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right on lady!

As a level-headed person who supports whaling, I urge both Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace to limit their activities to peaceful protest. Childish suggestions that Greenpeace ought not to adhere to it's purported principle of peaceful protest can safely be ignored.

Greenpeace will gain nothing by putting inflatables out on the water infront of the harpoons this season. This tactic looks moderate in comparison to Sea Shepherd's extremist actions, and it also potentially has negative implications for the welfare of the whales being hunted. The whalers have almost finished their research for the current season, and have probably taken the majority of the whales that they intend to kill already. I suggest you simply observe the outstanding whaling activity from a safe distance, wave your banners, take your videos, and leave once it's all over.

And on your way home, have a good think about your priorities. Whale conservation is what matters. Not blanket whale protections.

Thank You Sara!

Greenpeace has not won the campaign to stop whaling yet - that's no secret, but they have really done a fantastic job…

Greenpeace has, over the past 30 or so years, confronted whaling fleets from Australia, Norway, Russia, Spain, Iceland, Peru, Brazil, and Japan. They’ve been rammed, flipped, hosed down, arrested, abused, accused, bruised, slagged off, cheered, sneered, … and all manner of things, in the long, long, campaign to end whaling.

Greenpeace has played a major role in the introduction of the moratorium on commercial whaling, and the establishment of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary – that’s two quite major steps towards the protection of whales. They’ve then uncovered the “scientific” whaling that takes place in the supposed sanctuary, and told the world about it.

No, we haven’t won this yet, but Greenpeace is doing a damn good job, and we will win it if we put our energy in the right place – that place is the campaign to save whales – not distracting ourselves with arguments about specific tactics.

Good work Greenpeace. With work going on in Japan, at the IWC, via this website all around the world, and in the Southern Ocean too, we can see that you’re doing the ground work and aiming to cut it off right at the root of the problem.

I joined Greenpeace a year ago, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Kia Kaha.
Jo in NZ

David, do I detect some sort of backhanded support? Too funny!

I have to disagree tho - let's continute to protect whales. Why just stop at your interpretation of whale conservation?

Hey Guys

Just wanted you to know that the canvass here in LA has been following your trip, and we're rooting for you every day. Keep up the good work and stay safe out there. You're an inspiration to all of us.

-GP Los Angeles

To allow murder to happen is violence. Not a single whale has died while Sea Shepherd has followed the death fleet. The whales will be counting on you to protect them if Sea Shepherd can’t get new supplies in time. Don’t allow the whales to die as you spray water from a boat or film from a camera. This battle will be won through courage and integrity, do what is necessary to stop the fleet form killing whales. You guys have the means to stop them, so do it. Last year you failed, hopefully this year you be able to adopt new strategies. Damaging or destroying sadistic machinery isn’t violent, it is peaceful.You have my support, good luck in stopping the true terrorists.

Dave on the Esperanza: Who failed last year? Not Greenpeace - We managed to get the corporates out whaling. We've chased the industry back into a corner - where now it doens't answer to big business, but to the Japanese Taxpayer.

Read more here

Good on you Greenpeace!

If the whales could speak our speak they would protest to the horrible slaughter as well.
I hate having to try to explain to my children 'why' this ongoing brutal slaughter happens to these majestic beautiful creatures.

They're not eskimos hunting for their monthly food supply that we are talking about here!!!!!

Son
Australia

Sara, of course you should not be ashamed to hold onto your principles and there is no question that Greenpeace is right to stick to it's non-violent approach to direct action. But I don't think GP should react as it does when asked to comment on Sea Shepards' behaviour. A "no comment" would suffice or simply, "its not the sort of thing we condone, we believe it to be dangerous... but we understand where Sea Shepherds are coming from, we can certainly empathise with how they feel".

I would suggest that the majority of Greenpeace supporters admire GPs reslove in maintaining a policy of NVDA but at the same time admire Sea Shepherds and their different approach. I think the two differing tactics complement each other superbly and they both have my full support.

I'd like to thank both Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.

While your direct tactics differ, you have a chance to cooperate in port refusing to follow each other's way of confrontation with whalers in high seas, but working together at persuading political and public opinion.

