Janet Heard
Sea Shepherd conservation activists have aborted their first anti-seal culling mission into Namibia, fleeing across the border to South Africa at the weekend.
However, Sea Shepherd founder and president Paul Watson has vowed to continue the group’s mission at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve, a major tourist attraction.
“Once Sea Shepherd begins a project, we stick with it until the mission is accomplished,” said Watson, who heads the breakaway Greenpeace group that adopts a confrontational, aggressive approach to eco-conservation.
Namibia is the only country in the southern hemisphere that still permits seal clubbing, with about 90 000 being killed each year.
Speaking to the Cape Times in Durban, where Watson was a guest at the International Film Festival at the weekend, the controversial eco-activist said the team had arrived in Namibia a month ago to launch “Operation Desert Seal”.
“Our mission was to document and expose the horrific slaughter of seal pups.”
In the past, the Namibian government has justified the annual seal-clubbing, maintaining that the seals have a negative impact on the country’s fish stocks.
Giving his version of events, Watson said the crew had been in the process of planting cameras on the beach in the evening to get footage of a planned seal killing.
“We weren’t prepared for the fact that the navy had been deployed with thermal imaging equipment.
“They detected our guys. Our crew had night vision glasses. Soldiers, who also wore night vision helmets, chased them on foot for 5km through the desert.”
The crew reached their vehicles and climbed in, but realised that police were pursuing them, so they went off the road “into the hills with no lights, just vision glasses”.
The group of volunteers crossed the border safely on Friday night.
Watson, who had been in Namibia earlier this month, said the team was led by Steve Roest of the UK and Lauren de Groot of the Netherlands. The team included South Africans Rosie Kunneke, Dinielle Stockigt, Nicki Botha and a local Namibian scout, “who for obvious reasons must remain unidentified”.
He said Sea Shepherd had succeeded in “destroying the market for Canadian seal products … Now we need to focus all of our energies on stopping Namibia”.
The group would keep up the pressure, and it had some dramatic footage that would be shown on its Animal Planet TV series Whale Wars.
The group would consider calling for a tourism boycott to force the government’s hand.
“I can’t believe how much the Namibian government is protecting seal slaughter. The money is being made by foreigners primarily, and threatening the tourist industry,” he said.
Watson claimed the Namibian government had declared Sea Shepherd a threat to national security.
He alleged that the international seal skin trader Hatem Yavuz, an Australian resident and Turkish citizen, operated “what is now the largest slaughter of seals on the planet”.
Watson was visiting Durban for a screening of a documentary on his life, Eco-Pirate: the story of Paul Watson.
Watson, a Canadian who has been an eco-activist for more than 40 years, admits that Sea Shepherd “may not be everybody’s cup of tea”.
He was ousted from Greenpeace in 1977 after the group felt his direct approach conflicted with its non-violent philosophy.
The blurb on Sea Shepherd’s brochures reads: “We are a no-nonsense in your face activist organisation that rocks the boat, upsets the status quo and pins the bell on the rear end of corrupt and ineffective politicians.”