Old Salt on Huffpo: Whale Wars – Eco-Terrorism as Reality TV

16 Responses to “Old Salt on Huffpo: Whale Wars – Eco-Terrorism as Reality TV”

1. kennebec captain on June 6th, 2009 9:24 am

   I ran across your article this am while reading the news, upon reading I posted a link to it without making the connection between the writer Spilman and the Old Salt! You nailed it. Well done.

2. admin on June 6th, 2009 10:17 am

   Glad you liked it. Giving crazy people reality TV shows seems to be the norm these days but this one goes way too far. As do the Sea Shepherds.

3. CAPT. D. PETER BOUCHER, MN (Ret.) on June 6th, 2009 1:17 pm

   Ah! yes now lets see “Whale Wars”. First off AP needs a seafarer consultant. It informed us that Sea Shepherds use the gyro compass “to stabilize the ship in heavy weather”. Standing on the Bridge these last 50 years I often wondered what that thing was doing there. Wonderful what one learns from television! Later they were searching for the whaling fleet by sweeping with radar -shot of mast with radar antennae whirling- and the “H” flag flying!! Clearly a mixed shot of when they were in a Port with the Pilot aboard. Careless editing AP. We will continue to watch and laugh.
   Good Watch
   Good Watch.

4. admin on June 6th, 2009 1:48 pm

   A gyro-compass stabilizer? Way kewl. Those are hard to find.

   I want one of those. I’d put it right next to my Global Positioning Bilge Pump

5. Andy on June 7th, 2009 12:34 pm

   > Giving crazy people reality TV shows
   > seems to be the norm these days

   A lot depends on who the producers are working with. Close colleagues of mine participated in a “Deep Sea Detectives” episode a few years ago. The film crew came on board the expedition vessel with the almost the entire episode planned out, shot-by-shot. They already had scripts for the lead-ins and lead-out (that frame commercial breaks), discussing the expedition’s “findings” and “theories,” before the ship ever left the dock. Efficient in terms of shooting schedule, but fundamentally misleading to the viewer.

   Fortunately, this actually was a “deep sea” project — too deep for diving — so the project team had aboard its own media crew, lead by a professional filmmaker, to systematically record and catalog the projects “data,” which would essentially be a couple of hundred hours of videotape and thousands of digital still images. The filmmaker ended up having to ride herd on the TV production company, and in the end actually forced them to actually develop their episode as the project progressed — which, of course, is the conceit of the series to begin with — and it ended up being much better and more accurate than it would have been otherwise.

   But there are many episodes of that same series in which the production company apparently talked to anyone who would give them a good interview, no matter how unsupported or unlikely the content. So it really depends as much on the subject of the series as it does the producers/editors.

6. admin on June 7th, 2009 1:15 pm

   You make a good point Andy. I am not a big fan of “reality TV” but some of it can be pretty good while much is so horrific. I think of show like a “Deep Sea Detectives” as less “reality TV” and more of a low budget documentary show. I have watched a little of “Deadliest Catch” and enjoyed it notwithstanding some of the interpersonal drama that seemed staged by the producers. At the other end of the food chain, I recently watched part of one episode of “UFO Hunters” which was so bad that it felt like parody.

   What annoys me about Watson’s little show is that in addition to funding his his vigilante violence, it creates the impression that the real threat to whales are a few Japanese whalers hunting a relatively small number of non-endangered minke whales. Wouldn’t it be nice if the answer was that simple.

7. Connee on June 9th, 2009 7:13 am

   I read your article. I disagree with your assessment of Sea Shepherd. I am a biologist that has spent much of my time studying and seeing whales in their natural habitat. In 1986, the world declared a moratorium on whaling. The Japanese, Norway and Iceland use a loophole that allows for scientific research to kill whales. To this date, there has never been a peer reviewed scientific article submitted to a journal that would give evidence of scientific research. It is a sham. These governments know it. The world’s oceans are in deep trouble. Sea Shepherd is not a protest organization and says so. Sea Shepherd is a direct action organization and sets out to harrass and stop these ILLEGAL activities of killing whales in a WHALE SANCTUARY, where whales go to breed. The real count of the numbers of minke whales is in dispute. But, one can be sure that the numbers of take are not sustainable to the amount of time it takes to grow and reproduce.
   The UN Charter for Nature gives individuals the right to intervene when these laws are violated.
   Sea Shepherd does not care whether humans agree with them or not. Their clients are the whales, seals, sharks and ocean life that is being exploited. Check the status of the fisheries of the world and you will find all of them either collapsed or on the verge of collapse. You who say you love the oceans…will not stand up to stop their exploitation? If the oceans die, we die and anyone with any intelligence can read and study and find out from scientists that the condition of the oceans are becoming desperate. Sea Shepherd intends to shut down Japanese whaling which began after we nuked them and Douglas McArthur encourage Japan to whale so it could feed its people. Sea Shepherd’s popularity will only grow as more people become aware of the status of the ocean life, as with the rest of the world. People are under NO obligation to carry out laws which are immoral. The IWC was set up to regulate whaling, not protect whales. It is a politically run sham and most of the people that come to the meetings have never laid eyes on a whale in the ocean and have no idea how long it takes a whale to die.Every book I have read by scientists written recently applauds Sea Shepherd for their commitment to Why not read “The Eye of the Whale” by Dick Russell and get to know more about these most intelligent and magnificent creatures, maybe you will become part of this world wide movement to save our world rather than eat it. Not until the last tree has died, the last river been poisoned and the last fish has been killed will we realize that we cannot eat money.

