Japanese whalers fight Sea Shepherd Conservation Society volunteers. Copyright Sea Shepherd

Japan took 2.28 billion yen ($29.4 million USD) that was raised and earmarked to help victims of the Japanese tsunami disaster, and used that money to beef up military security for the Japanese Antarctic whaling fleet, in order to combat Sea Shepherd volunteers. The Sea Shepherd flag ship, the Steve Irwin, cost less than two million USD total in comparison, although it has been successful thus far in repelling the military weaponry of the Japanese fleet anyway (which has included guns, grenades, and LRADs). But this new military funding taken from disaster relief funds dwarfs previous years’ military funding for the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Japanese whaling fleet left port in Japan this week, and is on its way to Antarctica now. So the Sea Shepherd fleet, currently in Australia, will depart to protect whales from the whaling fleet in the next couple weeks.

A nice-looking wild oyster bed on the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Photo by Joe Brent on Flickr). By contrast, many commercial beds are just acre after acre of metal cages.

There’s a lot of noise on the internet today about Christopher Cox’s “Consider the Oyster” which carries the slug/page title “It’s OK for vegans to eat oysters” and the subhead “Why even strict vegans should feel comfortable eating oysters by the boatload.”

Cox’s basic thesis is that oysters don’t feel pain and that commercial oyster production/harvesting is far more ecologically friendly than most other industrial food production. He goes out of his way to say that oysters are sustainable for food use in a way that clams and mussels are not. He gets a qualified endorsement from Peter Singer. One can certainly argue with these things, but he’s basically done his homework. Except for seeming to have no clue what it means to be vegan.

When I became a vegan, I didn’t draw an X through everything marked “Animalia” on the tree of life. And when I pick out my dinner, I don’t ask myself: What do I have to do to remain a vegan? I ask myself: What is the right choice in this situation? Eating ethically is not a purity pissing contest, and the more vegans or vegetarians pretend that it is, the more their diets start to resemble mere fashion—and thus risk being dismissed as such. Emerson wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

The only way for me to read this is that Cox doesn’t know what “vegan” means. He never became a vegan, and needn’t worry himself over remaining a vegan. Because of our very consistency (foolish or not) there’s no gray area for vegans when it comes to eating animals. Cox is trying to be ethical about his consumerism, and that’s great. I just don’t understand how the hell anyone thinks the way he’s going about it can be described as any form of veganism. It isn’t.

Vegans do not knowingly/willingly/actively consume or purchase any part or bodily product of an animal that was taken from a living animal or for which an animal was killed. (I know that’s a lot to pack into a sentence, but there it is. End of story.) You can argue that this isn’t the most constructive approach to ethical consumerism, as Peter Singer does. But Peter Singer does not claim to be vegan, nor does he endorse the point of view that eating oysters can ever be vegan.

Cox makes some worthy arguments. I’m sure eating local oysters is (in an immediate, direct sense) more environmentally friendly than, say, eating vegan fake meat shipped from a factory halfway around the world. But that’s neither here nor there in regards to veganism.

He relates how his editor told him “I won’t lie—you’ll be attacked viciously for being a vegan, and attacked equally viciously for not being a strict enough vegan.” Both of her concerns are beside the point. As to the first, of course meat-trolls will jump at any mention of veganism on the web. As to the second, it’s not that he’s not a strict-enough vegan. It’s that he’s not even remotely vegan, by any definition. If you want to argue about strict-enough-veganism, discuss the ethics of riding on a leather seat or accepting animal-based medicine in the emergency room. Not eating fucking meat.

To Cox’s credit, he does say: “Because I eat oysters, I shouldn’t call myself a vegan. I’m not even a vegetarian. I am a pescetarian, or a flexitarian, or maybe there’s an even more awkward word to describe my diet.” Great! So then why did he and/or his editors plaster “vegan” all over the top of the piece and e-mail us (and presumably other vegan publications) with “thought you might enjoy an essay we published today on why it’s ethically OK for even strict vegans to eat oysters.”

I’d fully understand Cox saying he’s vegan in various situations as a shorthand to getting a better meal or whatever. (For years before I was vegetarian, I knew saying I was one would often get me fresher, more palatable food in institutional settings and airplanes.) But that’s a different from stating it in the lede of an essay in a very prominent web magazine. Slate is either being stupid or cynically trying to rile people up. Or, I worry, both.

It’s fair enough for Cox to say is that veganism can become disconnected from the reasons some people become vegans. But if a person starts eating eggs from backyard chickens, or knowingly consuming a modicum of butter, or eats vegan for only part of the day, they aren’t vegan, let alone strict ones.

Deciding to be vegan means you prioritize the avoidance of animal products over other concerns. That’s not what Cox is doing. Whether or not he considers himself vegan (I honestly can’t tell), his claiming so prominently that his oyster-eating has anything to do with veganism just muddies the waters in a way that works against the causes he means to advocate.

(all photo credits: Glenn Lockitch / Sea Shepherd)

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.

This message was transmitted to New York from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite.

So lots went on here yesterday – everything has been a really intense emotional rollercoaster. In the morning, we were told the campaign was over and we had to go back to port. I took the news really hard. Every day we were with the Nisshin Maru, I was just so happy knowing the whales were protected and safe. We had such an amazing and successful campaign, but going back to port knowing the whalers were still down here with the whales isn’t easy. I didn’t have much time to dwell on it though, because 30 minutes after that, we saw the Yushin Maru #3 on the horizon. We hadn’t seen that ship since it rammed us at the beginning of the month. Everyone jumped back into gear, we sent the small boat after the Yushin, packed with butyric acid, paint, and some angry Sea Shepherds ;) The small boat chased the Yushin through the ice at 15 knots, and the Yushin just slammed into a lot of the ice, risking damaging their ship to get away from our boat.

On the way to catch up with the Yushin, though, we had passed a set of five buoys together that was attached to a line. We speculated it was either a longline or from the whalers. We marked the GPS for the buoy location, and after showering the Yushin with butyric acid, we went back to the buoys. Ironically, this was the one day that we were able to take the time to pull in the illegal buoys and line since we had stopped chasing the Nisshin. They were going after Patagonian toothfish, aka Chilean sea bass. Turns out it wasn’t a longline, though; it was an illegal gillnet – the net was five. miles long or so and about 1500 feet deep, set across three different sets of buoys, each two and a half miles apart. It took about six hours to pull in all the line and get all the buoys – and that didn’t even include the net! And now we have a nice collection of buoys and about $3k worth of new line – something we hadn’t been able to get in Africa before the campaign! I don’t think the net had been out that long, but don’t really know. The ship’s name was Draco I. I don’t know where it was from because they didn’t have their port name on the side of the ship.

There was also some crazy orca/seal drama yesterday too. We passed a very scared seal on a small flat piece of ice with four adult orcas and one baby orca circling it and spyhopping – poking just their heads up to look at the seal. The seal’s head was only about ten feet from the orcas. Then they started nudging the ice to knock the seal off. Apparently, the orcas had chased the seal underwater, and then the seal landed on an unfortunately small piece of ice. Then, after the ship passed, the seal tried to make a run for it and there was blood in the water, so I guess he didn’t make it :( At least he was orca food and not people food!