I hope Sea Shepherd's help in giving coordinates of whalers to you will be the first step to the truce.

Your disconnection serves whalers well. Fortunately, Sea Shepherd managed to locate whalers. What if had not? What if they had gone to port and GP had failed to locate them as well? In this case whalers would have been pleased by the failure of both, which could be probably overridden by your joint action in locating them. Whalers have no less than 4 ships - that way, both of you would have 2 ships to disturb. :)

GP and Sea Shepherd are not painted with different colors. You are different shades of one color. You are on the same side. Sea Shepherd's victory is your victory as well (and vice versa), cause it's a victory of whales.

Act like friends, not like foes. Make peace, not war. :)

Oleg - Sea Shepherd didn't give us the whaler's coordinates - they posted them on their website.

We don't work with Sea Shepherd - that's our policy.

Well, I am an outsider to all of this, with no agenda except saving the whales, having just becoming extremely interested in the last year. (I have spent my time and resources on other environmental issues, notably global warming).

I will say though that as much as I admire what GP has done in the past, I don't find the fleet tactics compelling at all - and wonder why the fuel is being wasted? I chose this year to make a first time donation to stop whaling, and it went to Sea Shephard. I will decide in the next year where to give increasing amounts of money, and I imagine I will contribute to GP as well. But that National Geographic article about how the Japanese fleet only disbursed when SS showed up ignoring GP was too much for me to visualize. I imagine though on the political issues GP is much more effective.

I am also a large contributer to NRDC, EDC, and other smaller organizations.

Again, I admire what you are doing. I wanted you to get the perspective of a major donor though.

But you two organizations should share information, if covertly.

Dave - whether they gave you coordinates in person or posted them on their website doesn't matter. They did it for you. No one else needed coordinates of whalers that time.

I hope you will change your policy about Sea Shepherd and they will change their policy about you. I love both your organizations, but don't like your mutual relations.

You don't see these kinds of posts on the Sea Shepherd site because you can't make any, and you see them on ours because a handful of noisy individuals think 30 years of tradition, principle and sacrifice will be thrown overboard to make them happy. Peaceful protest has already closed down several whaling fleets and it will close down the rest.

The proponents of whaling get endless milage out of the Sea Shepherd, an organisation who have now promised 'not to ram the whaling fleet' presumably because they've run out of fuel, and know that they can't. So that's what their protest will have added up to, a few smoke bombs and 'saving' a pod of whales from a ship without a harpoon.

To my mind that's tokenism, a few minutes of bully boy bravado and secret weapons that don't work, weighed against day after day, hour after hour of activists placing their bodies between the whale and the harpoon. And that's the difference, the lives Greenpeace activists risk are their own, no one elses, they don't have the right.

Y'know..whats all this this "level headed person who supports whaling" rhetoric.... please try not to lose yourself in your own pomp and importance David. It seems to me that you are like one of those fine "level headed" fellows who can be found at the scene of any heated debate and whose interest is not one of construction but destruction.... It seems to me that with your insinuating comments (and there have been many)around the huge commitment shown by the crew of the Esperanza you merely wish to create turbulence, to create heat without creating any light, to undermine this commitment and passion.

Rather sad really...if you could propose a conservation plan which would really work, then perhaps people might listen, but the truth of the matter is that there is no scientific basis on which to predicate adequate, robust management of whale populations (no matter what your opinion might be) and full protection in the face of overwhelming ecological uncertainty is the only realistic option.

Backhanded comment as usual David.

Funny how you and the whalers always try to lump Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd tactics together.

You know that putting our small plastic and aluminum boats in front of the whaling ships posses absolutely no risk at all to the whalers in their large steel ships. There is no way you can say otherwise. Simple physics.

You just don't want using tactics effective for saving individual whales.

David; " and it also potentially has negative implications for the welfare of the whales being hunted."
I think being hunted and killed is negative implication enough!!

Nathaniel said: "A "no comment" would suffice or simply, "its not the sort of thing we condone, we believe it to be dangerous... but we understand where Sea Shepherds are coming from, we can certainly empathise with how they feel"."

Uh...that's what we do say, isn't it?

there was a piece on the Irish radio this morning about how "the activists" were "turning support against them" - no mention of Sea Shepard/Greepeace, but they definitely had you both in the same camp.