8. admin on June 9th, 2009 8:56 am

   Thank you for your comment. Where we clearly disagree is in method. Regardless of what the Japanese may or may not be doing, attempting to foul another ship’s propeller, throwing acid bombs and intentionally ramming another ship are clear violations of the laws of the sea. These actions are eco-terrorism. And while the might make good “reality TV” they are also completely ineffective in “saving the whales”.

   If, as you claim, the Japanese are operating illegally the Sea Shepherds could document their activities and take them to court. The rule of law is more effective than Watson’s vigilante violence.

   Many of the statements in your comment are factually wrong. Japanese whaling, for example, dates back to at least the 13th century. It was not created by MacArthur as your suggest. Likewise your comment on minke whale numbers and sustainability agree with no reputable source that I have come across. Minkes are not on anyone’s endangered or threatened list nor are the small number currently hunted likely to threaten their sustainability.

   I notice that you also miss the key point. The Sea Shepherd’s violence against a few whaling ships does nothing whatsoever to “save the whales.” The relatively small number of the non-endangered minke whales saved by Watson and his crew will have no impact on the real threats faced by the right, blue, sei and humpback whales, which unlike the minke, are indeed endangered.

   I do not like nor in any way support even the limited whaling by the Japanese or Norwegians now taking place, though it is a significant improvement over their previous commercial operations. That being said I am far more opposed to the terroristic violence chosen by bumblers like Watson and the Sea Shepherds.

9. Ocean Lover on June 10th, 2009 2:21 am

   The Japanese provided piles of research to the Int. Whaling Commission to quantify population trends in order to get a quota for minke whales off their own coastline. The IWC obviously didn’t care and, after years of going around in circles, the IWC scientific director quit in disgust. Here’s the story. http://luna.pos.to/whale/gen_art_alessi.html

   Sustainable harvesting from the oceans is the core of the Japanese food system. They are a sea-based community.

10. admin on June 10th, 2009 10:34 am

    Ocean Lover, I agree the IWC hasn’t been overly effective. They only really banned commercial whaling of endangered species after the populations had already collapsed.

    My concern with allowing the return of commercial whaling, even of the minkes, which are not threatened, is that commercial whaling’s history of over-hunting is so bad and unless a consensus could be reached over tracking and enforcement, it seems awfully risky. It is not unsimilar to the over-exploitation of pelagic fish that we are witnessing today.

    The problem obviously is that is is difficult to separate the science, the politics, the emotion and the folklore when it comes to whaling.

11. Maritime Monday 165 on June 27th, 2009 4:32 am

    [...] Post has “Whale Wars – Eco-Terrorism as Reality TV” which is written by the author of The Old Salt Blog. The comments on the story are interesting in that instead of debating the facts as presented, [...]

12. Celebrity Wars on July 20th, 2009 11:56 pm

    Whale Wars and ther misfits of the Seashepherd are after their fifteen minutes of fame as new found movie stars. They are all Hollywood movie stars. The organization is about money and nothing to do with whale saving. Money generated at conferences and fund raisers, money from movie stars and celebrities to fund the lifestyle of the suspect captain who likes the good things in life. The whole organization is about money and getting as much money as possible, its second rate glitzy showy and full of morons and a captain who lives to live the good life and who loves being in the spotlight and being famous. A clebrity. Its one of the most insincere suspect organizations around with a grasping celebrity status, one enhanced by being now a reality show which has been edited by the good captain before going to air, we cant have the good shepherds who stage all their actions deliberately for the cameras being too severely criticized can we, they need the money to fund videos on icebergs for the captains girlfriends and to live the good life in various homes throughout the country. Of course movie stars are involved , it gives them a higher profile and one they can feel smug about. Its really a joke and a sham.

13. Celebrity Wars on July 21st, 2009 12:03 am

    Connee – the organization is purely interested in the fame, the glory, the money of course, the celebrity status , becoming a movie star, mixing with the stars , the egomaniacs and more and more money naturally.
    Not the whales.

14. ejchi on July 21st, 2009 11:42 am

    This is a thought for the whalers… why not put some hooks on the bottom keel of your boat… this will catch and stop the prop fowlers from reaching your props… when you are clear you can free the lines by simply reversing. Please pass this on if you are in touch with the whalers! I would love to see my idea in action.

15. ejchi on July 24th, 2009 10:03 pm

    What do you think Paul? I don’t know, their whalers, they don’t think like you and I.

    That is right the whalers are efficient and well organized in what they do.

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