Sea Shepherd heads for Caribbean

[Guest guest]

SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY

July 12, 2001

 

 

ACTIVISTS HEADING FOR CARIBBEAN WHALE HUNT

- Sea Shepherd vows to use flagship to protect whales and dolphins

- denounces Whaling Commission's failure to act

 

The Ocean Warrior, flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is

sailing for the Eastern Caribbean today from its berth in Miami, Florida,

with a volunteer crew as the International Whaling Commission prepares to

meet in London. There, with the votes of six Caribbean island nations

purchased by Japanese " fisheries aid, " observers consider it likley that the

global ban on commercial whale hunting will come a large step closer to

being lifted, a proposed South Pacific whale sanctuary will be defeated, and

pro-whaling nations will block any vote on the IWC's " competence " to act to

conserve small whales and dolphins.

 

" With the global threats to whales mounting, and resistance to the demands

of the whale-hunting nations melting into a slush of compromise, it comes

down to this: Individuals willing to act out of conscience and sweep aside

the moral paralysis of governments and diplomats playing at politics while

the world burns and whales die, " said Sea Shepherd President Paul Watson,

captain of the Ocean Warrior. " That's the only thing that has ever saved

the whales. " Watson, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace in the early '70s,

was the first person to put himself between a harpoon cannon and a whale.

 

Sea Shepherd has targeted the islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent & the

Grenadines, doubly notorious for both taking Japan's bribes to vote against

the whales at the IWC and for engaging in their own hunts of whales and

dolphins. Their annual kill from multiple species, conducted side-by-side

with whale watching tours (and unmentioned in Caribbean tourism brochures),

is estimated in the hundreds, making it the largest cetacean hunt in the

Western Hemisphere.

 

The Protocol for Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) of the

Cartagena

Convention, ratified last year by many Caribbean states, was supposed to

provide

total protection for all whales and dolphins in the area, but a loophole was

left

open so that the hunts could continue. Pro-whaling states -- including the

Eeastern Caribbean nations -- continue to block any resolution affirming the

IWC's

authority over small cetaceans.

 

The Ocean Warrior should arrive off the coast of St. Lucia on July 23, the

first

day of the week-long meeting of the IWC in London.

 

" We will make sure these governments know the eyes of the world are upon

them when

they are phoning in their voting instructions to their delegates in London, "

said

Captain Watson.

 

 

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

22774 Pacific Coast Hwy.

Malibu, CA 90265

Tel.(310) 456-1141

Fax.(310) 456-2488

http://www.seashepherd.org

seashepherd