Boat repair | Home | Another whale shaped hole in the universe

Hey guys, I have you on a news feed, so I just saw this come in.

Haven't been reading the comments here, but I know all about trolls (I'm an admin for a very big liberal political website), so I feel your pain.

I'm a HUGE supporter of your cause. I deeply admire your courage, convictions, and everything you've done. If I could be there with you, I would.

And to the trolls, get a life. Washing your SUV and buying new George Bush bumperstickers doesn't count.

Andrew,
Call me naive. I never considered that “haters” would be one of the burdens y’all would have to bear. I’ve heard people say, “Greenpeace goes too far,” and “They’re all just a bunch of tree-hugging, whale-saving nuts!” But that’s about as hateful as I’ve ever heard.

So your call for haters surprised me. Allow me to add a counterweight:

I admire your efforts, your commitment, your passion and your dedication to saving the oceans of our one and only planet. Thank you for all that you do. You are role models for anyone who wishes to peacefully make the world a better place.

Kim

You don't have to worry about the haters .... they're not numerous and they're certainly not humourous .... they're angry at something or somebody in their past and they're angry at themselves too, and often angry at their own powerlessness.

The only way they can get through their days is by displacing their anger onto someone else - and you'll do nicely, thank you very much, because you're not known to them and they can do it anonymously. They can then boast about the kicking they gave you.

But we recognise the truth about them and the truth about you, and, even tho' it's unlikely you're perfect, we know whose side we're on.

Keep up the good work and, whatever else you do, make sure you laugh at their comments; that'll be all they're worth ... and the rest of us will get on supporting your efforts, writing letters and telling the story.

Go well.

Andrew, in my previous mails I have been critical of the fact that Greenpeace broke their word in cooperating with Sea Shepherd. I found this dishonest and rude. The other point I raised was that you are willing, for whatever reason, to give the position of a whale to the whalers, but remain unwilling to potentially save the life of a whale by sharing information with Sea Shepherd. I must remind you that Sea Shepherd have never injured anyone nor had a member of their crew injured. With regards to the latter point Greenpeace cannot say the same. Sea Shepherd have an excellent record of saving the lives of whales. They have done this by damaging the equipment that kills whales. Greenpeace, for reasons I do not comprehend, are critical of damaging equipment used in genocide and extermination. For this reason, you must endure witnessing the slaughter of the whales without being able to help. For that I sympathise. Greenpeace do an excellent job of providing the world with media coverage of the slaughter. I acknowledge the fact that this is important in whale conservation. However, when it comes to getting in and saving the lives of whales, Sea Shepherd are the best. Not one whale has been killed with Sea Shepherd in close proximity of a whale killer. Greenpeace cannot say the same. This mail, like the others I have sent, will probably not reach your eyes or you website. However, if it does, I would like to say that when I am hopefully on my first Sea Shepherd voyage later this year, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd will be working together in helping our dear friends of the ocean.

Hi,
As all Greenpeace activists, I have also met people who hate Greenpeace, but I will never forget the Japanese tourists that I met in our Oceans campaign in Stockholm this summer, bowing politely and saying : "Greenpeace is a great organisation, doing a great job", so your efforts are not in vain.

Hi again,
Read right now that the Swedish Government together with 17 other countries had delivered a sharp protest letter to the Japanese Fisheries Minister.

" We are very upset over the Japanese acting in the Southern Oceans. Scientific whaling was never intended by the IWC to be such a great scale operation", continued the Swedish Environmental Minister.

Just lately I find myself repeating the same phrase on a regular basis...'Some people are evolving but some people just aren't'
And I agree with Booby and Cogs re: haters, it says more about themselves than it does about Greenpeace...or any of us whale-huggers...

Moved from, What do they do with their hearts?:

dear greenpeace crew, why don't you guys STOP them, you are right there, you can do it! why traumatize yourselves any longer having to observe this?

greenpeace office, why not pressure australia to pursue legal means? not ask,-PRESSURE, - you know how....i have watched you almost 30 years now, and things have only gotten worse...don't you think a change in strategy would be warranted?

greenpeace has taken on that role on the planet, so GET THE JOB DONE, no time to lose any longer!!

