03/30/2008
Sea Shepherd Crew Defy Canada’s Ban on Documenting the Slaughter

The Sea Shepherd crew onboard the Farley Mowat documented scenes of excessive brutality this morning as they moved through the ice some 35 miles north of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Sea Shepherd crew observed seals being shot and wounded and thrashing about in agony on the surface of the ocean.

The priorities of the Canadian Coast Guard seem to be in harassing the crew of the Farley Mowat and trying to prevent documentation of the inhumane slaughter of seals.

Two coast guard vessels shadowed the Farley Mowat all morning. The Coast Guard vessel CCGS Des Groseilliers ordered the Farley Mowat to leave Canadian waters and to not approach any sealing operation stating that a permit is required from the Canadian government to observe the seals being slaughtered.

The Farley Mowat responded by saying; “permits. We don’t need no stinkin’ permits.”

The Canadian government has no authority over a foreign registered ship traveling outside the Canadian twelve mile limit. The Farley Mowat is a Dutch ship with a Dutch Captain and a crew from the Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, France, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada and South Africa. The crew of the Farley Mowat believe the Canadian Coast Guard should be concentrating on search and rescue operations instead of censoring observation of the slaughter of seals.

Canadian Coast Guard incompetence has already led to the death of four sealers. Yesterday four men from the Magdalene Islands died when their 12 meter aluminum hulled boat the L’Acadien II capsized while being towed through heavy ice by the Coast Guard icebreaker Sir William Alexander. Bruno-Pierre Bourque one of the two survivors of the L'Acadien II, blamed the tragedy on excessive speed and lack of attention by the Coast Guard.

Canadian Coast Guard spokesperson Mike Voigt defended the Coast Guard saying there are no regulations for towing in the ice and the Coast Guard has little experience in towing vessels through the ice.

“This is incredible,” said Captain Paul Watson, himself a former member of the Canadian Coast Guard. “The government of Canada allows hundreds of small non-ice class vessels to navigate in the most hostile waters on earth in heavy ice and they then say they have no contingency plans to deal with rescuing these same vessels. Perhaps if they spent less time making plans to prevent the documentation of the seal slaughter and more time being concerned about protecting human lives, these men would not have died.”

The following are eye-witness accounts from crewmembers onboard the Farley Mowat. The very witnessing of these events is considered illegal by the Canadian government.

We encountered the sealing vessel the Cathy Erlene, registered to Sydney NS. Upon approach we saw two small aluminum boats carrying two men each darting from ice floe to ice floe searching for baby seals. It seemed they had a system. The barbarians on the Cathy Erlene were cruising through the ice searching for the few seal pups there were. They carried on their disgusting massacre carelessly firing upon the unsuspecting babies, their only goal to find and maim the infants. We witnessed two helpless victims, meters from the ship writhing in agony, hot blood spilling onto the ice and heard their cries as they continued to suffer for a good long time awaiting the small boats to arrive and fulfill their doom. Stepping onto the ice the babies, still alive turn their heads to the approaching man with a club. There is nothing humane about this massacre. What I saw today I will never forget, their cries will fill my thoughts and torture my soul. I can say I am truly embarrassed to be of the same race as these cowards and ashamed to be a Canadian today.
-Shannon Mann, Canada

Nothing prepared me for this, no video or previous encounter with the sealers on the ice. I watched in horror and disgust as two murderers clammered from their small boat, club in hand, and smashed in the skull of a baby harp seal. For an hour or so my memories are fuzzy with blood, abuse and worst of all the cries of seals as they are brutally killed. We will do whatever we can to expose this unnecessary, disgusting slaughter of life. Canada can not continue to censor its dirty secret any longer.
- Laura Dakin UK

First sight of human life on the ice I see two men lifting a seal impaled through the neck onto a sealing boat... the seal was still moving. There was lots of ice covered with blood everywhere. There was a larger boat that the smaller boats were dropping off the seals to be skinned, one of the crew of the boat got up to wave smuggly at us. They were skinning them and throwing the seal carcasses back overboard. They call it a seal hunt but I don't think walking up to a stationary seal and smashing its head in is hunting, it is an act of pure cruelty. No wonder they don't want the rest of the world to see what is happening.
-Daniel Bishop, England

It is untrue to say that killing these seals is being done humanely. Today we have seen sealers shooting the baby seals to wound them so they can't flee, beating them with wooden clubs then killing them by cutting the
arteries under their flippers. The seals die slowly and in pain. It is ahorrible thing to see.
- Dr Merryn Redenbach, Australia

When I woke this morning I looked through the port hole and saw red patches of blood on the ice and I knew the seal hunt had begun. On the deck I immediately saw a small boat and two men who stopped on a little piece of ice in order to slaughter an innocent baby harp seal. Actually there were two small boats and one sealing ship. The hunters carried a hakapik and bashed the seal's head. Some of the seals were still alive when they were delivered back to the sealing ship where they were finally skinned.
- Anne Fourier, France




These guys and girls do an amazing job helping to protect animals around the world from disgusting acts of violence.
I know alot of you guys and girls are aware of the Sea Sheperd society but they have started a new campaign so I thougt it wouldnt hurt if I posted this up.
Ive included a link here to their homesite http://www.seashepherd.org/.
Please consider joining for a donation as little as $5 a month. Plus you get an excellent free t-shirt! http://www.seashepherd.org/donate.html
Please consider it. Its such an easy thing to do. And it really does save normally helpless lives.
It is direct action in effect!

I would like to post up here regularly (as my apathy allows) if that is ok with the SB board.


f.t.s!

