On Assignment Text Aaron “Bertie” Gekoski Making a Movement Photos Courtesy of Sea Shepherd SHARING STORIES, SHUNNING year, billions of trees are cut bandied around, as people scramble SUSHI, OR SINKING SHIPS: THERE Every down so we can plant crops to feed for answers, or try and be more ARE MANY DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTALISM. ON THE over seven billion mouths. Rising water environmentally responsible citizens. EVE OF SEA SHEPHERD’S 40TH temperatures are rendering coral reefs Everyone has their own way of ANNIVERSARY, AARON “BERTIE” bleached and lifeless. It’s predicted making a difference. Some start GEKOSKI CAUGHT UP WITH ONE MAN that by 2050, there will be more plastic by making manageable, bite-sized WHO’S ADOPTED A MORE HANDS-ON in our oceans than fish; more wrappers changes to their everyday lives. They APPROACH THAN MOST than wrasse, and more bottles than recycle, turn off the lights, eat less fish bottlenose dolphins. and beef, or share conservation stories Given the magnitude of these and images on social media. issues, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Others make environmentalism What can I do? Where should I focus their lives and become scientists, my efforts? These questions are campaigners or researchers. 82 left Sea Shepherd is actively As a presenter at SZtv, I document It’s hard to keep up with Watson. involved in anti-whaling and launched its 11th Antarctic conservation issues and initiatives, Every sentence tumbles out faster whale defense campaign called package them up as entertaining films, than you can sink a Japanese Operation Nemesis in late 2016 and broadcast them through the media. whaling fleet. He mixes razor-sharp bOttOm Plastic pollution is one of the greatest environmental Then there are those that assume observations with literary references, threats facing our oceans. a more “active” role. Captain Paul anecdotes, metaphors and statistics. Sea Shepherd has teamed up with Adidas to make trainers Watson – who needs no introduction – By the time I’ve absorbed one point, out of marine debris has spent over half a century harassing, he’s made another three. chasing, ramming and disabling those he deems a threat to the 50 YEARS OF ACTIVISM planet. Greenpeace – no strangers to Watson’s life as an activist began controversy themselves – once even at the age of 11, when he would called him a “violent extremist”. destroy beaver traps near his home As I caught up with Watson in St. Andrews-By-The-Sea, New on Skype, he dismissed this label. Brunswick, Canada. By 1969 he went “I don’t consider myself an extremist on to form a group called the Don’t and I don’t think what we do is Make a Wave Committee, which, he radical. I’m a conservative: You don’t claims, would later go on to become get more conservative than being Greenpeace. Whilst Greenpeace deny a conservationist. Radicals and Watson was a founding member, his extremists are out there trying to claims are backed up in the film How destroy the planet.” to Change the World, about the first decade of the organisation. Watson’s methods, however, were deemed too controversial “I’m a conservative: You don’t get more and they parted ways in 1977. conservative than being a conservationist” He believes this was the best Captain Paul Watson thing that ever happened to him. 83 “Hanging banners and taking It’s an ever-evolving beast that country, consigned to his keyboard, pictures only gets you so far,” he even Watson can’t keep up with. as his soldiers continue to wage war says, whilst referring to organisation “I heard last year that Sea Shepherd against the “radicals”. Greenpeace as the “Avon ladies of the Nicaragua had rescued two turtles. environmental movement”. I didn’t even know we had a Sea SAILING ON STARS Whilst Greenpeace brings in Shepherd Nicaragua,” he jokes. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood hundreds of millions of Euros every Watson’s role has also evolved film – and if it were made into one, year in donations, Sea Shepherd only over the years and he now adopts what there would be no shortage of actors raises a fraction of this. “If people want he calls an “Admiral’s position” – wanting to be involved. Supporter to protect our planet, they seek us out. coordinating rather than chasing. Sean Connery might make the Sea Shepherd is operated by those It is an enforced absence: He has perfect Paul Watson. Sea Shepherd’s with passion. I ask people if they would two Interpol red notices filed against Hollywood links have bolstered its put their lives on the line for a whale. him, due to clashes with the Japanese media profile and fuelled their growth. If they say ‘no’ we won’t take them.” and Costa Ricans, going back 15 years. Brigitte