Paul Watson is a Canadian known around the world for his daring efforts to stop the killing of whales and seals by direct intervention. Although he was one of the originators of Greenpeace, he broke away from that group to form the Sea Shepherd Society, which is dedicated to protecting marine mammals. As captain of the ship Sea Shepherd, Watson cuts a swashbuckling figure, charging between whales and their hunters. I asked him how he ended up spending his life sinking whaling boats and getting beaten up by enraged sealers. He told me the dramatic and moving story of the day that changed his life.
In 1975, we had encountered the Russian whaling fleet just off the coast of northern California. We had come up with this idea to put ourselves in inflatable boats, to put our lives on the line, reasoning that nobody is going to kill a whale if they have got to risk killing a human being. We were reading a lot of Gandhi at the time and we were quite naive… Anyway, Bob Hunter and I were in a small rubber boat. And we were blocking a Soviet Harpoon vessel. This 150-foot steel vessel was bearing down on us at twenty knots. And in front of us, eight magnificent sperm whales were fleeing for their lives. Every time the harpooner swiveled the harpoon, I would maneuver the small boat… to block his path; this worked for about twenty minutes. Then the captain came down the cat walk and screamed into the ear of the harpooner… and we knew we were in trouble. And a few minutes later, the harpooner fired the harpoon over our heads and this 150 pound exploding grenade zoomed over our heads and slammed into the backside of one of the females in this pod of sperm whales. And she screamed. Blood was squirting everywhere. The largest whale in the pod suddenly rose up and dove.
We had been told by all of the experts that the whale would attack us, because we were the smallest targets and it would be very angry. As we waited with a great deal of anxiety for fifty tons of very angry animal to come up underneath us, the ocean erupted behind us and we turned in time to see the whale hurl himself from the water straight at the Russian harpooner who was on the bow. But the harpooner was waiting for him, and he very nonchalantly pulled the trigger and sent a second harpoon at point –blank range, into the head of the whale. The whale screamed and fell back into the water, blood everywhere now. And he was rolling and thrashing about I caught his eye. And he saw me. Then he dove.
I saw this trail of bloody bubbles coming straight towards us, real fast. The whale came up and out of the water at an angle, so it looked like he was just going to come forward and crush us. And then it was almost as if he stopped in mid-air. He was so close I could have reached up and grabbed one of these six-inch teeth. I looked into his eye, which was the size of my fist, and what I saw in that eye was understanding. That whale knew what we were trying to do, because the easiest thing for the whale to do was to come forward and crush us or seize us in his jaws, and he did neither. He just very slowly and deliberately and with great effort slid back beneath the waves and died.
There was something else I saw in that eye, and it was pity. Not for himself but for us.
In 1975, we had encountered the Russian whaling fleet just off the coast of northern California. We had come up with this idea to put ourselves in inflatable boats, to put our lives on the line, reasoning that nobody is going to kill a whale if they have got to risk killing a human being. We were reading a lot of Gandhi at the time and we were quite naive… Anyway, Bob Hunter and I were in a small rubber boat. And we were blocking a Soviet Harpoon vessel. This 150-foot steel vessel was bearing down on us at twenty knots. And in front of us, eight magnificent sperm whales were fleeing for their lives. Every time the harpooner swiveled the harpoon, I would maneuver the small boat… to block his path; this worked for about twenty minutes. Then the captain came down the cat walk and screamed into the ear of the harpooner… and we knew we were in trouble. And a few minutes later, the harpooner fired the harpoon over our heads and this 150 pound exploding grenade zoomed over our heads and slammed into the backside of one of the females in this pod of sperm whales. And she screamed. Blood was squirting everywhere. The largest whale in the pod suddenly rose up and dove.
We had been told by all of the experts that the whale would attack us, because we were the smallest targets and it would be very angry. As we waited with a great deal of anxiety for fifty tons of very angry animal to come up underneath us, the ocean erupted behind us and we turned in time to see the whale hurl himself from the water straight at the Russian harpooner who was on the bow. But the harpooner was waiting for him, and he very nonchalantly pulled the trigger and sent a second harpoon at point –blank range, into the head of the whale. The whale screamed and fell back into the water, blood everywhere now. And he was rolling and thrashing about I caught his eye. And he saw me. Then he dove.
I saw this trail of bloody bubbles coming straight towards us, real fast. The whale came up and out of the water at an angle, so it looked like he was just going to come forward and crush us. And then it was almost as if he stopped in mid-air. He was so close I could have reached up and grabbed one of these six-inch teeth. I looked into his eye, which was the size of my fist, and what I saw in that eye was understanding. That whale knew what we were trying to do, because the easiest thing for the whale to do was to come forward and crush us or seize us in his jaws, and he did neither. He just very slowly and deliberately and with great effort slid back beneath the waves and died.
There was something else I saw in that eye, and it was pity. Not for himself but for us.