry I could fully kill a seal but in the manner most seals are killed I would need to shoot it.

A response to the comments of Don, above:

Don, the power structure doesn't need to be defended by regular folks. If it did, it wouldn't be the power structure. Thus your comments are superfluous.

Exploiting the "rules" is one of many techniques that have to be used by those without power aginst those who are abusing power (as those perpetuating the seal slaughters are). The "rules" you so righteously defend are nothing more than a defense system constructed to put anyone who disagrees with financial power clusters at a permanent disadvantage.

The seal slaughter is a backwards, primitive, cruel practice that reflects the worst of callous avarice in humanity. Primate & tiger slaughter, human trafficking, and illegal drug trade are also sources of income for indigenous peoples--are you ready to defend those practices too, and acknowledge the inconsistency of law? If not, then the hypocrisy is yours.

In the meantime, those like Watson will continue to act based on a moral compass, as opposed to your precious "rules".

Tony
"How many of us could actually bring ourselves to club a baby seal to death?"

A lot of people kill baby animals, actually.

I don't see much difference between killing a baby seal and killing cow calves (veal), piglet or lamb...

The seal hunt gets bad press because it is so visible. But it is not any worse than how cattle and chickens are treated. Do these same people protest the slaughter of cattle and chicken (much larger industries)? In fact they should, but for the purposes of creating better conditions for the animals. Just check out factoryfarming.com and then decided whether the seal hunt is any worse than any other of these. Unless one is vegan/vegetarian, the protesting is hypocritical. Energy would be better directed to correcting the problems in the larger animal torturing industries.

I just have always viewed Sea Shepard as at best a borderline bunch of cooks and at worst a bunch of eco terrorists.

Im not surprised this happened and good riddance in my opinion

What's the matter, Paul Watson? Too chicken to throw acid at the RCMP? I guess you prefer doing it to defenseless fishermen. These fools bill themselves as protesters, but anyone with a brain can see that they're schoolyard bullies, picking on those without defenses and then blubbing like babies when someone gives them a dose of their own medicine.

Canada should make the self proclaimed pirates walk the plank!

To bad more people didn't have the guts to get out an do something like that. Now days people sign pledges on the internet and the seals still go extinct. Good for him, and good for the Canadian Government for publicizing his cause...hats off sir!

Yes, good for Paul Watson for being a petty bully who then whines like a child when someone gives him a dose of his own medicine.

Tell me, do you also applaud those who bomb abortion clinics? Would you characterize them as boldly taking a stand for what they believe in?

Bill Leslie,

The Harp Seal is the most populous seal in the world. The herd size has been growing steadily since the early 1970's contrary to claims that the slaughter is "unsustainable" by bogus groups like SSCS.

Notably, in the same region travel some of the few remaining Right Whales who are subject to injury and death because they are in a major international shipping lane. How many of these ships has SSCS threatened? An earlier poster is dead on - it's Watson's business to vilify and threaten the workers in order to create high profile photo ops for himself (usually in his self - named sailor "costume").

Bill Leslie,

The Harp Seal is the most populous seal in the world. The herd size has been growing steadily since the early 1970's contrary to claims that the slaughter is "unsustainable" by bogus groups like SSCS.

Notably, in the same region travel some of the few remaining Right Whales who are subject to injury and death because they are in a major international shipping lane. How many of these ships has SSCS threatened? An earlier poster is dead on - it's Watson's business to vilify and threaten the workers in order to create high profile photo ops for himself (usually in his self - named sailor "costume").

I think this whole thing is a can of worms but I can see both sides of this stupid story so heres my two cents.

My dad was actually on the Sea Shepard ship, Steve Irwin, during the last anti whaling campaign in the Southern Ocean (for the record he was not involved in any anti whaling/japanese behaviour, he was there impartially to document the entire voyage/campaign) and while there have been some questionable actions taken by the Sea Shepard organisation, it is still an organisation trying to bring about an end to a cruel and almost entirely useless practice.

Whaling by the japanese, I have been told, is an act of tradition and something that they take part in as a show of solidarity to other nations. It will most likely take a catastrophic change to bring about an end to this practice. The same can be said for Sealing.

