The Whale Warriors by Peter Heller: An Account of Audacity

What better way to end a literary heartbreak than finishing a book about audacity, the audacity to stand up for what one believes in and in this case wage war on a group’s twisted reasoning, individuals unabashedly violating international laws. Clearly, this writing of Peter Heller was shaped to inform and educate, a bold attempt to let the public know about the pitiful plight of these endangered animals.

Recently, I realized that writing should be more than impressing a few credentialed people or striving for accolades that are corrupted with patronage, or hitting millions of hits in a blog, writing should also move people and ignite them into action. This piece may not be rimmed with high-falutin prose but these words, paragraphs are forged with passion. It is my contribution to a cause that is dear to me, the ocean and the animals in it.

I love the ocean.  I love its vastness, its mystery, it unpredictability. But I hate the way people are corrupting it and killing thousands of helpless animals who have no way defending themselves. We are stewards of nature not its destroyer.

And this is why this book appealed to me. It is a book about a group of foolhardy individuals, volunteers, chasing after Japanese whalers in the cold ocean of Antartica. This book informs us on the state of our oceans and the sea animals being killed mercilessly.

This book was probably written before the Whale Wars series on cable, where a television crew films the Sea Shepherd ship as it goes after Japanese whalers. It is the account of Peter Heller, a journalist on board of Sea Shepherd’s Conservation Society's flagship  in 2005, the Farley Mowat. Here, he talks about the life in the ship as they searched for whalers like the Nisshin Mahru and their bristling relationship with Greenpeace and the press.

The lead character on the ship, Farley Mowat is its captain, Paul Watson, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace. He is an avid environmentalist and reputed to have sunk whaling ships in different countries. He is not afraid to ram his puny but feisty ship on a bigger ship like the Japanese Nisshin Maru. Heller even witnessed that it wasn’t all talk.  

On Christmas Day, 2005, Watson was poised in ramming the Nisshin Mahru, good thing the Japanese whaler turned. Heller called it Antartic chicken. Watson didn’t even blink. Farley Mowat could have broken in half if they collided with the monstrous ship. But despite this almost foolhardy stunt, this group generally don't use weapons to stop the whalers. They only use prop foulers to disable the ships and throw foul gas to disorient the crew so the Japanese can leave the whales alone. No guns, no armed machinery, just simple water hose in an ocean battle and a seven foot blade in its bow to damage the hull of another ship.

The ocean with its beauty can be dangerous and playing cat and mouse game in the vastness of it is quite a gamble, and playing it in the ocean of Antartica sounds almost insane.  The author talked about the constant seasickness, the gales that buffered the ship, the tenacity and creativity of the members of Farley Mowat and the intense focus of its captain, Paul Watson in saving these animals.

And I like this story of audacity. In a world where everyone wants to be part of the horde, having this kind of bravado is refreshing. The audacity that asks, questions, spurs debate and pursues change. With the world consisting mainly of ocean, why does a limited number of people act to protect the ocean like the Sea Shepherd who rides out storms and actively hunts these illegal whalers? Why does some environmental groups bring out only banners or paint the whaler ships while the whales are being killed in their midst? As witnesses of these ongoing atrocity, why don't they stop it?

While I don’t condone the ramming of whaler ships, I do believe that one has the responsibility to defend those who can’t protect themselves, in this case, the whales. They may not be part the human race but they are part of the ecosystem we live in. We are all interdependent. If they become extinct, it may throw off the balance of nature that may result to dire natural consequences. Why the need to decimate them? Why does the Japanese need to hunt and kill them? And why do the Japanese need to defy international laws prohibiting commercial whaling and use smaller countries to further their cause by bribing them to vote in lifting the moratorium on commercial whaling. That’s just sick.

This book has been a real eye-opener to me and I hope it would open your eyes too. Here are some excerpts:

“How can they kill these creatures? She asked. The earth is 75 percent ocean. Why is this the only ship out on the ocean enforcing environmental laws? One ship protecting the ocean?”

“Casson believed, along with many of his marine biologist colleagues, that the oceans are on the verge of total ecosystem collapse…The World Wildlife Fund recently announced that the world’s fish stocks are on the verge of extinction. All of the world’s fish. Right now, half of the world’s coral reefs are dead or dying.”

“If the oceans die, we die too…much of the destruction is caused by bottom trawlers, the industrial dragnets that scour and scrape wide swaths of sea floor, taking everything-the octupuses, the sea turtles, the mammals, the crabs, the urchins- and damaging the reefs…nets are dragged in and the target species are thrown into the hold, while all the rest are chucked overboard, dead or dying. Wasted”

“…Fourth shot hits her in the flank. Explosion and fountain of blood. Whale thrashing. Cable winch engaged, thrashing, screaming whale reeled in, gushing blood, turning the sea red…Electrocution current now coursing through the new spear. Whale in bloody agony…Finally hauled tail up, suspended so they can hold her breathing hole under. She drowns after fifteen more minutes in a sea of her own blood”

Heller also witnessed the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. He worked with crew of the Oscar award winner documentary, The Cove. I will be writing about the documentary on my next post.