- saskia

-----------

Dear Saskia,

I share your frustration, but WTF!? I suspect you don't really hate us, but considering all we've been through lately I had to move your post here.

In response to your comment, let me ask you a few things in return:

Have you told Gorton's to reign in its parent company?

Have you contacted your government?

Have you told your friends about what is happening out here?

Have you signed up as an Ocean Defender?

Yeah? OK then, rock on. Try and think what else you can do. Share your ideas here.

Dear World Citizen,

Thank you first of all for adding your comment to the correct post. I will say just a few things in reply.

I don't know anything about the Sea Shepherd's safety record, but I'd say ours is amazingly good - especially considering how far individual Greenpeace activists will choose to push the envelope with their own safety on occasion. Which brings me to my next point. We only ever push the envelope with our own safety - never anyone else's.

Some people will always say we are not going far enough, and some will always say we are going to far. Personally, I prefer to error on the side of peace and non-violence. There is too much destructive behaviour in this world already, and I wouldn't want to add to it.

As for the Sea Shepherds, I honestly only know what I read on their website and hear second hand. But I do know, and judging from their website I think they may agree, that the only people benefiting from shitfighting between them and us is the whalers.

Safe sailing.

andrew dear, Idont know you, but reading about GreenPeace endevours in the southern oceans, has been nerve chattering. the Esperanza + Artic sunrise are really doing a great work in saving the whales. my prayers are with u all throughout this trip.Humans have no compassion for their own kind,how do you expect them to have the same for the animal kingdom.I am with you all to save the whales and our planet Earth. will be praying for u all every day. May u all save as many whales as possible.

Andrew.

I'm glad you guys are out there, tryin to stop them whalers. but you need to do some direct action like Sea Shepherd does.
I know for a fact they've never had anybody get injured since 1979 in all of their campaigns.
I know you guys say you are for non-violence but you have a right to physically try and put a stop to the whale killing. If you gotta ram their ships and damage their equipment, so be it, at least you've kept them from killing a whale. Those videos really bothered me, and the whalers will stop at nothing to get their whales including ramming your ships and injuring or killing your crews.

This is why direct action is necessary.
I back everything that Sea Shepherd does in their tactics, and wish you guys could work together with them.

Direct action is the only way them whalers understand.

The governments aren't going to do anything to stop it, Australia said that today. So it leaves it for citizens to forcibly put a stop to the crimes the Japanese whalers are committing.

If Sea Shepherd had the resources you had, the Japanese would not be killing any whales, period.
A few people have suggested that Greenpeace and SSCS start working together on direct action.
I'm calling for the same thing.
Those videos you guys have of the whales being killed really bothered me, and it disturbs me further, that you haven't been able to put a stop to the killing.

So please join forces with SSCS, and help them do direct action.

We are watching what goes on.

PHIL

[ Moved from Leaving Antarctica be. ]

Dear Nathan,
It is indeed very sad that whaling is still going on, in spite of your best efforts against it. You say you knew from the very beginning that “we wouldn’t end whaling outright by coming here”. So why bother going there in the first place?

The effect this very difficult and expensive campaign has had, namely that “people are now aware that whaling is still being practiced on a growing scale and is a potentially rising industry again”, as you put it, could certainly have been achieved at a lower cost and much more easily through the means Greenpeace so very well knows how to deploy, say, ciberactivism, demonstrations at Japanese embassies all over the world, spreading information on the global whaling business. This actually took place, and no one expected a single whale’s life to be saved that way. But if you took the terrible trouble of sailing all the way to the Antarctic, your job should have been to prevent these heartless MFs from doing their “bullshit research”, and not just sit out there in the bitter cold of the south sea “bearing witness” to this unspeakable atrocity!

Every time I read the crew members’ account of this awful massacre, I couldn’t help crying like I motherless child. It broke my heart so badly. However, I realized that people like you on both ships were apologizing to the whales on behalf of the human race, and showing the rest of the world the true meaning of being human. I do think your efforts are praiseworthy, but sadly ineffective, since you did not succeed in stopping the slaughter, and this is a consequence of limiting yourself to bearing witness… to evil itself.