It was a seriously long day. Luckily, Darius made his seriously awesome Antarctic Mac ‘n Cheese to keep us going and was kind enough to share the recipe for future action packed animal saving days! Or just yummy comfort food ;)

1 lb of macaroni
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
8 teaspoons of yellow mustard
3 tablespoons lemon juice
8oz canned tomato sauce
3 teaspoons of salt
3 cups soy milk

In a saucepan, heat oil and saute garlic over medium to high heat for two minutes. Add flour, yeast, mustard, lemon juice, salt, tomato sauce and one cup soy milk. Mix thoroughly. When bubbles form, add one cup soy milk and continue stirring. When the sauce starts bubbling again, add the last cup of soy milk. Cook for an additional five minutes while stirring. After cooking the macaroni, drain and stir in sauce.

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.

This message was transmitted to New York from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite.

Hey Tod! I never know if its Saturday or Tuesday down here! No days off on Antarctic whale saving duty! Its amazing that with a ship full of volunteers no one complains about not getting a day off or paid for over three months. There’s actually not that much to do on deck at the moment since the seas are still pretty big.

The Nisshin Maru seems to be sticking with the rough weather at the moment, headed east. We’re about 30 miles north of the ice shelf, and equidistant to Australia and Africa. The days are certainly shorter than they were when we first got down here a couple of months ago. At the end of December, the darkest it got was a few hours of twilight. Now, there’s over eight hours of darkness. The rough seas and darkness make it really hard to see growlers – the smaller pieces of ice that have broken off from the icebergs. They blend into the white-capped ocean and are quite dangerous because they can do a lot of damage to a ship. So now we’re keeping a deck person on night bridge watch to help look for the growlers. I have the 4-8am tonight.

Anyway, just finished chores and a yummy lunch of tomato soup and potato wedges. I got you the recipe from our awesome vegan chefs if you are feeling inspired to cook this weekend~

Spicy Potato Wedges

Wash potatoes (maybe eight for you and your dog Piggy? ;) ), leaving peel on. Cut into thin wedges (one potato makes about 8 wedges. In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of corn flour, 1/4 ts thyme, 1/2 ts hot chili powder, generous pinch of salt and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Mix that together with the potato wedges and put on a baking tray. Mix in 1 cup of olive oil, or enough to fry it. Oven should be at 180 degrees Celsius (not sure what that is in Farenheit). Cook until a nice golden brown. Super delicious!

(Pete Bethune aboard the Shonan Maru #2)

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.

This message was transmitted to New York from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite.

Hey Tod! I just watched the video of Pete Bethune entering the Shonan Maru #2. Very bold! Boarding was the one thing he could do so that the Shonan wouldn’t get away with the attempted murder of him and his crew. He originally wanted to board when the New Zealand and Australian governments didn’t do anything after the Shonan sunk the Ady Gil. Pete went for one daylight boarding attempt from our small boat, but it was too dangerous in the small boat with the anti-boarding spikes. But he’s one intensely determined guy. He stayed on the Bob Barker until we met up with the Steve Irwin. Then he went all the way back to Australia, only to leave the safety of home, his wife and kids, to come back to the Southern Ocean and do a dangerous nighttime boarding of the Shonan.

It was definitely dangerous. He went on a jet ski with two other people – a driver and a camera person. Then he had to balance on the jet ski, avoid the spikes, and cut the anti-boarding net – all in the dark at 14 knots! That’s pretty fast. Unfortunately, there’s no video of the actual boarding. There was a camera person on the jet ski, but apparently it was too hard to get the shot in the dark while staying on the jet ski.

The video is of Pete entering the bridge of the Shonan Maru. The funny part is that the Shonan didn’t even know he was onboard, and had been for an hour and a half, until daybreak when Pete knocked on the bridge window! The video shows him lightly knocking on the window next to the bridge door. He
put his hands behind his head while waiting for someone to see him. Then, one of the whalers opened the bridge door, came half-way out and Pete handed him a citizen’s arrest letter and a $3M invoice for the Ady Gil! The whaler comically tried to shoo Pete away. When Pete didn’t move, the whaler looked around and over the side of the ship for a small boat. There wasn’t one! The Shonan was stuck with Pete Bethune, the captain who had just boarded their security ship, wanted to arrest them and get repaid $3M for the Ady Gil. The whaler goes back inside the bridge and then Pete cautiously followed him in. That’s the last we’ve seen of Pete Bethune.

The Shonan is on their way back to Japan, leaving the Nisshin alone with the Sea Shepherd ships. No sign of the kill ships. We’re in the middle of another strong storm, holding tight in massive seas up to 30 feet with 70 knot winds. No one minds the weather though because its the 14th day no whales have died. That’s 140 whales saved and counting!

Anyway, I hope youre doing well – the albatrosses say hi! So does the elephant seal that popped his head up next to the ship the other day!

(photo credit: Barbara Veiga / Sea Shepherd)

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.

This message was transmitted to New York from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!

We had a spectacular Valentine’s Day down here in the Southern Ocean. The whales got love of love and the whalers got a new paint job, butyric acid!

This morning, the Steve Irwin sent their Delta boat after the Nisshin Maru. Using a potato launcher and some very good driving, they dodged the NM’s water cannons and shot butyric acid right onto the slipway and flensing deck of the death ship. We could smell the stench all the way on the Bob Barker!

I went out in the small boat this afternoon/evening for an extended supply run. We needed some important supplies from the Steve Irwin, so we used the small boat. Fortunately, the whalers didn’t get in the way or try to block the recovery of the small boat. The only ship with the Nisshin Maru right now is the Shonan Maru #2, and they stayed a few miles away all day. The water was a crystal clear so dark blue it was almost purple.

Then, after five hours in the small boat, we came back to a super yummy vegan spaghetti bolognese dinner, with ultra delicious chocolately brownies. The Steve Irwin even gave us some fresh fruit! Quite a treat now that we’ve been out at sea for two months. There’s nothing that beats saving whales all day and then coming back to a delicious vegan dinner!

(photo credit: Glenn Lockitch)

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.

This message was transmitted to New York from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite.

On the Bob Barker, right now it’s Feb 11th and 1:26am. I’m waiting for my 2am shift to start and just still so super happy that the whalers are still running – five days and counting! Yesterday, we chased them north out of the JARPA 2 zone. It’s their self-appointed kill zone starting at 60 degrees latitude South. In order to give them a proper Sea Shepherd send off, the Steve Irwin circled the Nisshin and hosed them down with their water cannon.

The sun came out for a little while this afternoon – it was the first time in over a week! We used the opportunity to get an all crew photo on the ship. The Bob pulled up alongside the Nisshin and everyone went out to the helicopter deck. Of course, the Nisshin didn’t know what was going on, thought they were under attack, and blasted their side water cannons. Then, the Shonan rushed to catch up with us from behind,with their water cannons blazing and gray smoke puffing out of their exhaust. Meanwhile, we were all just out on the helicopter deck having a nice group photo in the sun ;) It was almost comical, except for my ever-present thought that our mission is a matter of life and death for the whales.