That is just fucked up. I just saw some of the vids, and all I can say is, those guys are really messed up in the head.

Thanks for looking Beyond.

Taken from newsletter


It has been almost 2 weeks now since a boarding party of armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) stormed and seized Sea Shepherd's ship, the Farley Mowat. Our ship remains in the custody of the Canadian government, and it is yet to be determined whether the government intends to permanently confiscate the vessel. The Farley Mowat was documenting the cruel slaughter of seals in international waters -not Canadian waters- at the time of the boarding. Canada, meanwhile, is busy accusing Sea Shepherd of terrorist activities. If that's what we get for defending the seals and exposing Canada's barbaric practices in the international media, we consider ourselves to be in good company. Our featured Sea Shepherd supporter, the Dalai Lama, has been accused by China of being a terrorist as well, a term being used by countries with something to hide. While we've paid Canada's pirate's ransom with the aide of our International Chairman and ship's namesake Farley Mowat to release our two dedicated crewmembers from jail, we are not backing down on our opposition of the seal slaughter and are continuing to defend ocean wildlife worldwide.
Sea Shepherd Captain and First Mate Free

Farley Mowat Pays Pirate Ransom

Captain Alex Cornelissen and 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt were freed from solitary confinement in Sydney, Nova Scotia in the late afternoon of April 14th, after Captain Paul Watson delivered $10,000 in doubloons to the Nova Scotia courts.

"We do not view the arrests as lawful," said Captain Watson. "These men were seized from their Dutch flagged ship on the high seas in international waters by armed men who then commandeered the ship and the personal property of the crew. This was an act of piracy and we do not recognize this as bail. It's a ransom that we have been forced to pay and since it's a ransom being paid to pirates, it's appropriate that it has been paid in doubloons."

Robert Hunter Chasing Nisshin Maru

Japan Acknowledges Sea Shepherd's Impact


Interfering with the WhalersJapan has publically acknowledged that "relentless interference" from environmentalists led to the "regrettable" low amount of whales they were able to illegally slaughter this past whaling season. They killed zero Humpbacks and were only able to murder 551 of the 935 Piked whales they intended to harpoon. Sea Shepherd looks forward to having a bigger impact next year, and saving even more whales, should Japan continue its whaling program.
More information here
Our ship has been seized and our volunteer crewmembers have been deported for documenting and witnessing the brutal seal slaughter. The seals, however, are still being killed. With your support, we are able to continue exposing this crisis both in the press and in the legal arena. I thank-you for helping to make our seal defense efforts possible.

For the Oceans,

Watson Signature

Paul Watson
Founder and President
-------------------------------------
email: captainwatson@seashepherd.org
phone: +1 (360) 370-5650
fax: +1 (360) 370-5651
website: www.seashepherd.org

Our ship has been seized and our volunteer crewmembers have been deported for documenting and witnessing the brutal seal slaughter. The seals, however, are still being killed. With your support, we are able to continue exposing this crisis both in the press and in the legal arena.

for full stories click here http://www.seashepherd.org/

thanks for posting the info germs

so hard to believe the canadian govt supports this - and their treatment of the crew seems pretty heavyhanded

The Canadian government continues to hold our vessel, the Farley Mowat, after illegally confiscating it in international waters. In the meantime, we're billing the Canadian government $1,000 for every day our ship is in custody. This week, we learned that Iceland has announced it is resuming its commercial whaling operation with a quota of 40 Piked whales (Minke), much to our dismay. Operation Ragnarok, which was put on hold last year when Iceland canceled its whaling program, may be resurrected in opposition to this decision. At the same time, we're preparing the Steve Irwin's return to Antarctica to oppose Japanese whaling and urging the Australian government to stop the opening of a shark fin fishery off the Great Barrier Reef, and we continue our ongoing work to expose and end illegal poaching and longlining in the Galapagos...

Sea Shepherd is billing the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans $1,000.00 per day for every day that the Farley Mowat is unlawfully held by the department.

Sea Shepherd will send an invoice on the 12th of each month asking for $30,000 for the time the ship is held from the Society. This will total $365,000 every year.


Just when we were thinking it was becoming safe for sharks to be in Australian waters, the Queensland government in an incredible display of ecological insensitivity has proposed a shark fin fishery in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and in marine parks in Queensland waters.


This announcement has come just as Rob Stewart's award winning film Sharkwater opens in Australia. This film which features Sea Shepherd's efforts to stop shark finning is raising awareness of the plight of sharks worldwide

Since 2000, Sea Shepherd has been working with the Galapagos National Park and the Ecuadorian National Environmental Police to try and control poaching in the Marine Reserve. Recent activities in the Galapagos illustrate ongoing problems. On May 5th, the Head of the Navy for the Galapagos released a shark poaching vessel that was arrested on April 27th. This boat was caught inside the Marine Reserve with between 140 and 290 sharks plus shark fins onboard.


The Navy said the vessel was released because the fish were beginning to smell. However there seems to be a stronger stench in the Enchanted Islands and it is not coming from the fish.

Hammerhead sharks in the GalapagosSea Shepherd believes that if the world can't save the Galapagos then there is little hope for every other eco-system on this planet. We must fight the corruption that is perpetuating the steady diminishment of these incredible islands.

Captain Watson will be visiting select European cities for the first time in nearly 10 years at the end of May and beginning of June. He will be giving presentations at scheduled events in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom.


Visit our events page for details on how to attend
We are continuing to make waves globally and are actively working on behalf of of ocean wildlife everywhere. I thank-you for your support, for we could not save the whales, dolphins, sharks, or seals without your compassion and generosity.

For the Oceans,


Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President