To quote Paul Watson:

"The story is not about us. It's about the illegal slaughter of endangered whales in a whale sanctuary.

We need to keep the focus on this issue."

Well said. Here's one way you can help...

whales.greenpeace.org

Sea Shepherd went down to Antartica and as a result, there are whales alive right now that would otherwise have been dead. Not sure what you guys are doing down there right now.

In response to Oleg & Dave...

On Feb 9, you posted it yourself Dave

"We're still well out of range, about a days sail away, but we're currently steaming towards to co-ordinates given to us by the Sea Shepherd ship, Robert Hunter."

Dave on the Esperanza: Orca and Oleg - that's an easy one to answer. Those coordinates were given to us as part of a distress call, and came AFTER the coordinate were published on the SS website. We were a long way away at the time.

Hi Sara, your comments tonight confirmed my dreaded unease. Immediately following my CONCERN for the crew of the Sea Shepherd, was DISMAY at their violent campaign tactics which unfortunately give the whalers welcome ammunition to gain sympathy and discredit the principled and well thought out Greenpeace campaigns through media headlines and public association.
Although I don’t doubt for a moment Sea Shepherds heart is in the right place this is not a fight which can be won by anger and might.
All our hearts are with those gentle giants the whales. As you said Sara "millions of people worldwide want to see an end to whaling" Like many of them I am physically unable to be on the Esperanza. As a “arthritic tortoise" I email friends family and acquaintances of all political perspectives in my dressing gown and warm slippers from a (chilly)seaside town in Western Australia called of all things Esperance.. (South tip of W.A.). I walk the long jetty & my heart goes out to you brave young people in the southern whale sanctuary.

Hi, do you happen to know how far behind the whalers you are now? I know the whalers' coordinates aren't fixed but I was wondering if you have an idea of how many days you suspect it might take to catch up with them. The suspense is almost too much to bear! Thanks!

I admire Green Peace but this year I must admit that I have followed Sea Shepherd's progress each day and will donate to them. GP doesn't seem to have achieved anything tangible - there's more killing now and without Sea Shepherd, it would go on unnoticed by the world's press. Do something dramatic or give your fuel to Sea Shepherd.

Dave on the Esperanza: Bear with us Andy. Look what we achieved last time?

Why are we going to the Southern Ocean?

*heather* - for very obvious reasons I can't tell you where we are in relation to the whalers - they read this blog too you know!

I feel anyone out there putting there energy and time into helping to stove the slaughter of these beautiful creatures deserves all of my praise and gratitude however which way they are doing it, peaceful or more active I say good on all of you! Me personally if I was out there near a whaling boat I would get a sniper gun out and try and take out as many whalers as I could, to me poachers all across the world deserve to be poached and murdered themselves and I really would have no problem with killing any of them just like they have no problem taking innocent animals lives for greed so your all alot less violent and more peaceful in your protests than I ever could be if put face to face with them.

Thanks Dee, and there is nothing wrong with tortoises...arthritic or otherwise....remember the story of the tortoise and the hare and who won in the end! Keep up you campaigning, we need you in your slippers as much as us in our thermals! Our hearts and thoughts are sent right back to you

I think that all this arguing over tactics is beside the point - We all know that it's totally unsustainable to go to the Southern Ocean year after year and save the whales one by one. Sure, it's exciting, and it makes us all look like heroes on TV, but that's not the point.

We want to end whaling once and for all, and that needs to be done by going to the root of the problem, and doing some serious work to shut down / reform / revolutionise the place that this all stems from - which is the International Whaling Commission.

To change the IWC we need to change the Japanese Govts position, and to be able to change the Japanese Govts position, we need to talk to the Japanese people.

Greenpeace is THE ONLY organisation which, while doing the hard yards in the Southern Ocean, is simultaneously running a LONG TERM campaign and doing the groundwork on the streets of Japan, Iceland, Denmark, Nicaragua, and wherever we need to be.