The whalers just turned southwest though, as I write this. It may be because we were about to hit another nasty storm with 20+ foot swells. The harpoon boats, which turn unbelievably fast, don’t actually do that well in rough seas. Despite the whalers’ repeated attempts to try to shake us by zigzagging, speeding up and then slamming on the brakes, our tough 60-year-old ship has been handling perfectly. I sure love the Bob!

Ok, I gotta run to my shift, more soon mi amigo!

(photo credit: Glenn Lockitch / Sea Shepherd)

An update on the current Antarctic campaign, from Sea Shepherd crew member Andrea Gordon.
This message was sent from the Bob Barker vessel via satellite, on:
Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 6:12 AM

Hey Tod!! I am soooo happy we found the whalers and got them running! I can’t even tell you what a relief it is to know the whales are safe for now. We hadn’t seen the Nisshin Maru since the Ady Gil was sunk a month ago. Then, three days ago, we knew we were getting close to finding them because there were whale guts in the water. Grim, but we were hot on their trail. Peter [Hammarstedt] asked for someone to go up on the mast to do watches up there for about four hours. One crewmember, Darius, was just at the end of a watch, and was taking his gloves off to come down, when he took one more look and spotted the NM! Wow! We were so lucky to find the factory ship before any of their other ships found us first. They must have been in the middle of processing too because there were more whale guts in the water and they weren’t moving. It took them a little while to get moving, so we caught right up to them.

There were four other ships with the NM- the three harpoon ships and the Shonan Maru #2- the ship that sunk the Ady Gil. They stayed a little bit back at first, and then when I was out on bow watch, they started moving in. They formed this tight circle around the ship, cutting in front of our bow, so they put themselves between us and the NM. That’s when the Yushin Maru #3 came in and rammed us. I was right out on the bow on the side of the collision, so that was pretty cool. I didn’t even realize there was any damage at all, because it didn’t feel very hard, but it was minor. So we were fine and the Yushin disappeared and hasn’t been seen since! Ha!

A little while after they rammed us, the Shonan came up and started making close passes to us. They were essentially doing drive by’s, blaring the LRAD and the water cannons. Neither of which bothered us, and they got hammered with butyric acid! Ok, and that stuff is so super stinky. Its really nauseating and we could totally smell it on their ship as they passed us.

Now, we’re just pursuing the NM through some ultra rough weather. I’m writing this from my cabin, which is on the lowest level of the ship and I’m still levitating. Yikes. Trying to catch up on some rest now because I hardly slept for 48 hours.

The Sea Shepherd vessel the Bob Barker, blocking the slipway of the Nisshin Maru

Our friends aboard the Sea Shepherd vessel the Bob Barker have found the whaling fleet, and caught up to the Nisshin Maru factory ship. The Bob Barker is blocking the slipway of the factory ship, which means the Nisshin Maru won’t be able to take on or process any whales. This means that despite the attacks against Sea Shepherd ships by the massive and government-funded Japanese whaling fleet in the past couple months, the unarmed Bob Barker and its tiny crew of volunteer vegans have still managed to stop this year’s Antarctic whaling operations.

Four other whaling harpoon vessels are surrounding the Bob Barker, including the Shonan Maru #2, which rammed and sunk the SSCS vessel the Ady Gil. But as long as the Bob Barker is blocking the slipway of the whaling factory ship, the harpoon vessels and their arsenals won’t be able to continue whaling operations.

The SSCS ship the Bob Barker, surrounded by whaling ships (Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur)

AR photographer Jo-Anne McArthur has been documenting the Sea Shepherd Antarctic campaign this year, and many of her pics are now up at her website.

She’s been taking photos from Sea Shepherd’s heretofore secret ship, the Bob Barker. So you’ll see a lot in these photos that you haven’t been able to follow just from the press releases of the campaign.

You’ll see things that happened to the Bob Barker well before its existence was made public. You’ll see the crew getting the ship ready for the campaign, you’ll see the ship getting surrounded by whaling ships, and you’ll watch the Bob Barker crew rescuing the crew of the Ady Gil after the Shonan Maru #2 rammed the Ady.

If you’re like me and some of your best friends are on those ships, these pics will seriously brighten your day.

The Ady Gil

The Sea Shepherd fleet has been chasing the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctica for about a month now, continually fighting off attacks from the harpoon vessel the Shonan Maru No. 2. Yesterday revealed quite a bit about the players on both sides of the conflict.

The Japanese harpoon ship Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed the tiny Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil. The attack ripped about eight feet of the Ady Gil’s bow completely off the ship. The Ady Gil is sinking and will, most likely, be unsalvageable. As the Ady Gil lurched during the ramming and the crew struggled to keep from falling overboard, the Shonan Maru No. 2 fired high-powered water cannons at the teetering Sea Shepherd members while shooting their LRAD at the Ady Gil. View video of the attack here.

At first the Japanese did not acknowledge the Ady Gil’s post-attack distress signal. The Nisshin Maru finally acknowledged the signal without offering assistance to the ship sinking in Antarctica.

This behavior is getting a bit lethal for even the Japanese Antarctic crew. Even when they chucked grenades at my friends and I on the Steve Irwin two years ago, they weren’t quite so brazen about trying to cause fatalities. New attacks like these suggest they’re more malevolent towards humans than even we thought.

Luckily, the Japanese didn’t know that Sea Shepherd has secretly acquired a third ship for the fleet this year, which has now caught up with the Japanese fleet and rescued the six crew members of the sinking Ady Gil. I’m personally quite glad my friends are now safe and not sinking alone in Antarctica.

Perhaps understandably, the people of Australia are a tad annoyed that their federal government is letting the Japanese sink a ship full of Australians with impunity.

The Australian people and the Green Party of Australia have been wonderful, level-headed supporters of Sea Shepherd, and we think they have a right to be miffed about the Australian aid given to the Japanese whalers to help them attack Australians.

Update: This post at first stated that the Ady Gil wasn’t moving when the Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed and dragged the Ady’s bow before ripping it off. I since removed that statement because the debate of “was it moving?” became everyone’s sole focus of the attack. I’m keeping that statement off since the rest of the post seems to go unread if that statement is in, even though I stand by Captain Chuck Swift. But in case people are still curious to see if the Shonan Maru No. 2 actually did swerve to hit the Ady, here’s video of the ramming from the point of view of the vessel the Bob Barker.

Guys, so much happened this week, I don’t know where to begin. So let’s just start with restaurant openings, yes?

• Sun in Bloom opened Saturday, January 2 and, because I am a man of my word, I went for brunch. It was good. Really good. I mean, check out that loaded burrito — avocado, beans, tofu scramble, and all sorts of tastiness up in that bitch. And no nutritional yeast, thank you.
• On that same magical day, Vinnie’s Pizza in Greenpoint opened. Almost makes you want to move back to Greenpoint, doesn’t it? (Actually, no, Pizza Plus is right here and I’m laaaazy.)
• Babycakes opened its LA location Sunday, January 3. I know, you’re in NYC and you can’t do a thing about it except drool. Well, drool on this!
• And in restaurant closings, Red Bamboo Brooklyn closed.
• The New Yorker profiled Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey.
• Food, Inc. is online and free, so no more excuses.
• Hospitals in the UK’s publicly funded healthcare system will take meat off the menu to cut carbon emissions and costs, The Guardian reports. Yes, less pollution AND less expense! ALL SIGNS POINT TO NOT EATING ANIMALS.
• 

  Sweden is using bunnies as fuel. They are shooting bunnies, “deep freezing” them, burning them, and then calling it biofuel! COME ON. BUNNIES, NOT BIOFUEL.