However, it is a trade/livelihood for some people and those who treat it as such will not want to change their ways especially if the practice has been in their families for several generations.

As a designer, you are taught to see both sides of a problem and to find solutions to it. The only problem I see with this is that a government can say that "Today's action will help ensure the SAFE AND ORDERLY conduct of the seal hunt..." and that the "management of the hunt will remain SUSTAINABLE AND HUMANE" From previous personal experience with local governments through family involvement in opposition to old growth forest logging and other matters of environmental destruction, those in power will mostly say what will keep the consituents happy and the coffers full.

Now, whats humane about beating the crap out of a seal? Nothing as far as I can see. Would you beat your dog to death and eat the meat? Of course not because that would be horrible and cruel but given a situation of survival, you most likely would eat it.

This isn't a situation of survival. This is a situation where people are unwilling to change their ways because it is their livelihood. They will not change in the interests of saving a fellow species and maintaining biodiversity in a fragile region of the world.

To those who whale and seal for a living or for a national pasttime, please, look at the bigger picture.

Many of you just made me wanna puke.

You sound like slavers and slave owners, lauding the efforts of the overseer to stop the abolitionists.

First off, civil disobedience does not require that one relinquish one's rights. For one thing, not all laws are unjust, just as not all laws are just. Just because you break one law doesn't mean you oppose all law. If you think otherwise, you're guilty of mistaking law as justice when justice should be law.

Second, us animal rights activists are not shortsighted. Don't be naive. We know that there is a such thing as a necessary evil. Many of us will even credit human evolution to hunting. We understand the natives. We DON'T understand those who DON'T have to harm others. This argument against animal rights activists is the same argument used against environmentalists. "Don't they know that some people NEED to mine coal? They have no idea, living in their offgrid palaces. Affluent jerks!" Don't assume that we're disinterested in or unconcerned with humans. That's insulting and untrue.

About ecoterrorism and general anger towards the Sea Shepherds...This is a bit like 1984. In fact, it's frighteningly similar. The powers that be have indoctrinated you to hate the champions of justice, portraying them as violators of justice. Emmannuel Goldstein indeed. You're all sheep of Big Brother, and the saddest part is that you're unaware of it.

Google 'GREEN SCARE'. The government and media undermine political movements in the interest of economics and the status quo. Don't be fooled.

*NOTE: Not directed to all. You know who you are tho.*

"Many of you just made me wanna puke."

Perhaps the stench of your own hypocrisy?

"You sound like slavers and slave owners, lauding the efforts of the overseer to stop the abolitionists."

What a dumb thing to say. About as dumb as abortion-clinic-bombers claiming to have moral heritage from abolitionists.

"You're all sheep"

Look in the mirror.

Please don't spout off uneducated nonsense about justice until you educate yourself.

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your comment. I'd like to respond if I may to your question: "Now, whats humane about beating the crap out of a seal? "

I don't know anything about Japanese whalers, but I have spent some time in eastern Canada and met some sealers.

The language of your question is pretty weighted. "Beating the crap out of seal" elicits a very specific image, and not one that is accurate. Do you talk about beating the crap out of a cow, sheep or pig? The methods for dispatching those animals in a commercial operation are similar but less stringent than the current regulations for sealing. If you compare the seal hunting regulations to those employed by the commercial hunt for wild deer in Germany, again you'll find that the animal welfare standards applied to the Canadian seal hunt are far more stringent.

The quota set for the Canadian seal hunt represents about 5% of the overall herd population. Interestingly, the UK allows fishers to shoot grey seals in order to protect fishing gear and estimates show that about 4% of the population is killed each year. The difference is that in the UK, the killing of seals is not monitored, no part of the animal is utilized by humans and no humane standards for the killing of the animals are applied.

Ironically, there are many cases of animal slaughter in Europe with no utilization and no humane standards. It seems that when an animal population is deemed a "nuisance", all humane considerations are out the window. Harps seals, with their commercial value, enjoy some of the highest standards in the world for humane treatment and the population is the most closely monitored, tied as it is to the survival - yes, the survival - of numerous small eastern and northern communities.

For further food for thought see the following video with statements from Paul Watson:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H_gTBDFTXE0

Thanks for your thoughtful comments.

