2017
Interview with Caroline Gibson, head of Australian education program of Sea Shepherd Australia, also working working with Sea Sheperd Global
My name is Caroline Gibson, I am an Onshore Volunteer with Sea Shepherd Australia and look after the Education Program in South Australia and I assist SSA and Global with inquiries. I joined Sea Shepherd because I wanted to be involved with an organization that is taking direct action to address some of the issues impacting on our oceans and marine species. An organization that is willing to directly intervene to put an end to illegal operations.
Just to clarify Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is the original Sea Shepherd organisation based in United States of America, Around the world there are numerous countries that have established Sea Shepherd organisations as well as Sea Shepherd Global that is now the overarching body for countries outside of the US, working to maximize our impact across all campaigns with the limited resources available. Each country has a separate legal entity, but the organizations work together as a global movement.
The education program is available for all age groups from reception/kindergarten through to universities and community groups. Our aim is to spread awareness and understanding on the numerous issues impacting on the health of the oceans and marine life, and through this encourage change and action on the issues. We visit schools and community groups to give presentations or undertake activities with students, such as beach clean ups, to increase their awareness about the issues that Sea Shepherd is taking action on. Our sessions can cover off on issues from whaling, illegal poaching activities and marine debris to a very detailed discussion about human impacts on the oceans, which covers off on a wide range of topics. We empower students with information on how they can make a difference.
Whales play an important role in the ocean eco-system and the oxygen / carbon cycle, but just as important is the fact that they are an intelligent sentient being and as such they do not deserve to be hunted and slaughtered in such a barbaric manner. The practice is not necessary, nor justifiable in this century. During the 1900’s it is estimated nearly 3 million whales were taken worldwide, over 2 million taken from the Southern Oceans alone. Such destruction has left many species on the edge of extinction and we are a long way off from seeing healthy populations of all these species again.
It is the killing of whales that we object to, in this day and age it is an unnecessary practice that cannot be justified. There is no need for commercial whaling by any country.
We question the hunt for all whales, no exceptions.
Sea Shepherd campaigns cover a wide range of issues, focusing mainly on those that break local and international laws, but we are limited by the resources we have available to tackle them. We run a number of campaigns targeting Illegal, Unreported & Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities.
IUU is resulting in the overfishing of species in areas where they believe there is a law enforcement void. Operation Icefish, our campaign targeting Patagonian toothfish poaching vessels operating in the shadow lands of Antarctica, was able to aid in shutting down all six poaching vessels, including two that had Interpol purple notices against them. These operations along with many others continue to use banned gill and drift nets, which result in the extensive by-catch of other species, including whales. Following on from Operation Icefish our crew came across a fleet of six illegal Chinese vessels using driftnets. The nets were confiscated and the vessels chased back to Chinese waters where they were arrested and prosecuted by Chinese authorities using the evidence we provided.
Sea Shepherd is able to travel to areas where government and law enforcement authorities can not and obtain the evidence needed by Interpol and government agencies to prosecute illegal poachers and shut them down. We also work within the territorial waters of some countries to assist in patrolling their waters against IUU activity.
We currently have vessels in the Sea of Cortez, working with the Mexican navy, removing illegal nets in a last ditch effort to save the critically endangered Vaquita. During this campaign our crews have helped to release whales trapped in nets.
Another vessel is in Liberia working with the Ministry of National Defence patrolling the waters for illegal operations. We also worked with the government of Gabon last year patrolling their waters, finding IUU activity from illegal and legal fishing vessels, such as illegal fishing catches where the vessel did not have a license, legal operations taking fish outside of their quotas, shark finning operations and sadly the extensive by-catch of other species like sharks. During this operation our crews assisted in removing a Brydes whale and a whale shark from the nets of legal tuna fishing operations, but they also witnessed many more that could not be saved like turtles and sharks. Legal fishing operators were pulling out dozens of dead sharks from their tuna nets, the worst had over 100 dead sharks in a single net of tuna, all just dumped back into the ocean as waste.
Pollution is also a major issue, our ships are regularly removing abandoned fishing nets from the oceans. We now have a specific Marine Debris Campaign working to address the issue of ocean pollution. Volunteers are actively cleaning beaches and waterways across the world and providing education on the implications of our obsession with single use plastics.
We have a number of campaigns that are working to directly and indirectly protect whales and their future. These are some examples of our current campaign activity.
