Following is my summary from an editorial in Norwegian paper Fiskaren:
“In October many celebrities will gather to celebrate 30 years with Sea Shepherd, including Mick Jagger, Martin Sheen, Orlando Bloom , Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan among other super stars together with their cheque books.
Norway has been under heavy international criticism for its whaling policy. To counter this , Norway has presented facts after facts to defend its whaling policy. Even if the Embassies will not be attacked by anti-whalers, what consequences will show up if a new “whale war” blows up?
Probably it will mainly harm the seafood industry and the country’s image.
Sea Shepherd will arrange the history’s biggest “ Save the Whale’s Party”.
Sea Shepherd might feature images of the attacked whalers “ the Nybraena”, “ the Willassen Senior” and “ the Elin –Torild” on the big screen and as well featuring video sequences of whale’s dying in agony to the tunes of Rolling Stones.
The revenues from this gala evening will be bigger than the revenues from Norwegian whaling. Revenues that can pay new ships, direct actions and media campaigns.
With James Bond and Mick Jagger in the frontlines it might be a tough battle for Norway.
However, the Coastal Party, that represents most whalers, made this statement after the sinking of the Norwegian whaler, “Norwegian authorities must now act to promote minke whaling , as a means to save fisheries in the North. It’s a traditional, sustainable and eco-friendly industry that international extreme animal rights activists mustn’t ruin”.
Ann Novek
Sweden
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Perhaps a bit surprising that Mick Jagger participates in the SS celebration . He use to be quite neutral in political issues, no position on the Iraq war , not a ” save the rainforest” type!
“Norwegian authorities must now act to promote minke whaling , as a means to save fisheries in the North.” – The Coastal Party
The usual discredited ‘blame the whales not over quota and pirate fishing for fish stock declines’ propaganda.
Pierce Brosnan is not the current James Bond actor either…
Internet poll conducted by the paper:
Phase out whaling : about 15%
Never cave in for international anti whaling ” terrorists”: 85%
‘Never cave in for international anti whaling ” terrorists”: 85%’ – Fiskaren
Emotive and leading question designed to produce the required response… cheap tabloid trick.
Survey carried out with 7 Norwegian tourists in a pub in Oxfordshire, 15 September 2007 –
How many support a return to international commercial whaling – 0
How many actually ate whale products – 1
How many thought that over quota fishing and pirate fishing was the real cause of falling fish stocks not whales – 7
How many thought the issue of whaling in Norway was very political – 7
“Probably it will mainly harm the seafood industry and the country’s image.”
I would love to see some evidence to back this up.
Historically speaking, these fisheries boycots have always failed – that is if the intended goal was anything other than just getting press clippings.
Paul Watson regularly claims the support of all and sundry.
Does anyone remember the movie project of his “swashbuckling” life story?
The press releases never stop claiming the movie is just about to go into production with an ever changing cast list of celebs.
I find the idea of old Tubby Watson celebrating 30 years in the business rather amusing seeing as he’s accomplished bugger all and is still stuck in the mud fighting the same battles that were supposed to be be over.
Only now he’s doing it with the internet and lo and behold lots of people disagree with him and his views and they’re communicating.
Watson’s business model is doomed to fail at anything beyond simply raising loot and his brand name.
Sorry, anyone who can raise money vilifying Faeroese pilot whalers while the eco-yuppies back home prattle on about local organic foods needs a good slap on the arse and sending back to kindergarten.
Guys like Watson and his whole agit-prop over facts and cooperation schtick needs to die before we can genuinely move forward.
He’s a holdover from the self-indulgent hippies and increasingly irrelevant to anything environmental.
Strictly for the pages of Hello! magazine.
‘Never cave in for international anti whaling ” terrorists”: 85%’ – Fiskaren
“Emotive and leading question designed to produce the required response… cheap tabloid trick.”
“Translation” designed to produce the required response…
R
” “Translation” designed to produce the required response…” -R
Word, by word translation from Fiskaren.
No, we must never cave in for extremists, we have all facts on our side.
The very question was : Should Norway phase out whaling or tune down whaling , if a boycott threatens the rest of the seafood industry?
