What’s not to love about whales? The zen-like creatures of the deep are known to be intelligent, wise, and proficient at communicating with each other. Evidently, some cultures also consider them to be, well, sad to say…tasty.
Just the thought of whales being harpooned for the dining pleasure of the Japanese elite under the thinly veiled guise of “research” is the driving force behind a new hit show on Animal Planet called “Whale Wars”. It premiered in November of 2007 and just launched into the second season. This one promises to be more dramatic than ever, because the Sea Shepard fleet has been increased from one vessel, the Steve Irwin, to a total of three. The 2008-2009 season will include numerous confrontations with Japanese whaling ships, intense chases through ice, and several boat collisions.
Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society, and his crew are dedicated to stopping the Japanese whalers from killing the targeted Minke and endangered Fin whales and they are prepared to take aggressive action to accomplish their mission.
Are the Japanese legally entitled to kill them? That depends on who you ask. Watson and his organization, believe that killing whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is illegal, even if Minke whales are not considered endangered. They understand the risks and dangers, but believe it is worth it to save as many whales as they can.
On the other hand, the Japanese claim they have the right under an agreement with the International Whaling Commission to harvest 900-1000 whales in the Antarctic for “research” purposes, but Watson sees it as blatant commercial whaling, done for profit using inhumane and barbaric tactics.
As the smallest rorquals, minkes were the last to be exploited by whalers when the larger animals had been reduced to a level where they were no longer able to be profitably exploited, so the minkes were targeted as the species of last choice. Minke whales are not considered to be particularly threatened. Estimates have placed the minke population in the Southern Hemisphere in the range of 200,000-416,700 whales.
How many whales have been saved by Animal Planet’s new reality show? According to Watson, During the 2008-09 hunt (summer in the Antarctic), Japan fell 305 minke whales short of its quota, so Sea Shepherd is taking credit for saving those whales. The whalers killed only one fin whale, so Sea Shepherd is saying it saved 49 fin whales.
"We saved 500 whales the year before, 500 whales the year before that and 83 whales the year before that," Watson boasted.
But the World Wildlife Fund says that fishing is only a minimal threat to whales and that 90% of whale fatalities can be blamed on collisions with ships. Only this week, an oil tanker bound for Valdez apparently collided with a humpback whale and dragged the carcass into the harbor on the bow of the ship. In the same week, even more publicized, was a dead whale found wedged onto the bow of a cruise ship. As a result, special shipping lanes have been set up off Cape Cod to reduce collisions between ships and the extremely endangered northern right whales, which migrate through the area. It is hoped that these collisions will be reduced by an estimated 74% during the migratory season. Changes in shipping lanes around the world and the development of new technologies are making a real difference in reducing the number of whale non-nature mortality rates.
Entering its second season, the controversial “Whale Wars” has found itself being cheered and jeered.
A recent article in the Huffington Post accused the Sea Shepherds, based in Friday Harbor, Washington, of being abolitionist animal rights activists. They believe that every whale is sacred and should be preserved. On this basis, they justify aggressively interfering with and attempting to disable whaling ships in international waters. They have been seen positioning their Zodiac boats between a whale target and the Japanese whaler. Reportedly, they have rammed whaling boats who refuse to back off their prey.
Waston doesn’t deny being aggressive. ''You don't beg criminals to stop doing what they're doing,'' Mr. Watson said in the first episode last season. ''You intervene, and you physically and aggressively shut them down.''
"People think we're sort of arrogant in what we do," he said. "But as I always say, our clients are whales and we don't really care what people think. We're more concerned with what the whales think. Find me a whale that disagrees with what we do and I'll reconsider."
The documentary-style “Whale Wars” may be what some people consider eco-terrorism, but there are plenty of others who think the Sea Shepard’s crew are heroes—including, one can only speculate—the whales.

For photo credit run cursor over photograph * Copyright Jean Williams 2009 * Author also writes under pen name DelilahStarling. Permission to reprint up to three paragraphs with a direct “read full story” back to this page. Contact creatinggreenpiece@juno.com