Greenpeace and the end of whaling in Australia
From the history files, here's an audio account by journalist Chris Pash with ABN Newswire Australia about his book, The Last Whale: the story of how whaling was ended in Australia, and Greenpeace's role in making it happen.
Pash was there in early days of Greenpeace in Australia, which were also the closing years for whaling as Greenpeace took direct, non-violent action to protect the sperm whales that were being hunted near Albany, the last whaling station in the English speaking world.
Australia stopped whaling in 1978.
I was particularly struck by the passage below, which makes me think of so many people I've met, sailed with, and had the privilege to work with in Greenpeace -- some of them within earshot of my desk here in the Amsterdam secret mountain headquarters, so I'm whispering -- this sort of stuff just goes straight to their heads.
Chris Pash: The action was actually quite spectacular. In my view, the activists were completely crazy... but magical if you like. They took these open boats, Zodiacs, inflatable rubber boats that the whalers liked to call "Rubber Duckies" -- a nice little put-down -- and they attached outboard engines to them and they didn't have a mother ship or anything, they followed the chasers, the three last whaling ships, out to the continental shelf, about thirty nautical miles. That's over the horizon, so you can't see land.And I watched this and couldn't believe it. I mean, I can still give you thirty good reasons in about ten seconds why I shouldn't go into an open boat in the Southern Ocean over the horizon and throw myself in front of an explosive head harpoon.
Interviewer: they weren't literally doing that, were they?
Chris Pash: They WERE doing it!
[...]
I was struck by the absolute pure belief of the activists that what they were doing was right. And they did something dangerous and crazy, but it was magical as well.
I think within us all we want to tilt at windmills. We see something, we know it's wrong, and we know all the risks involved, but we still go ahead and do something about it. And personally, as I say, it makes me look inward and realise there are a lot of reasons I wouldn't do that, but I admired these people who did.
Here's more about the book:
The Last Whale is the story of crazy young activists in 1977 risking their lives in rubber dinghies, duelling with steel whaling ships and placing themselves between whales and explosive harpoons.The article by Ian Williams says: "Pash is non-judgemental in his portrayal of the key characters involved in the emotionally charged campaign, delivering a narrative style that gives equal weight to both whalers and protesters. He spent months tracking down the former adversaries to piece together the action and provide an insight into their experiences and motivations."
Steve Shallhorn, CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, says The Last Whale is "... an important contribution to Australian history and to the protection of whales... it chronicles the people and events which created Greenpeace in Australia and ... seeks to understand the minds and thinking of those who hunted whales in Australia."
The book, "The Last Whale", was launched on September 20, 2008, by Steve Shallhorn at Albany, Western Australia, the site of Australia's last whaling station, during the Sprung Writers Festival.
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Comments
You picked the right quote.
many thanks
Posted by: chris pash | October 10, 2008 1:39 AM