Jeez Rune, I’m NOT manipulating facts!
Thanks for the clarification Rune.
So as every one is so critical of PW, I wonder if you can suggest who or what is the catalyst to sustainable fisheries as a whole.
As I would have thought with recent news from the Galapagos regarding SS that they are actually dooing something there.
Of course elsewhere they are indeed pissing some folks off, usually the ones who are over exploiting one resource or another.
Look forward to the illumination.
” “Probably it will mainly harm the seafood industry and the country’s image.” – IceClass
Obviously the whaling industry is scared of a scaling up of a ” whale’s war” as they ” demand now that the whole society should be engaged in/ involved in the fight against those who want to sabotage whalers or the industry.
Even the Fisheries Minister is involved and is discussing what threats there are to the whaling industry in the near future as well what threats there are in the long run.
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your respons…
Yes indeed many are angry with Paul Watson, including Greenpeace , as they believe he sets back the work of the “anti whaling cause” with a decade.
Some people believe the time for direct actions on the sea and sabotaging whalers is over…
Some people get a nice warm feeling when a whaler is sunken but the real result is the opposite. This is something PW doesn’t understand…
Btw, I wrote in a whaling thread that I was not opposed to his sinking of the pirate whaler ” the Sierra” . The difference here is that he attacks national property , which only will fuel nationalism.
Maybe if he really wanted to make a difference for the marine life , he could sink some illegal trawlers up in the Barents Sea….
Guaranteed action !!! Russians, Spaniards, Norwegians, the Coast Guard , the Mafia etc.
Iceland is still whaling apparently:
http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/allweb/135756CE6499F81B8025735D002ACAD8
In Japan a new Prime Minister (71-year old son of a former PM, Fukuda-san) is about to take over from Abe-san. Not sure what this means for decision making with regards to whaling policy, but I presume leadership change means a bit of policy paralysis, and the ruling party has likely got much bigger fish to fry at the moment…
A rough translation from Norwegian media this morning.
Paul Watson is no threat to Norwegian whaling , according to the Secret Service. To be that he must turn out to be a fundamentalistic islamist.
So eco- terrorism and Paul Watson are not mentioned as threats to Norwegain whaling as was the case back in the 90’s.
Before the sabotage to the Willassen Senior, it was estimated that threre had been no threat to whalers for about a decade.
Hi David,
“In Japan a new Prime Minister (71-year old son of a former PM, Fukuda-san) is about to take over from Abe-san.”
What do younger Japanese think of having such an “old” leader?
I know of no opinion polls that have asked such a question.
” “I think we have to take a more aggressive position against [the whalers],” Mr Watson told the Herald.
” Greenpeace is refusing to outline its plans until mid-October but Mr Watson believes its ship, the Esperanza, will trail the fleet south all the way from Japan. He dismisses Greenpeace’s extraordinary recent record of raising awareness of the hunt by video.”
“We all know it’s going on. What are we going to do to stop it? That’s the point. I will not roll a camera while a whale dies. I don’t care how valuable that is. Anyway, we’ve never seen a whale killed, because when we show up, they don’t kill whales. They run. You notice that when Greenpeace shows up, they just carry on. Business as usual.”
“”Japan already leaned on Holland hard to try to get the Dutch flag off us,” he says. He says the tables were turned at a meeting in The Hague in July and the Dutch complained about Japan’s illegal whaling”
In evidence of Japan’s determination to continue whaling, the Government-owned fleet is expected to be joined by a new chaser ship launched last month.
Mr Watson dismissed its importance. “We’re going to concentrate on the Nisshin Maru,” he says. “Because if you can stop the factory ship, you stop the operation.”
” Meet the man who hunts the whalers” ,
Link to the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/meet-the-man-who-hunts-the-whalers/2007/09/28/1190486574239.html
“” Greenpeace is refusing to outline its plans until mid-October but Mr Watson believes its ship, the Esperanza, will trail the fleet south all the way from Japan. ”
I once asked Shane Rattenbury from GPI , why they didn’t trail the Japanese fleet from the port in Japan, he then told me that it was very difficult due to logistics( problems with the fuel).