Even dedicated meat-eaters are finally realizing that lobsters and crabs feel pain, and that even if their perceptions of pain and suffering aren’t quite the same as those of mammals (read: ours), it may not be OK to boil them alive for the eaters’ gustatory pleasure. What’s being done with these realizations, unfortunately, reads more like bad sci-fi than like any genuine acquisition of humane awareness.

A new “solution” to the problem of these animals experiencing pain and stress has been found, one that is supposed to allow seafood lovers to be nice to their lobsters and eat them too. Enter the CrustaStun, the hot new contraption on the “humane” meat market.

British inventor/entrepreneur Simon Buckhaven believes that crustaceans feel pain, and indeed, upon opening the home page of the CrustaStun website, the following text rolls out: “Crustaceans are sentient animals. Butchering or boiling alive causes them pain and stress.” He thinks it’s much better to shock them to death instead. That’s right folks–the CrustaStun is an electric chair for lobsters, crabs, and the like. Buckhaven has taken advantage of the fact that salt water can carry an electrical charge to give these creatures a shocking watery grave rather than a boiling one. Makes perfect sense, right?

One wonders whether, with his oh-so-deep concern for all things crustacean, it occurred to Buckhaven that his device does nothing to address the stress and discomfort caused by methods of trapping and/or farming and transportation of shellfish, or the crowded tanks in which the animals are kept until ready to be consumed. But hey, why worry about little details like that? Clearly a short, less painful death makes up for a long miserable life. Did he stop to consider that his invention might make concerned consumers feel better about eating these animals, thereby actually increasing demand for crustaceans, directly raising the number of animals who live torturous lives only to become expensive “gourmet” platters? Well, we know for sure one thing that he did think of: “The animals do not get stressed during the process and, as a result, the meat tastes better.” Touching.

Japan may never know if whales truly eat krill

Japan has released its 2009 cetacean research findings after killing dozens of whales for the study. Japan, which asserts that it must conduct fatal whaling for necessary scientific research, killed 59 Minke whales off its coast this year for the scientific program. And the conclusion of this year’s Japanese whaling program is that whales eat krill.

Because no one in Japan’s scientific community knew that or asked anyone else on earth.

It is, however, arguable whether or not this year’s findings have more scientific merit than Japan’s 2008 whaling research findings. In 2008, Japan announced – after stating it had to kill hundreds of whales for this research – that injecting dead whale sperm into a cow egg does not result in a half-whale-half-cow monster creature.

Dolphin Meat Hunting in Taiji, Japan

As the movie The Cove explains, the city of Taiji, Japan, is a huge contributor in Japan’s killing of over 20,000 dolphins per year for their meat. This year, however, international pressure has accomplished something amazing: Taiji has thus far suspended their dolphin hunt due to bad press.

Probably the greatest reason for the suspension is the fact that the city of Broome, Taiji’s sister city in Australia, has cut ties with Taiji due to the hunt. Unfortunately, Broome is considering reestablishing ties with Taiji today. If relations are reestablished, it may unfortunately result in Taiji resuming its dolphin hunt. Please tell Broome not to reestablish ties!

Message from Save Japan Dolphins Coalition director Richard O’Barry below:

An Urgent Alert for Dolphins

By Richard O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

Dear Friends of Dolphins:

I need your help to stop the Broome Shire Council from backing down from their courageous action in suspendi their sister-city relationship with the town of Taiji.

Broome’s Shire Council voted to cut ties with the remote fishing village after seeing the feature documentary “The Cove,” which exposed Taiji’s role in the yearly slaughter of more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises off the shores of Japan. I personally thanked Broome for this action.

Now, under intense pressure from the Japanese government, the Shire Council of Broome is considering reversing its position. Don’t let them do it!

Our sources indicate that the suspension is a key reason why the dolphin kills have been halted. If the Shire Council reverses, the killing is likely to resume. We need your help today as the hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Australia!

We were able to stop the dolphin slaughter at least temporarily — but
we must keep the pressure on!

Tell Broome: Stand strong against dolphin slaughter!

“We no longer enslave animals for food purposes.” -Commander Riker, Star Trek

The Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin is touring Australia

Hello all. As you may know, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sends a ship to Antarctica each year, to stop the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales. What you may not know is that the entirely vegan Sea Shepherd ship must rely completely on donations from the public for its supply of food. And food is of course one of the only pleasures you’re going to get in Antarctica (so good food is prized more than gold there).

Well, Sea Shepherd has finally decided its ship’s food wish list for this year. Operation Waltzing Matilda, Sea Shepherd’s next Antarctic campaign to save the whales, takes off this December, so there’s still time to help stock the ship. The ship is currently in Australia, so it may be hard for NYC locals to donate to the ship of course, but if one reader has a friend who has a friend in Australia, or has a great deal on fedex and blenders, then who knows, concerned citizens from around the globe may all eventually pitch in to supply to the ship with all it needs. If you can, please help out! :)

Now, if you want to help but can’t get items to Australia affordably or fast, you can always donate money directly to Sea Shepherd so they can buy these items. Thank you!

Steve Irwin Current Wish List
Location: Circular Quay Sydney 10am till 5pm until Monday 12th October

Sea Shepherd Australia: australia@seashepherd.org

Need:
Sour dough starter
Industrial blender
Wooden Chopping boards
Tea towels
Scissors
Blender
Handwash
Hand blender
Food processor
Green power champion juicer
Black polar fleece balaclavas
Laptops

Food Needs:
Tempeh
Tofu
Soy milk
Olive oil
Brown rice
Icing sugar
Smoked paprika
Bragg’s bouillon/amino acids
Lemons
Limes
Soft drinks
Fruit juice
Fresh herbs (parsley, basil, cilantro, etc.)
Asian fake meat products
Tofutti products – cream cheese, sour cream, cheese slices)
Soy/veggie hot dogs/sausages
Nuts and seeds (cashews, almonds etc)
Dark vegan chocolate

Non-Food Related But Badly Needed:
AAA batteries.
Portable battery charger 6,12,24 volt.
Good quality hand held marine radios.

This is one of Supervegan’s posts for Vegan MoFo 2009.

At the Edge of the World opens today in NYC at Cinema Village and will continue until September 3rd.

Those familiar with Animal Planet’s, Whale Wars will be acquainted with the premise (incidentally, the finale was the most watched show in the channel’s history): a determined group of eco activists attempt to disrupt a Japanese Whaling fleet in Antarctic Waters by any means necessary!

The director will be on hand for a Q&A at tonight’s (Friday) shows.

Usually, I love reading the Huffington Post. However, in the past week they posted a surprisingly scathing blog entry calling Sea Shepherd a terrorist group.

However, the blog made all its arguments based on many assumptions that many people seem to be making about conservation lately, so it seemed worth it to address the blog.