It always surprise me when so-called environmentalists lash out at one of their own for taking actions they don't agree with. Whatever happened to diversity of tactics?
The crew of the Steve Irwin saved 299 whales this year. How many did you save buying hybrid cars and compact florescant lightbulbs.
Continue to send emails to politicians and have people sign your petitions but don't call yourself environmentalists and condemn people who are out there taking risks to protect the earth.
I spent a good part of the past year at a treesit, only to see people at sites like this try to insult and belittle us as childish and get this 'making people ashamed to call themselves environmentalists.'
So many people are able to notice that our system of government and law is slanted towards corporations and profit, yet when we stand up against those laws, they very people who are suppossed to be on our side tell us to sit back down, so that they may continue their ineffective protests. Whatever.

Yeah, eco-terrorists follow in the footsteps of abolitionists just like abortion-clinic-bombers do.

That youtube video interview of Paul Watson captures his hypocrisy quite well.

I meant to qualify that comment. I was saying that not all "extreme" environmentalists are terrorists. I'm not condoning actual terrorism, but there is no ground on which to accuse these people of terrorism. They haven't bombed anyone. Just because they aren't content with acting only through the hypocritical politicians with conflicts of interest doesn't make them terrorists. They value human life as well.

The government undermines political movements through infiltration and especially fear mongering. It's a historic fact. If you love your government so much, just consider the abolitionists, the Cold War, the Black Panthers, The Native American movement (around the same time but somehow absent from the history books), etc. There is nothing in the constitution that protects dissidents from such action. Never forget COINTELPRO.

I apologize for being so hostile. I'll admit that I was angry, when I posted before, but I am not uneducated. Trust me. I just hate to see the apparent effects of indoctrination. Like I said, the government, particularly the FBI, makes Emmanuel Goldstein's of any environmentalist group that goes at all beyond a slight murmur and petitioning.

"They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality...and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening."

THAT is what I fear is undermining the environmental movement, particularly among the masses. I'd rather not have environmentalists ripping one another apart. it's suicide.

I suppose it is totally worth it to kill those stupid seals right? Yeah, those seals need to die so they can survive right? Because there are no other resources to survive on... What shall Gucci do if there were to ever be a shortage of seal skin? What would they make their $2000.00 purses from??

You'd think that this being 2008 and all...and half of you people being on TREEHUGGER.COM would probably be vegetarians or most likely vegans... you probably buy canvas bags for $20.00 just to show how much you care, right? But Paul Watson, no... he's a bad man... How dare he try and defend animals that can't defend themselves?

How's about this, when it is acceptable for some asshole to come along and club your puppy to death so that they can use it's skin to make a purse....then fine that's where your morals stand. If you think there is any difference between seals and the very pets you worship... you've got alot of thinking to do. The times are changing, hopefully towards the better. God forbid someone would stand up and take action against cruelty.

I commend Sea Shepherd for putting their asses out their against illegal whaling ships, shark finners and those precious seal hunters. I hope they stop them forever! Considering that more and more animals are going extinct, I think they are a godsend to these animals, hopefully more people will stop treating these gentle creatures as a "resource".

After reading some of the comments (Sealtastic, Kalanu) the following Albert Einstein quote comes to mind:
Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I am not sure about the universe.
Thank you, Paul Watson, it takes genius and courage to move in the opposite direction.

I believe no amount of petitioning will help. Politicians are crooks and they only thing that will bring change is public dissent. Make known your discontent! Don't condemn radical environmentalists! Even if you disagree with their methods! Look at the bigger picture! When you critise an activist, you brag your allegience to their enemies! If you are REALLY an environmentalist, you should know not to be overly critical. If you really MUST say something harsh, BE SURE TO INCLUDE POSITIVE COMMENTS ABOUT OTHER ENVIRONMENTALISTS! Which isn't the case in most of the posts I read! Indicating these people's true nature.

Funny how those that are so set on saving whales do little to save unborn children and often whole heartedly support abortion as a right.

Capt Watson and his crew are just a bunch of thugs. They should be put away like any other criminals.

Paul Watson did nothing wrong he was right