Smart thinking Greenpeace.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for your comment (see above!). I wanted to share some perspective with you from my vantage point. I've been working for Greenpeace for almost 19 years, which is most of my adult life. I can tell you that what keeps me here is the integrity of the people I work with, the fact that our campaigns are well thought out, researched and designed to win, that GP has an unwavering commitment to non-violence, and that no one at Greenpeace has ever told me that my ideas or goals are too radical. I have been able to work for Greenpeace for close to two decades because I don't feel compromised or ineffective. I could not have stayed for so long (and have no plans to ever leave) if I felt otherwise.

Sincerely,
Melanie

Fair enough Sara, and good on you for expressing your feelings.

I am a greenpeace member and have fully supported every campaign they have done, and still do, but the more I read about the Sea Shepherd/Greenpeace battle, the more I feel disappointed that this is going on at all. I am not taking sides here as I support both organisations, but I think something really important is being forgotten here. What this whole campaign is about, saving the whales. It is really disappointing to see that these two organisations can not get along (equal blame to both). But Sea Shepherd has been sending Greenpeace the whalers co-ordinates the entire time they have been in the Ross sea, yet Greenpeace wont even acknowledge calls from Sea Shepherd at all.

The fact that Greenpeace refuses to have any contact with Sea Shepherd sounds pretty childish to me .... Both organisations are striving for the same goal ... to save the whales. This is what it is all about, saving the whales isnt it, not politics?? I personally do not think that Sea Shepherd's main goal is to be violent, back stab Greenpeace, whatever ... who cares anyway (ya know sticks and stones guys) ... they are getting out there and actually physically trying save the whales (greenpeace do the same - just not so heavy), and they succeed. Waving a banner, peaceful protest etc, when you are out on the water is not going to save a whale. Sea Shepherd have saved two pods of whales on this journey, shouldnt we be focussed on the fact that two families of whales were saved! Most of the footage on the news channels is thanks to Sea Shepherd by way of their tactics and what they are doing to save the whales. This is the whole point isnt it? Making people aware? Saving whales?

So, I realise I have probably pissed off a lot of greenpeace members by writing this, but these are the words of a concerned greenpeace member ... I hope that focus is not being lost here in a battle of politics.

Dave on the Esperanz: Hi Rachel -: Your comments would probably be more appropriate over here »

In addition: the Greenpeace campaign about more than saving two pods of whales from being counted. The Kaiko Maru doesn't have a harpoon - it's a non-lethal survey vessel, and doesn't even feed information to the whaling boats. We want to save ALL of the whales from being killed, not from being counted. To do this we have a global, comprehensive campaign to end whaling for once and for all.
Read more about the overall campaign here »

There are many paths to one goal. Be it Greenpeace's way or Sea Shepherds way is not important now, the goal is to save the whales...and give assistance to whoever needs help.
There is no time to lose.
Enough of the recriminations, "Be the change that you want to see in the world" as what Gandhi said.

Maan

Back to Dave

I am fully aware of greenpeace's campaign thanks, and have always supported it.

"The Greenpeace campaign is about more than saving two pods of whales". Dont dismiss the fact the Sea Shepherd saved two pods of whales ... that is a huge achievement in my books.

Anyway, good luck, all the best, and take care guys.

Those of you endorsing sea shepherds actions should consider their likely consequences. So far in this years action they've managed to damage their own ship, almost kill two of their own crew, have their second ship de-flagged, and severly damage the anti-whaling cause by painting those opposed to whalers as extremists with limited respect for human life.

Consider that a significant amount of the effective pressure to cease whaling will come from the japanese public. How will they view the "steel enema" comments? That's basically threatening direct and life threatening assault on Japanese citizens... great way to create a common bond and increase empathy. The captains comment about "being able to ram it and guarantee no one is hurt" is total cr*p. You can't ram a ship in the antarctic circle and guarantee no one will be hurt. Anyone who thinks you can is kidding themselves. Just view the current catastrophe if you doubt it.

If you want a true insight to sea shepherds motives, check out their website. "Neptunes Navy"? Give me a break. It's like they're not even bothering to disguise their aspirations towards becoming a para-military group. Here's a hint - Navies have home ports and defence partnerships. You don't even have anywhere to refuel, because you're pirates. Grow up.