For the first part of this post, we will first address the main themes of the Huffington blog, for the benefit of most readers. Afterwards, we will have, for anyone who has the time or curiosity, a much longer section analyzing every other argument made in the Huffington blog, as it does address other arguments against conservation law enforcing.

The main themes

The central theme of the Huffington blog is mentioned time and time again, and put succinctly in its eighth paragraph:

“Of course the whalers, whatever you may think of their activities, are operating legally. It is Watson and the Sea Shepherds who are the criminals.”

So, although we’ve addressed this partially in previous posts, let’s cover it comprehensively here.

Here is a list of illegal activities that the whalers are performing on video, much of which was outlined by Paul Watson:

1. The Japanese are whaling in violation of the International Whaling Commission’s global moratorium on commercial whaling. The IWC scientific committee announced it does not recognize Japan’s whaling activities as “research,” and thus Japan is not exempt from the commercial whaling ban.

In 2008, Japan released its first research finding in many years from the annual slaughter. The research finding was as follows: “Injecting dead whale sperm into a cow, does not result in producing a cow-whale hybrid creature.”

2. The IWC doesn’t just ban commercial whaling, the IWC specifically bans whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary where Japan whales.

3. The Japanese are in violation of IWC regulation 19. (a) The IWC regulations in the Schedule to the Convention forbid the use of factory ships to process any protected stock: 19. (a) It is forbidden to use a factory ship or a land station for the purpose of treating any whales which are classified as Protection Stocks in paragraph 10. Paragraph 10(c) provides a definition of Protection Stocks and states that Protection Stocks are listed in the Tables of the Schedule. Table 1 lists all the baleen whales, including minke, fin and humpback whales and states that all of them are Protection Stocks. The main ship in the Japanese whaling fleet is the Nisshin Maru, the whaling fleet factory ship, which allows the fleet to kill 1,000 whales a year at sea at a time.

4. In addition, the IWC regulations specifically ban the use of factory ships to process any whales except minke whales: Paragraph 10(d) provides: (d) Notwithstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10 there shall be a moratorium on the taking, killing or treating of whales, except minke whales, by factory ships or whale catchers attached to factory ships. This moratorium applies to sperm whales, killer whales and baleen whales, except minke whales.

5. The Antarctic Treaty specifies the area that Japan is whaling in, as Australia’s territory. Japan is a signing member of the Antarctic Treaty. According to a law it signed, Japan is violating Australia sovereign territory.

6. Before the 2007-2008 Japanese whale hunt, the highest federal court of Australia passed an order stating that it is illegal for Japan to whale in its Antarctic Territory.

7. Article 1 of The Antarctic Treaty specifies that the area in which Japan is bringing military personnel and military gear/weapons for military purposes, is a demilitarized zone in which it is illegal to bring military personnel and military gear for any non-peaceful purposes.

8. The Japanese are in violation of targeting whales protected by the UN’s CITES and the UN Law of the Sea. Japan is a member nation of CITES.

Now, the other half of that passage states that we as Sea Shepherd are criminals. We operate legally, however, under the UN World Charter for Nature, which gives any NGO or individual the right to stop poaching or illegal environmental destruction that’s outlawed by international conservation laws.

Japan has an extradition treaty with the US, and has filmed me during our engagements with them. They have said they will extradite all of us US criminals for prosecution, but have never done so, even though they are granted this right by international agreements. If we could legally extradite any terrorists who have attacked us, and we have film of them doing illegal actions, under which conditions would we NOT extradite them?

The Huffington blog also tries to do what many people try to do, which is reassure themselves that Japan must be taking whales that the world doesn’t need:

“Whatever it may be, minke whales, in particular, are not considered to be particularly threatened. Estimates have placed the minke population in the Southern Hemisphere in the range of 200,000-416,700 whales.”

Minke whales, in particular, are considered to be particularly threatened by the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which Japan is a member nation of, so even Japan officially considers the minke whale to be particularly threatened.

The other theme of the blog is stated in its fourth paragraph:

“And oh, by the way, the Sea Shepherds do almost nothing to protect the whales where they really do need protection.”

SSCS has campaigns against drift-netting, long-lining, and illegal fishing in all its forms that decimate whale populations around the world. We have devoted our scant resources to ending all forms of poaching that result in whale by-catch and accidental whale killings, and we work with sovereign governments to pass and enforce regulations to prevent accidental killings of whales by ships and fishing equipment.

In 2006-2007, Sea Shepherd directly lead law enforcement raids that seized tens of thousands of illegal shark fins bound for China (illegal long-lining operations that would cause countless by-catch), and SSCS waged investigations that directly lead to arrest warrants in large illegal operations that kill tons of by-catch. Last year, I served as Sea Shepherd’s comms specialist on a mission with the Ecuadorian rangers to create the very first conservation law enforcement and ranger base in the Northern Islands of the Galapagos, because that’s where a huge amount of the dolphin and whale by-catch from the entire Northwest quadrant of South America happens.

Independently of other governments, SSCS has rescued countless whales and dolphins from illegal purse netting, long-lining, and other accident scenarios in the Pacific Ocean by directly patrolling areas that are often used for such illegal fishing. And in the past four years, we have caught and stopped many illegal operations from Panama to China to the US to Ecuador to many others, that have been decimating whale and dolphin populations through by-catch.

The argument of this passage is that Sea Shepherd is doing “almost nothing” with the scant resources it has to protecting whales where they do need protection. The question is, how much are we expected to do with the tiny budget we have, to match expectations of what we could be accomplishing?

So those are the basic premises of the blog, which many people have been recounting since the premiere of Whale Wars.

The blog continues to mention many other assumptions, although the above reading may be enough for most people in one sitting.

Further reading for the curious

However, if you are curious enough, and have some time to kill this lunch break, then below, I have examined every single argument the Huffington blog makes from beginning to end because I have strange hobbies in my spare time:

First sentence:
“Tonight begins the second season of ‘Whale Wars’ in which a scruffy band of eco-crusaders, the Sea Shepherds, go to war against the evil whaling ships, by any means necessary.”

First sentence corrected:
Actually, it is not “by any means necessary.” Our methods are very strictly regulated, and we have all been given very well defined limits of what we can or cannot do during engagements, all in an effort to cause zero harm to humans, and to avoid any entanglements with international law. Thus, we have never been arrested or prosecuted for any violent crimes. The Japanese crew train multiple video cameras on us during every engagement, following our actions closely to try to catch any illegal violent behavior on our part, but they have never been able to actually get video of us doing any such thing because we strictly control how we engage with poaching vessels. The Japanese do sometimes claim that their crew have been injured by us, although we have shared all our video with any interested parties to show exactly where all of our shots go. Also, whenever we have injuries from grenade blasts etc, we have crew to produce with those injuries, but the Japanese have always stopped making their accusations as soon as they are asked to produce anyone who requires medical attention from an engagement.

Second paragraph:
“What’s not to like? The show is action on the high seas; ocean combat to save the whales! Everyone likes whales. I like whales. Who doesn’t like whales? What great television for those bored with shows about fishing off Alaska, Ice Road Truckers or the Real Housewives of Duluth!”

Second paragraph commentary:
It is a great show isn’t it?