It was a big mistake not to partner with the Sea Shepherd on this campaign because they have been so effective doing the right thing here: beating the bad guys on their own turf. You were confronting criminals, people who are a disgrace to mankind, and this required the type of tactics used by Captain Watson. The objection Greenpeace raises to his way of doing things (that he is “violent”) is the result of a pointless theoretical argument, and what’s worse, it contributes to let whalers go about their unholy business relatively at ease. Furthermore, the Sea Shepherd did not ask you to adopt their policy. It would have been more than enough if Greenpeace had tipped them about the position of these murderers at sea.

And after all, as I see it, the Sea Shepherd organization is a sister to Greenpeace, despite the differences there exist between you and them. In fact, it does little service to the cause of defending nature that this kind of differences should exist —“us” and “them”. Your capacities would not have been so heartbreaking limited if both organizations had acted as one. Still, I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to do just that. I urge you to do so at once. I know a lot of people will be happy to see this happen.

Anyway, those of us who care for nature and are horrified at the cruelty of man towards animals thank you for your dedication to saving the whales, or at least to increasing the awareness that a savage crime against life and compassion is (still) being committed even as we speak…

I wish you and your fellow crew members a good life back at home.

Diego de la Barquera, from Mexico City.

Dear Diego,

I have moved your comment to, "Hate mail". I know you didn't mean it as hate mail, but parts of it are hurtful and frankly not true. More on that below. First though, I would like to thank you for your kind words, and more importantly your passion for saving the whales. You and I are fundamentally on the same side.

Our work on this expedition, saving individual whales and documenting the hunt, was a vital part of Greenpeace's overall strategy, which fundamentally differs from that of the Sea Shepherds. Different strategies means different tactics, and adopting their tactics would have hurt our overall strategy, which brings me to what I see as the heart of your comment:

"Furthermore, the Sea Shepherd did not ask you to adopt their policy. It would have been more than enough if Greenpeace had tipped them about the position of these murderers at sea."

Actually, I think that if I go out of my way to help someone do something - that makes me partly responsible for what they do. If someone says to me, "I'm going to go crash into that guy's car," and I say, "Well I don't think that's right, but his car is parked at 555 Jones Street," then I certainly share responsibility for what happens next. It would be pretty weasely for me to claim otherwise.

Disabling and ramming ships on the high seas is not something I personally want to be part of, and it is not something Greenpeace as an organization would be a party to. This is not a theoretical point - these are both tactics the Sea Shepherds talk openly about.

One of the reasons I work with Greenpeace is for the "peace" part of it. That comes across mostly in the tactics we use. It isn't just that we're changing the world, it's that we are also showing people you can change the world peacefully. You can argue that Greenpeace is "too" peaceful, but I would rather error on the side of peace.

And I would note that peaceful doesn't only mean, "simply bearing witness". Although I think you undervalue the effectiveness of exposing the inhumanity of commercial whaling to the world - that was not our only tactic down here. Nathan, for example, was out in the boats almost every day we did actions. Day after day, he put the Billy G between whale and harpoon, used an obscuring spray of water to keep them from even spotting whales, and otherwise interfered with their whaling - all in the spirit of peaceful activism.

As I said, on a practical level our overall strategy differs from the Sea Shepherds. We seek to mobilize people all over the world, enabling them to take action as voters and shoppers and activists. Our goal is not only to bring a final end to commercial whaling, but to create a world wide network of marine reserves - benefiting marine life of all kinds, people who rely on the sea for their livelihood and future generations who deserve to inherit healthy marine ecosystems.

Our tactics are therefore dictated by our strategy. And already this strategy is bearing results. Cyberactivists have won their first victory in Argentina, seventeen nations took strong action on the diplomatic front, and the links between the whaling industry and companies around the world have been exposed. Tens of thousands of people have told companies like Nissui, Gorton's">https://ctk.greenpeace.org/od-en/ctk-letters/get-info?letter%5fid=1217756">Gorton's and Sealords that their connection to the whaling industry is unacceptable.

In reality, there are many groups working independently to end commercial whaling - often in different ways than Greenpeace. I don't always agree with their strategies, but am not arrogant enough to say that I know the only way forward.

Thanks again for your kind words, and for giving me an opportunity to talk through all of this in an appropriate space.

