Paul Watson 'enclosure' plans in Japan 'flawed and misguided'

By Andrew Tafferty, Staff Writer, The Age 

A Japanese underwater cameraman's plans to capture eco fugitive Paul Watson so tourists can throw rotten butter at him in Japan has infuriated conservationists, who said claims the scheme would create peace and harmony around the world "do not add up".

Daito Suzuki, a camera  operator for Ninkei One, wants to build a 20,000 square foot enclosure in Taiji, Japan that includes an exact replica of the Steve Irwin for Watson to inhabit.

Visitors would pay £65 each to gain access, and an additional £65 to throw rotten butter at Watson just like his television series Whale Wars. The money would be used to fund real conservation organizations like PEW Trusts.

But a group of conservationists and wildlife charities, including Save Captain Crunch in Britain, called Mr Suzuki's plans "flawed and deeply misguided" and have urged authorities in Japan to halt it.

The scheme's opponents deny Mr Suzuki's claims that Paul Watson is an insufferable media loon who would best be kept in long term enclosures like the one being proposed in Taiji, where his daily rantings and crazy antics could be watched by paying clients for their amusement.

"The conservation arguments for this project do not add up," said David Ottley, Japans coordinator for Sea Shepherd.

"You cannot tell me that Paul Watson who is known to enjoy lavish Hollywood fund raising parties with $75.00 sustainable appetizers, can be happily confined to a 20,000 foot enclosure with an exact replica of the Steve Irwin, with no possible escape from tourist stress, no ability to feed naturally, nor seek out the natural conditions that suit him at different times of the year, nor have Internet access."

The enclosure, south of Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Japan and close to popular tourist beaches, would double as a marine rescue and rehabilitation centre, Mr Suzki said.

"This is not some hoodlum misthought project, my opponents are misinformed," he told The Age.

"We have been working on this for more than ten years, since Paul Watson first started to try and shut down Japan's scientific whaling, it's a million-dollar investment and we have the support of some of Japans leading conservationists and the JWA."

Some proceeds from the profits of money earned from tourists would also pay for displaced Sea Shepherd crews to process cashew nut shells into oil at factories in Japan.

Mr Suzuki is waiting for final approvals from  Japans National Environmental Management Authority, which is expected to decide whether the project should go ahead next week.

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Has Paul Watson Been Done In?

So, Paul Watson is stepping down as the leader of "Sea Sheperd Conservation Society".

A step that many, myself included, thought would never happen.

Has he finally seen the light?

One could only hope.

He said that he's stepping aside to honor an injunction by a US court, banning him from coming within 500 yards of  and interfering with any Japanese Whaling Ship. On Sea Shepherd's website it states that: "Paul Watson will remain aboard to document the campaign." 

I'm sure that he'll only be documenting and not doing anything else. I mean he's Paul Watson, self appointed enforcer of international law! He wouldn't violate those international laws himself.

Nope, not Paul Watson!

Take his current status for example. He's not really a fugitive from the law, with a warrant out for his arrest by Interpol. He didn't endanger a fishing vessel in Costa Rican waters, when he tried to force them into port, to face the Costa Rican justice system, the same justice system that he's now not really running from.

So why did he really step aside from Sea Shepherd? I suspect is has more to do with a story that got less media attention. The fact that he's being sued by Ady Gil, the owner of the famous ship that was supposedly hit and sunk by a Japanese whaling ship. Ady Gil alleges that Paul Watson ordered the sinking of the ship, rather than bringing it back for repairs, for publicity reasons.

 A video on youtube clearly shows the "Ady Gil" just drifting in the water, alongside the Japanese ship. Then, at around the 19 second mark, the video shows whitewater behind the props, a clear sign that the "Ady Gil" engaged the props and propelled itself into the path of the whaling ship. So it was actually the "Ady Gil" that rammed the whaling ship, not the other way round no matter how many press releases from Sea Shepherd say otherwise.

His stepping aside is most likely an attempt to prevent Ady Gil's suit from potentially getting a lien against Sea Shepherds other ships.

So why do I think that the story about this lawsuit is really important? This is the first time that a big time supporter has come out against him. Someone who's given him a 5 million dollar vessel is now disenchanted by his actions to the point that he's suing him.