Bardot and Sam Simon bought Watson doesn’t view Sea Shepherd As a result, he cannot travel anywhere them boats. Other donors include as an organisation, but rather a other than the United States or France. Pierce Brosnan and Martin Sheen. movement. “You can shut down an “Interpol red notices are primarily “We can’t lose because we have two individual or a company, but you can’t for serial killers, drug traffickers and James Bonds and a former president stop a movement.” This movement war criminals. I’m the only person in on our side,” he jokes. has evolved to include 10 vessels history put on that list for conspiracy to Sea Shepherd have succeeded (making them the world’s largest non- trespass on a whaling ship.” in doing what others have failed at: governmental navy, Watson believes), The travel ban does little to They have made conservation “cool” – 165 full-time crew, and up to 10 times dampen the Sea Shepherd mystique: fighting for a noble cause, chasing that number in volunteers. the Admiral imprisoned in his own illegal fishermen on the high seas. on assignment left Dead thresher and blue When Sea Shepherd was accused Their current campaigns include sharks lie on the deck of the Reina Del Cisne of being pirates in the 1990s, Watson protecting the critically endangered countered: “What’s wrong with pirates? vaquita in Mexico, intercepting and AbOve Plastics in the marine environment have significant Pirates get things done – look at Sir arresting illegal fishing operators ecological impacts causing welfare and conservation Walter Raleigh or Sir Francis Drake.” off West Africa, identifying viruses concerns including ingestion, Then, in typically provocative style, and parasites from farmed salmon, entanglement and strangulation to marine wildlife and in a marketing masterstroke, he and helping Adidas produce a trainer bOttOm left Sea Shepherd designed their famous Jolly Roger logo. made out of marine debris. has spent years campaigning to No one could ever accuse Sea The Japanese, of course, still protect tuna, whose populations are on the brink of collapse Shepherd of not “getting things done”. receive their fair share of attention. bOttOm centre Illegal gill nets are a huge threat to marine life, entangling and killing many species, including sharks When Sea Shepherd was accused of being bOttOm right Turtles are particularly vulnerable to all pirates in the 1990s, Watson countered: “What’s forms of waste wrong with pirates? Pirates get things done” 85 spOtlight On WhAling Japan was heavily involved in commercial whaling until the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium of 1986, but they continue to whale under Article VIII – so-called “scientific whaling” 95% do not eat whale meat A 2006 research report by the Nippon Research Centre revealed that 95 percent of Japanese have never eaten, or very rarely eat, whale meat amount of uneaten frozen whale meat 2002 2012 4,600 tonnes The amount of uneaten frozen whale meat doubled to 4,600 tonnes between 2002 and 2012. The government still subsidises whaling by about USD50 million a year They used to kill over 1,000 whales threw itself at them, so they struck him in a season – Watson claims that the with another harpoon. Policymakers have urged the IWC to encourage reduction in their quota to 333 is due “As he fell back in agony, he came the development of commercial whale to Sea Shepherd’s efforts. out of the water at an angle that watching, which generates more than USD1 billion in annual revenues worldwide It was, in fact, one of his first could have come crashing down on us. whaling missions that had the I looked into his eye and what I saw greatest impact on Watson’s career. there was life changing: The whale “We were blocking whales from a clearly knew what we were trying to do. harpoon vessel, when they fired over Then I saw him fall back and drown… our heads, hitting one of the pod. that whale could have killed me but Another whale dove underneath us and chose not to.” It’s estimated there are over 6,500 whales In March 2017, a Japanese whaling fleet returned in the ocean that wouldn’t be here if it from an Antarctic hunt that killed more than 300 minke whales – despite the IWC moratoria weren’t for Sea Shepherd and Paul Watson Data sourced from WWF, IWC, Nippon Research Center, The Guardian 86 on assignment As Watson sat there amongst a I’m not going to do this for people; Soviet whaling fleet in the ocean, I’m going to do this for them.” he was left alone with his thoughts. It’s estimated there are over 6,500 “So here we are, killing this incredibly whales in the ocean that wouldn’t be intelligent, beautiful, self-aware here if it weren’t for Sea Shepherd creature for oil [from its blubber], and Paul Watson.