Iceland
Murders Its First Endangered Whale
"I view the taking
of a whales life in the same manner I would view the taking of a human
life. It is murder and it is a crime to slaughter such socially
complex intelligent and sensitive sentient beings. The method of
killing is torturous and grossly inhumane. We would never tolerate a
domestic animal to suffer such a long and painful death.
Every person who regards themselves as civilized must express
their disgust and their revulsion against the whale killing atrocities
of Iceland, Norway, the Faeroes and Japan. These people who
practice this horrific serial killing of whales are the most barbarous
representatives of humanity upon this planet and cast shame upon their
nations."
- Captain Paul
Watson
Iceland killed an endangered Fin
whale today. This is the first illegal murder of a whale since Iceland
announced their intention to violate the global moratorium on
commercial whaling.
The whale was swimming happily along
some two hundred miles off the coast of Iceland when some Nordic
nimrod cowardly slammed an exploding harpoon into its
backside.
The whale struggled in incredible
pain for a long time before losing strength and finally drowned after
an agonizing period when it lungs ruptured and its heart burst from
the strain of oxygen deprivation.
There are some who will take offense
at our use of the word murder. We make no apologies.
Whales are highly intelligent, long
lived, socially complex, sensitive sentient beings. It is a crime
against nature and humanity to cruelly snuff out the life of even one
of these great creatures.
What Iceland did today is
unforgivable and tragic and leaves us with a deep resentment and anger
towards Iceland.
“Every time a whale is killed by a
human being, it destroys a little more of my faith in humanity.”
Said Captain Paul Watson. “Killing whales in the 21st Century is a
savage, barbaric, ecologically ignorant act of a people who are
displaying an incredible contempt and disrespect for life and for
world opinion.”
The Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society is calling for a total boycott of all Icelandic products and
tourism to Iceland and the Society is already planning a campaign to
confront Icelandic whale killers in Icelandic waters in
2007.
“We are recruiting crew and we are
organizing a plan to go to Iceland and it will be a priority following
our campaign beginning December 1st to oppose the illegal whaling
activities of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic Whale
Sanctuary
Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
(1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org
"Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all."
- Walt Whitman
Address: P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250 USA