Sara, I appreciate and respect your restraint in not responding in kind to abuse from Sea Shepherd. I do not agree with their tactics, and they really annoy me because they weaken MY stance towards marine conservation by fostering a perception of environmentalists as criminals.

To those who think donating to a violent direct action group is the only way to aid the cause of whales should consider the results of greenpeace action last year. When it became apparent that Sealord, a New Zealand company, was 50% owned by Nissui, the strength of public objection resulting from the news made public by greenpeace combined with greenpeaces concurrent coverage of the whaling taking place resulted in... well, just go and read any of the above "what we acheived last year" links. I sincerely doubt sea shepherd will have comparable success.

The rainbow warrior was bombed in one of our harbours, killing a crew member. To this day, this is viewed here as an outrage. If Sea Shepherd kill a whaler through deliberate action it will be remembered just as long, and it will be the end of the organisation (and rightly so!), and will do tremendous harm to the perception of all activists whatever their cause. And those of you who donated to Sea Shepherd despite their open threats to cause such harm will have sponsored it.

I've been a member and regular donor to greenpeace for several years and will continue to do so for as long as their actions are morally defensible and consistent with my values. I don't agree with everything they do but I agree with their general methods and goals, and respect the success they've acheived.

To Rachel: "they've managed to damage their own ship" ? Did you read the correct news? Did you watch the video of the collision?
So, when the Greenpeace ship was hit by the whaler ship the other year did they also managed to damage their own ship? Or you only side with the ones you like?

Adriana - First, I'm not Rachael.

I didn't watch the video, no. But I'm happy to accept, for the sake of argument, that the whaling vessel caused the collision. That said, I still think Sea Shepherd should bear some responsibility for what happened.

When the artic sunrise was hit last year they hadn't been threatening to ram whaling vessels; greenpeace, unlike sea shepherd, do not have an established track record of ramming and disabling ships; and greenpeace, unlike sea shepherd, did not attach a big steel blade to the side of their ship last year and attempt to rip open the side of a whaling vessel. So when greenpeace was rammed (a video I did watch... can you post a link to the footage of the robert hunter ramming please?) I had a lot of sympathy; but when the robert hunter was rammed... ok, to be honest I still condemned it because anyn ship deliberately causing a collision down there is taking a huge risk with a lot of lives, but there was also part of me thinking "well, you reap what you sow; create an atmosphere of real or imminent violence and you can reasonably expect violence to be done to you".

I also accept that sea shepherd didn't put their two crew at risk through any fault of their own, it's a dangerous environment and I'm pleased the crew were recovered without any injury, my point in the previous post was that for all they've lost in the last month sea shepherd haven't done a lot to swing public opinion against the whalers.

I am currently studying environmental science at uni (mature student) and have many debates about how Greenpeace and other environmental groups are perceived by my fellow students. Over 300 people participated in online chat on the uni conference, and the vast majority would not support Greenpeace because they think they are environmental extremists.

Ultimately it comes down to joe public to make themselves heard on and support a particular issue or not. If this is the current perception of Greenpeace, then the likes of Sea Shepherd (was there not another organisation in modern history that had the initials SS - I wonder if they have the same aspirations) are giving real environmentalists a bad name.

Though I would happily drown every whaler, we have to recognise that violence or 'direct ation' or whatever you want to call it, is counter-productive. A crime is a crime - regardless of whether or not you stand on the moral high ground.

Greenpeace has an effective and proven track record, and as such should have our continued support!

If the only two groups acting for the whales are like enemys, whats the point really - who can we really beleive? Its kinda like "look, we've been here for 30 years - we saved 'em" Now I don't know where my charity $$$$ should really go. another cause probably(and sadly). Grow up both groups - it should have been about the whales,cause if you can't get together - they're probably history.

To all the haters:

Instead of arguing, let's see some action...

whales.greenpeace.org

To think that I almost cut my periodic contribution to Greenpeace! That would have been a terrible mistake. Instead I waited until I had the time in my very busy schedule to research and find out by myself about what is going on because I've been reading with great distress about the latest developments on the newspapers.

At first I was confused and did not know what relationship the violent tactics of the other boat had with Greenpeace but I could certainly see that it did not agree with my values (I did see the video and also I DO LOVE THE WHALES and every other creature, including humans, whoever they might be).