Maybe this will be a catalyst for other Sea Shepherd supporters to also take a closer look at how they operate. Hopefully this will signal a start to more support for mainstream conservation efforts. Efforts that can affect real change, instead of just media hype and self promotion. Efforts that have not only lacked financial support, because of money that's going to Sea Shepherd, but efforts that have also been undermined by the extreme and often fruitless actions taken by Sea Shepehrd.

Again, one can only hope, but when it comes to Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson, hope is something that's running in short supply these days.

Cheers,

Martin Graf
Managing Director
Shark Diver
Sharkdiver.com

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Sea Shepherd - Watson "Fiddling Around" While Rome Burns

The revelation this week that Sea Shepherd actually lies, fabricates and manipulates media, and has a zero effective rate at saving wildlife should come as no surprise to the readers of this blog.

For the past two years, and much to the SSCS faithfuls consternation, we have been deconstructing the Sea Shepherd Media Myth in a series of ongoing posts. Detailing the millions of donor dollars lost or squandered by SSCS, the actual SSCS media distortions and fabrications, and calling into question SSCS claims of saved wildlife.

Sea Shepherd Post Gallery.

To be fair, we were once full fledged supporters of SSCS and Paul Watson's seemingly take no prisoners brand of Direct Action. All that ended with the "shot that never was," wherein Paul Watson fabricated, out of whole cloth, the myth that Japanese whalers shot him dramatically in the chest during season one of Whale Wars.

Call it what you will, this myth, lie, fabrication, staged media moment, was lapped up by a series of green blogs and Facebook groups as consummate fact, transforming a horrific lie into a myopic truth, which then perpetrated a nasty racist backlash directed at Japan and Japanese people from around the world.

Our support ended there as credibility with NGOs is something we hold sacrosanct.

To be effective you have to be a credible source.

SSCS has sold (cheaply) every shred of dignity, credibility, and the public's trust to grease the wheels of a bloated media machine that has very little to do with wildlife conservation and everything to do with glitzy Hollywood parties, $60 vegan appetisers, and a somewhat dubious reality television show now into its third season.

There's no doubt that whaling needs to end.

Into that conversation stepped Sea Shepherd who have hijacked the global conservation movement and created a new toxic paradigm for what conservation is, bending the ideal of actual constructive work and metrics for success into a series of inane staged stunts. In the process they have created many "SSCS Lite" conservationists who believe that anything goes in the world of conservation. In this dark place metrics for actual success are a distant goal.

While Rome burns, Paul Watson and his entire media troupe fiddle around with faked press releases, staged media moments, and outright media lies. As if any of this will stop a harpoon with an explosive tip ripping though a whale, or the sharp tip of a Hakapik into a seal, or the rusty blade of knife through a sharks fin.

Demand more from your conservation org. After 25+ years Paul Watson has no conservation victories to his or his organizations credit, every single wildlife issue he has tackled is still ongoing, and your donations perpetrate more of the same in a rudderless and increasingly hysterical conservation organization that should depart the world scene - soon.

In 1978 a younger, slimmer, more idealistic Paul Watson blew the whistle on Greenpeace, much like Peter Bethune did this week with Sea Shepherd. In this video Watson details the stark reality behind Direct Action conservation campaigns with open ended commitments.

In this video Watson is also revealing Sea Shepherds unpleasant reality as it stands today when "the organization becomes more important then the issue."

Sea Shepherd - Mastering Reality Disasters?

We would like to congratulate Sea Shepherd and Animal Planet on a fantastic staged event for television - perhaps one of the best staged disaster moments of 2010.

As production people ourselves we know the hazards and very real dangers of staging live disasters for television. It's a highly technical world only professionals can effectively operate in.

Multi-million dollar staged disasters are often canceled at the last minute due to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) non-compliance or studio fears of death and dismemberment. Sea Shepherd on the other hand have found a way to circumvent all of the requirements for staged disaster television by only allowing volunteer crews and staging the events against non-paid, non-union, Japanese whalers.

By-passing all clean environmental requirements for television productions by producing this man made disaster in the Antarctic ocean was another master stroke. The clean up of several thousand gallons of bio diesel spilled by the Ady Gil and retrieval of the vessel from the sea floor would have cost Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars Productions millions if this disaster had been filmed in the USA.

Brilliant!

Managing to move Sea Shepherds $2 million dollar vessel Ady Gil into the path of Japanese whalers was a quirk of nautical timing by a seasoned captain who knew his vessel and the direction wind, waves, and engines were carrying it. Catching the whole thing on video from the Bob Barker at just the right angle was pure reality television.