Third paragraph opening:
“So what is the problem with ‘Whale Wars’? The problem is that it is cheap exploitation in praise of what is nothing less than eco-terrorism.”

Third paragraph opening, corrected:
Eco-terrorism is illegal. However, we do not do anything illegal in Antarctica, even though the Australian government has investigated us many times looking for anything illegal to prosecute on behalf of Japan, even temporarily confiscating our tapes of Japanese whaling in order to protect Japan’s interests earlier this year. Several times, even in the past two years alone, Australian federal authorities have boarded our ship under pressure from Japan, on behalf of Japan, to investigate everything from piracy to interfering with legal businesses. There has been nothing illegal for them to pursue, and no arrests have ever been made from any of these investigations, regardless/because of how much video evidence there is (from both us and the Japanese) of every engagement.

Third paragraph continued:
“It is the glorification of vigilantism on the high seas.”

Third paragraph continued, corrected:
Vigilantes fight against crime, so we thank the blogger for pointing out that we are indeed trying to stop illegal activities. However, vigilantes also do not operate under any legal authority. We perform our campaigns under the authority of the UN World Charter for Nature. Vigilantes are also illegal, and would be arrested if found. We haven’t only been found; we’ve been searched, investigated, interrogated, and pursued by first-world federal legal authorities. However, no one has been arrested for anything related to Whale Wars.

Fourth paragraph opening:
“While ‘Whale Wars’ presents a simplistic case of us against them, the noble environmentalists against the evil whalers, the reality, of course, is not so black and white. By international agreement with the International Whaling Commission, the Japanese were allowed to kill up to a nine hundred minke whales and fifty fin whales in 2007/2008 in the Antarctic ocean for ‘research purposes.’”

Fourth paragraph opening, corrected:
Japan wouldn’t make any “international agreements” with the International Whaling Commission. They’re already a member country of it, bound to the IWC’s legal commission rulings. And the IWC has announced they officially do NOT recognize Japan’s whaling as research.

Fourth paragraph second half:
“Critics claim that this is thinly disguised commercial whaling.”

Fourth paragraph second half, corrected:
The suggestion here is that there are some critics in the traditional sense of individual commentators. Although you could as an individual cite things like Japan’s open lack of research records, the important critics here are sovereign countries like Panama, that removed their flag from the Japanese whaling ship the Nisshin Maru in the past year because it’s against Panamanian policy to support commercial whaling. And other critics like the sovereign nation of Holland, which refused to give into Japanese political pressure to remove the Dutch flag from our ship, citing it was the Japanese who are engaged in the illegal activity of commercial whaling.

Fifth paragraph:
“Negotiating international agreements may not make for rousing ‘reality TV’ but it has made a significant difference in actually ‘saving the whales.’”

Fifth paragraph corrected:
The laws and international agreements protecting the whales that Japan targets have been in place for years. Indeed, commercial whaling has been illegal since the 1980′s, and several UN bodies cite specific whales that are not to be killed or hunted. Japan has actually signed these agreements and is a member nation of the UN bodies and IWC, which have outlawed commercial whaling and the specific killing of whales that Japan is targeting during its annual hunt.

More recently, there has been additional international legal action done. Australia has been building a legal case against Japan, and Australia’s highest federal court indeed outlawed all Japanese whaling in the Australian Antarctic Territory, which is where Japan whales.

Despite all of these international agreements, Japan continues to illegally whale in protected waters every year.

It’s very easy to say, “Well, the law is in place, our work is done!” Whereas the reality is that rules only mean something if a police force supports them. As it is, a very powerful first world nation has been using its military might to break these international agreements and rulings, not back them.

Sixth paragraph first half:
“The Sea Shepherds on ‘Whale Wars’ are abolitionist animal rights activists. They believe that every whale is sacred and should be preserved. On this basis, they justify aggressively interfering with and attempting to disable whaling ships in international waters, including pelting the ships with bottles containing butyric acid, which recently injured four Japanese crew members.”

Sixth paragraph first half, corrected:
We do not justify our behavior because whales are being killed. We justify our behavior because we are operating legally against an illegal enterprise. Whales are being killed much closer to home, legally, by indigenous cultures. We do not have any campaigns against that because such hunts have been deemed legal by the IWC.

And here, the Huffington blog is taking Japanese claims of injuries as fact. We know, from our engagements and the injuries from grenade blasts inflicted on our crew by the Japanese, that it’s very easy to prove injuries by matching video to medical evidence. And again, Japan shuts up immediately when asked to provide this.

Sixth paragraph second half:
“Their zealotry is strongly reminiscent of anti-abortion extremists. (Both groups share a fondness for butyric acid attacks.) The Sea Shepherds also attempt to maneuver Zodiac boats in between the whalers and their prey. More seriously, they have taken to ramming Japanese whalers with their ship, the Steve Irwin. (They deny this but several videos of the Irwin ramming a whaler are widely available.) Members of the Sea Shepherds have also boarded whalers at sea and in one case the Sea Shepherds interfered with the search and rescue of a Japanese sailor washed overboard. (The Sea Shepherds deny they interfered but that is not the opinion of those conducting the search and rescue.)”

Sixth paragraph second half, corrected:
We haven’t “taken to” anything new recently, actually. Sea Shepherd’s ramming of illegal poaching vessels has been well documented in many documentaries like “Sharkwater” and news pieces for decades, starting with the very public ramming of the pirate whaling vessel the Sierra in Spain. So we have no shame admitting when we ram vessels. However, the Japanese fleet has not been shy about ramming us either, starting in 2006 when we got footage of them ramming our ship the Robert Hunter (which has been renamed the Steve Irwin). Indeed, ramming is serious business, as footage shows a Japanese harpoon ship ramming our ship in the documentary “At the Edge of the World.” If people are concerned about ramming, we can provide video evidence (to any law enforcement agency they think would care) of the Nisshin Maru turning at us in an attempt to ram us during the 2007-2008 whaling season (which would have been lethal to us, on a ship one eighth the size of the Nisshin Maru).

This passage also argues the claim that in one case, SSCS interferes with the search and rescue of a Japanese sailor who fell overboard a Japanese ship. The incident (which was unrelated to any pursuit or confrontation) was tragic, and Sea Shepherd offered to help in search and rescue. The offer was turned down, but more importantly, this period of time was being filmed. And as we mentioned earlier, whenever we come in sight of their ship, they film us too. If there is more than an accusation that we would do anything other than help a human who falls overboard, we invite them to show their evidence against ours.

Seventh paragraph:
“The Sea Shepherds fly the Jolly Roger flag of piracy. I think that they should be more accurately described as eco-terrorists.”

Seventh paragraph corrected:
Again, if anyone has video or any other proof of any illegal acts worthy of a $10 fine on Whale Wars, there’s a good chance we would’ve been told by the sovereign governments launching federal investigations targeting us.

Eighth paragraph, first half:
“‘You don’t beg criminals to stop doing what they’re doing,’ Mr. Watson said in the first episode last season. ‘You intervene, and you physically and aggressively shut them down.’”

Ninth paragraph:
“And where are these self-described pirates or eco-terrorists, call them what you will, based? In Friday Harbor, Washington. Given their arguably illegal and dangerous antics, I am surprised that the group, as well as the producers of the television show and the Animal Planet Network
have not been swamped in lawsuits.”