Each Antarctic summer our vessels travel to the Southern Oceans to disrupt the illegal activities of the Japanese whaling fleets. We aim to keep the fleet moving so they cannot stop and kill whales. If we are able to locate the factory whaling vessel, the Nisshin Maru, then we will position our ship at a safe distance astern so that the harpoon vessels can not transfer dead whales for processing. The other option is to locate the refueling vessel used by the whaling fleet, so they cannot refuel within the Southern Oceans. Given the vast distance covered by the whaling fleet during the season they need to refuel and will take with them a bunker ship for this purpose. Noting that it is illegal for them to refuel their vessels below 60 degrees south, they have however attempted to do this in the past. Our presence in Antarctica, has raised public awareness and gain invaluable media attention. When we first started these campaigns not even the Japanese public were aware that the whale hunt had resumed on a commercial scale.
In addition our campaigns against IUU activities are working to remove illegal nets from the oceans to reduce the risk of entanglements and the incidence of by-catch.
In Australia Operation Apex Harmony is working to have shark nets removed from beaches along the eastern coast and replaced with more environmentally friendly options that will protect beach goers from sharks, but also stop innocent marine life from being entangled in them. These nets are often left in place outside of the summer month, particularly during the migration season for whales when they have young calves with them. Every year we see Humpback whales becoming entangled in these nets, needing to be cut free before they drowned.
Our Marine Debris Campaign is working to reduce the use of single use plastic products and recover debris from the oceans. With direct action and awareness we hope that something can be done to reduce the number of marine animals, like whales, dying because they have ingest rubbish such as plastic bags.
We have not intentionally committed any illegal activity in relation to our anti-whaling campaigns. In 2011 SSCS and Captain Paul Watson were taken to court by the Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR), which operates the Japanese whaling program. In 2012 the ICR were able to gain an injunction in the Ninth District Court in the USA against SSCS and Captain Paul Watson, which prohibited certain actions being taken in our anti-whaling campaign. This included not coming within 500 yards of the Japanese vessels and not doing anything that interfered with their operations. The only way our campaign to stop whaling could effectively continue that year was by SSCS and Paul Watson withdrawing from the campaign and Sea Shepherd Australia takeover control of the campaign. The ships were already at sea at the time of the injunction coming into effect, so despite the changeover in control of the campaign to SSA the ICR later argued successfully in court that SSCS resources had still be used in the campaign and therefore that SSCS was in breach of the injunction.
The Japanese hoped that this legal action would shutdown our opposition to the Japanese whaling program that year and going forward. It did not and we were able to stop them refueling that year and held them to their lowest number of whales killed in a season.
The Court ruling was baffling given that our vessels are not flagged in the USA, the crews are from all over the world and the activity was taking place in the Southern Ocean, for which the US Court has no jurisdiction. SSCS was fined for breaching the injunction, but launched counter suits against the ICR. The injunction is still in place so anti-whaling campaigns in the Southern Ocean are run by Sea Shepherd Global and Sea Shepherd Australia, SSCS takes no part.
While the ICR was able to take this action in the US courts, at the same time the ICR has lost cases in the Australian Courts for killing Minke whales in the Southern Ocean Australian Whale Sanctuary. They failed to pay the fine involved in this case and have since been found in contempt of the ruling. They also lost the case in the International Court of Justice in which the Australian Government took them to court for breaching the ban on commercial whaling. The decision resulted in their research program being determined to be in breach of the IWC ban on commercial whaling and had to be discontinued. Subsequent applications for approval of lethal research programs have not been approved by the IWC at this time.
I have provided some links below to news items released by SSCS that will help explain these points in more detail.
Sea Shepherd focuses on frontline law enforcement in the world's oceans. Our opponents are those who are breaking local and international laws. Sea Shepherd intervenes and works to halt these illegal activities aiming to bring the criminals to justice and to use media to expose those operations. Sea Shepherd works with limited resources, thus let's other NGOs focus on lobbying. Our 40 year history has shown the effectiveness of our operations, shutting down many illegal fishing and whaling operations across the globe working both with local Governments (such as currently in West Africa) and by ourselves (such as with Japanese whaling in Southern Ocean).
Sea Shepherd does not support the resumption of commercial whaling operations by any country. All such activity is currently in breach of the IWC ban on commercial whaling. There is no justifiable case for resumption of commercial whaling and one would have to question the reasons and motivations for supporting a resumption. Our activities are focused on bringing to an end the illegal whaling activities.
Our ships are vegan for a number of reasons, firstly our vessels can be at sea for several months at a time and keeping animal products on board takes up space and risks contamination of other foods. Secondly it would be hypocritical of us to be out on the oceans trying to stop the killing of marine species for food, but then be eating other species.
In addition to these reasons we are aware that animal agriculture is contributing to climate change, the warming of the oceans and acidification. These impacts will have implications for the feeding, migration and breeding patterns of many species, already under threat from overfishing and illegal poaching.
Propos obenu à par questionnaire envoyé par mail datant de 03/2017.