On my self acknowledging quest, I have not only read the comments on this blog but several other sites as well (including She Shepherd’s). I do hope that people who join organisations following good ideals are illuminated with WISDOM. Never has Wisdom come from violence. It does not matter how Violence=crime is disguised as good cause.

Thank you God for all You people and your endeavours, for all You young and young at heart people who really care. Both crew members and supporters with such well expressed comments. I will certainly continue my association with Greenpeace.

"Adele" - No it isn't what GP says unfortunately, although in the past it was. In recent years (this year in particular) the public relationship between GP and SS has apparently soured, and there is little empathy or respect demonstrated between you both. All I have seen in the Australian media is condemnation of SS from your press officers and campaigners. The impression is of hostility toward SS. What I used to see was two organisations with different approaches to the same task who had mutual respect for each other despite their disagreements. You even shared a joke or two. It reflected favourably on both or you and your different approaches were equally clear to the public. The difference is that their was none of this negativity.

GP is obviously the more successful of the two organisations, and will continue to be. I have supported and worked for GP for 8 years and will continue to do so. Your methods are proven and are infinitely more successfull and, importantly, more sustainable. I congratulate you, I really do, but I disagree with this new approach to the condemnation of SS.

Focus on the job at hand. Let SS continue in their unique fashion and you in yours. lay off each other and focus on Japan and keeping whaling in the media.

You all are missing the importance of keeping a gulf between these two organizations.

They have similar goals, but their methods of fulfilling those goals are very different. There is a place for dramatic, violent, confrontational, extremism (Sea Sheperd) and political, non-violent, awareness based oganizations like Greenpeace.

One group saves the lives of a few cetaceans at a time, the other works towards a bigger picture. Understand that Sea Sheperd is widely recognized as an extremist organization and it's activities and public image are hampered accordingly, one only need to read the activities of Sea Sheperd on their website, to see that their entire history involves jail escapes, re-registration of ships, and delayed departures due to renouncements of their registrations by various countries. To the best of my knowledge, Greenpeace dosen't suffer from this.

Their is a time for peace, and a time for war, and oftentimes, the tactics can be mutually beneficial.

It is important for these two conservation organizations to remain distinctly seperate and incommunicative, as this helps them maintain their mutual goals while continuing contributions from their support groups.

If Sea Sheperd were to compromise and coordinate with Greenpeace, their support base would cry foul and accuse them of being soft, going political, and bending to globalization and corporatization.

If Greenpeace were to compromise their ideals and coordinate with Sea Sheperd, they would lose their own support base that views non-violence as paramount. It would also make Greenpeace's fundraising efforts more difficult if people believed they were involved with a group as polarizing as Sea Sheperd.

To maintain their respective support bases, it is important that both parties actively deny cooporation with the other as the money they get comes from different ideological mindsets.

Ok kids, this is breaking into debate again. Please continue the Greenpeace vs. Sea Shepherd debate here

Quoting GP's emailer.
"3 Ways to Help by "Greenpeace" Tue, 13 Feb 2007 14:51:21 -0500 (EST)

1: Donate Now
Help Greenpeace Take a Stand. Become a Member Today.

2: Take Action
Visit our Action Center and take action today.

3: Tell a Friend
Forward this message to a friend. Help spread the word."

This email and the slick glossy mailer I received is why I have donated to Sea Sheperd. Differing tactics, but one is about sustaining an organization and the other is about providing a solution. I don't want GP or SSCS to exist anymore.

Dave on the Esperanza: williedawg, your post was nearly 1000 words long, and against my advice about opening up a debate on this thread, or anywhere on the blog. I've transferred your article to here on the forums »

Just going to again stress that perhaps both methods of protest are necessary; you are both fighting against illegal whaling practices and opposed to speaking against one another, efforts should be focused on the Japanese and other nations which are murdering these animals. And lets not forget that Greenpeace was actually co-founded by Paul Watson. Anyways, regardless of the politics I thank everyone on the Esperanza and other ships for their efforts.

You people should stop arguing amonsgt yourselves and wasting time with internet gossip. Go and do something about animal rights and shuttup. The age of talking and writing is over.