Ninth paragraph, corrected:
We thank the blogger for taking back his former bold statements, and at least calling our actions “arguably” illegal here. However, the fact that we aren’t in legal trouble should not be a surprise to anyone at all, if you look at the laws against whaling, and at the laws protecting those operating legally under UN charters.

Tenth paragraph, first half:
“But do the Sea Shepherds make a difference? Not in any significant way. The WWF estimates that 90% of non-natural whale deaths are due to collisions with ships, followed by “by-catch,” whales becoming caught in nets, and then lastly, by fishing. Only this week, an oil tanker bound for Valdez apparently collided with a humpback whale and dragged the carcass into the harbor on the bow of the ship.”

Tenth paragraph, first half, corrected:
The argument here is that because whales die in other ways, it’s important to ignore the whale hunt. We actually believe it’s important to tackle the problem from ALL sides, and to tackle both the accidental killings as well as the direct poaching of whales. While we do not have the funds to be a lobby group, we work with sovereign governments in preventing accidental whale deaths, and we contribute the scant amount we have to making sure that incidents mentioned in that passage will be prevented. As an example that directly relates to the incident mentioned above: in the Galapagos, we donated one of our ships (we don’t have many, so this was a sizable donation) to the Galapagos rangers, to protect lanes in which whales are in danger among other things. About six months ago, that ship we donated towed and rescued a blue whale that got caught and stranded in such a lane. We don’t have many resources, but every penny people give to Sea Shepherd goes to making sure whales won’t get killed.

Even if we did not do any of that, does the argument – “because whales die in other ways, it’s important to ignore the whale hunt which we can put a stop to” – actually helping any whales? Let’s consider it in human terms. If a murderer is killing 1,000 people a year, and he publicly advertises where and when he’s about to kill his next 1,000 victims, and only one tiny, under-funded group decided to stop the murderer, the argument of this article would be: “It’s irresponsible and a gross misappropriation of the world’s resources for this one small group to do anything about this murderer, because so many people die from other causes.” We pursue those other causes, yes, but we think it would be rather irresponsible to ignore the murderer sitting right in front of us.

Tenth paragraph, second half:
“Special shipping lanes have been set up off Cape Cod to reduce collisions between ships and the extremely endangered northern right whales, which migrate through the area. It is hoped that these collisions will be reduced by an estimated 74% during the migratory season. Changes in shipping lanes around the world and the development of new technologies are making a real difference in reducing the number of whales who die needlessly, which also does not make for entertaining television.”

Tenth paragraph, second half, corrected:
Indeed, it doesn’t make very entertaining television, which is why a lot of people do not know about these other non-glamorous campaigns we do to prevent accidental whale deaths. But the data and results are there for anyone to see if they look into it or ask or spend a few minutes on our website.

Final paragraph:
“In the end, ‘Whale Wars’ is a highly dangerous sideshow, which may make for diverting ‘reality TV’ for the couch-bound, but has nothing meaningful to do with ‘saving the whales.’”

Final paragraph, corrected:
One of the most common responses to the show is the statement, “I had no idea whaling still happened.” It is perhaps not dangerous, and perhaps a good thing that people understand that this illegal enterprise is still happening, and that it is possible for people to shut down such a poaching machine if they put their minds to it.

Until June 14, HOME, a film that gorgeously illustrates the devastating impact of careless human consumption on Earth’s ecosystems, can be viewed in full for free on YouTube in high definition.

In this stunning (and carbon-offset) bird’s eye view of Earth, breathtaking visuals implicate viewers in the interconnectedness of the planet’s dazzling, seldom-seen landscapes and multitudinously various life. Facilitated by Glenn Close’s urgent narration, HOME highlights patterns and atrocities of human existence: “concentration camp-style cattle farms,” “a forest…turned into meat,” and diversity replaced with standardization. Simply put, “humanity has barely 10 years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoilation of the Earth’s riches and change its patterns of consumption,” says Director Yann Arthus-Bertrand on the movie’s official page.

To deliver that message to the largest possible audience, HOME’s creators released the film with its viewers’ pocketbooks in mind; besides offering the film free on YouTube for a limited time, the creators, with financial backing from PPR—a French holding company that, perhaps conflictingly, owns Gucci and Puma—, are showing it at theaters at discounted rates, on select TV stations, and at free screenings worldwide. The Blu-ray and DVD versions will be in stock at Amazon on June 13 and 14 respectively.

Watch the trailer for just a blink of the eyeful that is HOME:

Victory!

Today, after a long struggle, the European Union has finally voted to ban all seal products. This is a huge victory for the seals, and hopefully it will go a long way to ending the massacre of any more Canadian baby seals.

Even before it passed, it seems the threat of the ban already devastated the baby seal hunting industry. In 2006, seal pelts sold for $105, while this year they sold for $14 each.

The result being, Canada had a quota of 280,000 seals this year, but the sealers ultimately only bothered to slaughter 59,500. Longtime seal hunter and seal hunt advocate Jack Troake stated, “We just couldn’t seal for those prices. The prices were too low.”

Canada’s government tried many things, including sending Inuit seal hunters to the European Parliament to plead Canada’s case for them, before the EU finally voted in favor of the ban. Canada’s great effort against the ban and the dramatic drop in seal pelt prices both indicate that the seal hunt will no longer be worth it post EU ban. Hopefully the permanent end of the hunt is now imminent.

Sea lions try as hard as they can to get your attention and jump up to kiss you

From September to December 2008, the vegan conservation group Sea Shepherd waged a fight to protect the ecosystem and all the animals of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. This blog recounts what happened in that time, serving for the group.

The post below recounts what Wolf Island was like, the island that we were on a mission to defend.

On Wolf Itself

Wolf is surrounded on all sides by high cliffs, and there’s no dock, since no humans are allowed on the island. To get onto Wolf, you take a speedboat to the cliff edge, when the waves permit. Then you run off the front of the speedboat and cling to the cliff rocks as the boat speeds away. Then you hope there’s enough footing to get up the cliff because no one else probably climbed that rock face before you. At the top, you’ll be ripped to shreds by cactus, but it’s worth braving all of that because you’ll see things you’ll never see anywhere else in the world.

You have to climb up cliff walls to a plateau of cactus plants, as most of the Galapagos are rocky, harsh environments.

Wolf Island is surrounded on all sides by high cliffs.

There are huge, unique birds every few feet of the island. This huge fluffy one is an infant.

The giant creatures of Wolf Island have no fear of people, and challenge them if humans come near.

The Vampire Finch is only seen on Wolf Island, and it’s pretty amazing to see this little round bird start drinking blood. It’s very difficult to walk around the island without walking right into giant birds who are staring at you, and we got to see forests literally painted white by the birds.

The vampire finch sneaks up on a red-footed booby. It’s actually a change in their behavior (they have traditionally only went for masked or blue-footed boobies).

The vampire finch is much like a mosquito, poking a small hole and drinking blood while the host doesn’t notice.

”Da hell?”