Sincerely,

Andrew (on board the Esperanza)

Greenpeace defying science............never been truer, someone should let greenpeace know about that....the whole science thing.

NOTE: THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN MOVED BY THE WEB EDITORS FROM THE "THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING" POST.

Moved from Introducing Pete:

I understand you will not be returning to the Southern Ocean to protect the whales this year. I myself intend to be there. Why are you abandoning the whales?

-- World Citizen

Dear WC,

I've moved your comment to the Hater thread because that is where it belongs - it is not true and not relevant to the update it was posted on.

Our work to end commercial whaling continues. In cooperation with the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Humane Society, we are urging shoppers around the world to pressure companies linked to the whaling industry - Gorton's in the US, Bluewater in Canada, Sealord in Australia and New Zealand, and Nissui Europe - to end commercial whaling. Hopefully, other organizations will soon join in as this is a promising strategy, and in my opinion has a better chance of actually ending whaling than anything that could be done in the Southern Ocean.

As for the Esperanza, she is heading up the coast of Africa to confront pirate fishing and the over exploitation of fish stocks by distant nations - vital and urgently needed work. Throughout this year, she will continue the Defending Our Oceans expedition, returning to Antarctica at the end of 2006 to work on stopping climate change. Become an Ocean Defender or see our Take Action page to help out.

I am amazed that this organisation called Greenpeace would be so pathetically ignorant. What do Whales do for us? What does the Enviroment do for us? Honestly, I really don't see the point in saving a few worthless animals. Whales have no purpose, they're holding the giant squids down. If a species can't compete they must die out, it's Darwinism. Some people would claim that humans are killing off a lot of species, darn straight, ever heard of a mass extinction? You should be overjoyed that man has the power to kill off organisms with greater effect than any mass extinction ever before. Normally mass extinctions take say...oh about 1-15 million years(and don't talk to me about the Dinosaur extincion look on any reputable website that doesn't have a motivation to sell dinosaurs and they'll tell you that dinosaurs where on the downswing for a while), but I do believe that humanity has decreased that time. Actually I think we were losing species since 6 million years ago but whatever the point is that you should embrace the power of technology and science not hinder it with these silly regulations.

Reply: Couple good sites about the importace of biodiversity and why it should be preserved (for both moral and selfish reasons)...

BBC's Science and Nature.

WWF's Biodiversity Basics.

-- Andrew
Greenpeace web editor

I'm an Icelander and I don't understand why you are all against whaling. Whales are just animals and people hunt animals and have done so always. Maybe you read a book while you were children starring a whale and feel emotionally tied to them or something, but some people don't like them any more then they like cows. I think some of the older people here in Iceland even hate the whales because they used to be a danger to sailers.
Are you people against all meat consumption? Well, you probably are, but you can't force the rest of the world to adopt to the same lifestyle. You just can't ask our species to suddently quit eating meat or a specific type of it. Whale meat used to be cheap here in iceland, it was the only meat people ate except for the sunday stake. So calling it luxury meat as is done on this site, is plain wrong. It tastes similar to bull-meat (or whatever you call the male counterparts of cows), but with a slight taste close to that of cod liver oil (which you can dispose of by bathing the meat in milk overnight).
But my point is, this is just a species that gives us lots of cheap and good meat (and all other meat is very expensive here) and it's a tradition to hunt them and eat 'em in Iceland.

PS I know Greenpeace took money from cattle-farmers in the US for their campaign against whailing. Why do you think they support your'e cause? Because the meat is similar to their product. So Greenpeace shared a bed with cattle-farmers and somehow convinced the world that whaling is evil, and now we have take a lot of bullshit from the international community. (Except for Faroe Islands, Norway and Japan of course. And I guess the poeple of Nigeria don't care either, at least we export a huge amount of dried fisheads to Nigera which tells me they would probably buy whale-meat.)

I want to tell all of you that your efforts are very honorable. I'm working on creating the worlds first oxygen generator for a post-earth bio dome. After my invention is complete, I will do everything in my power to see that every tree is cut down, every whale is slain, and the human race stands victorious over 'mother nature', no long relying on its breast for survival. Eventually we will expand into the stars and my legacy will infect every hospitible planet for thousands of years.