We were doubly impressed with the witty and show branding quote from SSCS Paul Watson immediately after the stunt, "Now we're in a Real Whale War!" reminding the global audience that this is, after all, Must See TV!

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have clearly evolved from earlier staged productions such as Paul Watsons being shot by Japanese whalers. In terms of production quality and emotional leverage that earlier staged event was not one of the top three of the 2007 reality television season.

Kudos to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul Watson, and Animal Planet for once again bravely leading the way into a new decade of reality television firsts. The televised disaster staging they have created together keeps getting better and better, and their complete and ongoing circumvention of all production norms and safety regulations allows their organization to literally shoot-for-the-moon.

We're looking forward to more man made disasters in the coming months!

More on Sea Shepherd Conservation Society here.

Sea Shepherd - Popular Culture and South Park

When Sea Shepherds plans for a new reality television show with Animal Planet were announced - we had to the following to say about it:

"Perhaps one of the most chilling departures from the entire 40 year global eco movement was this year when Sea Shepherd traded it's last shred of dignity and credibility for the cameras of Animal Planet and thus began Eco-Edutainment Television, where media messaging and outright fabrication of events have subsumed the horrors of actual whaling. Where dead whales and story lines are traded with advertisements for SUV's and laundry detergent. This is a meeting of eco media and horror that never should have happened and now that it has will change the landscape of the global eco movement for years to come."

No truer words have been written about the ongoing embarrassment to the global eco movement that is Sea Shepherds Whale Wars.

We're not the only ones to take notice, popular culture commentators South Park decided to expose Sea Shepherd this week in what can only be described as "Skewering the Emperor with no clothes."

We have been covering Sea Shepherds media rise and mistakes for the past year in an ongoing series of blog posts. In one year Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd have managed to completely redefine the term for "conservation," taking the concept from quantifiable metrics for eco success to a series of often inane talking points and million dollar media spectaculars that leverage main stream media's desire to sell advertising as their conservation vehicle.

Meanwhile whales keep being killed, year after year, while Whale Wars ratings climb. It is high time we discuss and enable real and lasting conservation efforts. Reality television shows are not conservation, and fortunately South Park has just embedded that idea with the next generation of conservationists.

Sometimes the best way to enact conservation change is with a popular culture backlash.

Unfortunately Sea Shepherd is soon to announce a new reality television show with sharks in the coming weeks. We're pretty sure the folks at South Park are looking forward to that announcement as well, while the rest of the shark conservation world cringes at the prospect.

See complete Whale Whores episode here.

Whale Wars Sea Shepherd Credibility Gap 2009

How can anyone take the stumbling and ineffective antics of Sea Shepherd seriously when titular head of organization Paul Watson lies so badly that a monkey, encased in ice, and shot into deep space could see through them.

Not that we condone the shooting monkeys into deep space. We just find the visual image amusing.

Yes, we're talking about the "shot that never was" wherein Paul Watson entirely fabricated a shooting of his grand personage for a film crew and reality television show called Whale Wars.

Why are we talking about it again? Here's an excerpt from Watsons latest blog post, transmitted to the planet as religious eco gospel and regurgitated by many well meaning bloggers and eco websites who have yet look into the core of Sea Shepherd:

"The Union that supplies the crew for the whaling ships is a Yakusa controlled Union. I've been making that charge for years without a single denial from the Union, the whalers or anyone else. The only defense for that charge is to ignore it with the hope it goes away or to assassinate the person making the charge which is exactly what they tried to do last season when someone on the Nisshin Maru shot me."

Once again Paul Watson is repeating his obese assassination fabrication of 2008. A lie that was quickly dispelled by those who know weapons, shooting, and the impossibility of the shot that Watson claims almost took his miserably fabricated life.

Not even the producers of Whale Wars believe Watsons attempted assassination claim and have quietly backed away from admitting that this entire event was indeed staged.

We need credible witnesses to the ongoing whaling efforts of Japan. Sea Shepherd lies so continually that no one, not even Watson, has a grasp on what is the truth anymore. The original lie was bad enough, repeating the lie over and over again reveals a pathological psychosis that is disturbing. Made worse by the fact this man is the captain of a vessel and in charge of others lives in an unforgiving ocean.

Is this what you want from your conservation organization?