We couldn’t spend too much time on Wolf, because the Sierra Negra had to leave. Since then, the Tiburon Martillo and Sea Mar 2 have been reporting that they’ve been seeing illegal ships continuing to enter the area, and they’ve been chasing those illegal ships away. They may not be able to catch every illegal ship that tries to violate Wolf, but it’s like pursuing the Japanese whalers in Antarctica: as long as you have them on the run, they’re not killing animals illegally.

Next weeks’ post will cover more that SSCS is doing to stop the poaching in Galapagos, and wrap up the campaign.

The Sierra Negra Ranger vessel I had the privilege to serve on

The anti-poaching ship I served on in the Galapagos last year, the Sierra Negra Ranger vessel, managed to catch several illegal poaching vessels this month.

Many of the Sierra Negra’s crew are former fishermen themselves, who have gained a reverence for the ecosystem they were lucky enough to be given. Last year, while I served with them, we all created a secluded Ranger base at Wolf Island. The Sierra Negra has been making the trip to Wolf Island every few weeks to resupply and relieve the crew.

As the Sierra Negra was returning from a trip to Wolf Island on April 2nd, these dedicated Rangers came across several illegal poaching vessels. Deploying several small delta vessels, the Rangers caught three of the poaching ships on April 2nd and 3rd. One tuna and eight marlins were found on the poaching vessel’s longlines, and the three ships were confiscated.

(photo credit Marcel Wensveen)

(photo credit Marcel Wensveen)

The poachers themselves who were caught by the Sierra Negra talked about how worth it is for them to poach inside the Galapagos National Park. They talked about how seldom they get caught and how low the penalties are in the event they are caught.

Unfortunately, precedence says they’re right about the too-small punishments, so it’s important that we work to make poaching be considered a serious crime in the Galapagos. It’s also more important than ever to keep working with the Rangers to help them catch as many illegal longlining vessels as possible.

The Tiburon Martillo floating Ranger base, seen from the deck of the Sierra Negra Ranger vessel

From September to December 2008, the vegan conservation group Sea Shepherd waged a fight to protect the ecosystem and all the animals of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. This blog recounts what happened in that time, serving for the group.

The post below describes one of the biggest projects I was lucky enough to be involved with in the Galapagos.

Anti-Poaching

Alex had been busy these three months. He hired a brilliant Ecuadorian woman from Quito, named Malena. She’s invaluable every single day in keeping Sea Shepherd’s doors open.

Together, Alex and Malena didn’t just keep the office open despite the President’s orders. They somehow managed to form solid relationships with the non-corrupt and very effective Ecuadorian law enforcement offices that O’Hearn formerly worked with as well.

The two also managed to form great relationships with the Rangers. And together with WildAid, the Charles Darwin Foundation, other immensely helpful partners, all parties participated in a monumental Ranger project that would change the anti-poaching effort of the Galapagos in a massive way for the better.

Wolf Island

This project was one of the biggest things to happen in the Galapagos not just during this campaign, but during this decade. Together, all these parties planned to create the first conservation law enforcement base at isolated Wolf Island, the most pristine and unique island of all the Galapagos, the island around which so much of the poaching has happened.

Wolf is one of the only untouched islands of the Galapagos left. It’s forbidden for anyone to walk on Wolf. If you’re a tourist already in the Galapagos, it would cost you $4,000 to visit Wolf by boat, and you still wouldn’t have the right to step onto Wolf. It’s off-limits to humans. It’s one of the last havens for all the animals people associate with the Galapagos.

The historic mission to create a base at Wolf was eight years in the making, involving nearly every ship in the ranger fleet. Godfrey Merlin of WildAid led the ranger mission, and I was fortunate enough to be the communications specialist serving on the Ranger vessel Sierra Negra.

The Ranger vessel Sierra Negra

Wolf Island, and one of its more pensive inhabitants.

The Sierra Negra towed the Tiburon Martillo barge from Santa Cruz to Wolf Island, a two day trip. At Wolf, the Tiburon Martillo would become the permanent floating ranger base at a secluded bay, and the ranger vessel Sea Mar 2 would become its permanent launch. The vessel Guadalupe River would help create the base’s permanent mooring.

We tow the Tiburon Martillo floating Ranger base from Santa Cruz Island.

From left to right, the Sea Mar 2, the Guadalupe River, and the Sierra Negra.

If there’s any island on earth worth protecting, it’s Wolf. And every reason why we were working to protect the Galapagos became clear the closer we got to Wolf.

As we approached the island the morning of the second day of the trip, dolphins surrounded our ship, dolphins who until now had absolutely no protection from the tuna purse-netting poaching ships. Giant unique sea birds like blue-footed boobies, that define the Galapagos, flew next to our ship. When the ranger fleet got to Wolf, we were in the middle of a bay full of giant sea turtles, sea lions, giant tropical fish, and screaming birds.

The Sierra Negra approaches Wolf Island.

One of the large Galapaganean seabirds that appear as we approach Wolf.

Dolphins come to swim alongside us and play around our ship as we approach. Click here for video of dolphins frolicking around our ship.

Intelligent dolphins look up at us and keep up with our ship, enjoying interacting with us.

These dolphins will, for the first time, have permanent protection from poaching vessels like the illegal tuna vessel the Rocio.

We set up base in a secluded, enclosed bay at Wolf Island.

Rangers, CDF divers, and the campaign leader search the nearby area to for suitable places to permanently anchor the Tiburon Martillo Ranger base.

Godfrey Merlin, the mission leader.

Over the next week, we set up the base in the middle of this all. We put in anchor buoys, so that no ship that comes to Wolf would ever have to use its anchor again, destroying the undersea environments of Wolf. We fueled up the Tiburon Martillo and Sea Mar, and I configured their sat comm system.

Divers from the CDF monitor the underwater ecosystem as we put the floating Ranger base in place.

The Rangers set up anchor buoys to moor the Tiburon Martillo, and to ensure no other vessel will have to harm the underwater ecosystem with anchors.

The Tiburon Martillo Ranger base, in its permanent position in the secluded bay of Wolf Island.

But then, before we left, I got the extremely rare opportunity to walk onto Wolf to see the island we were protecting.

Next week’s post will explore the area of Galapagos we were protecting.

Fewer countries are starting to tolerate Canada’s annual baby seal slaughter

This past week, soon after Canada started its annual baby seal hunt, Spain joined a growing list of countries that voted to ban all seal products in the European Union.

Spain voted against seal products for the EU on March 25, following close on the heels of Ireland’s March 17 vote to ban all seal products. Several other European countries like the Netherlands, France, and Germany (as well as the EU parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee) have also voted to ban all seal products. Canada, whose annual seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world (killing well over a quarter of a million seals per year), is becoming more and more isolated in its stance on the needless practice.

Even Russia announced banning its own baby seal hunt this March, and this year a Canadian Senator proposed to end Canada’s seal hunt. A majority of Canada’s population are opposed to the hunt as well.

Although the 2009 Canadian seal hunt has just begun, the Canadian hunters have already killed over 19,000 seals so far this season. For more information on Canada’s hunt, The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has this helpful page on facts and information about the hunt.

And for more videos and photos on the annual hunt, here is Sea Shepherd’s media page concerning the fight against Canada’s seal slaughter.