Sea Shepherd has told lies about its whaling activities
May 22, 2006 Edition 1
Over the past months supporters of the Canadian-based organisation Sea Shepherd, now with a presence in South Africa, have criticised government departments and the media, and have fed people with misinformation.
The latest false statement was made by their newly-appointed South African director, Horst Kleinschmidt, who said in the Cape Argus of May 12: "At the moment there's nobody else making this (anti-whaling) their business" (in South Africa).
One wonders what my organisation has been doing for the past 28 years. In reply to Dr Herbert Henrich ("Give Sea Shepherd due", Brief Points, May 17), I regret to inform him that Sea Shepherd is considered internationally to be radical and violent.
It was for this reason that it lost its status as an observer at the International Whaling Commission in 1986.
In 1994 all the commission's member countries condemned Sea Shepherd's acts of "terrorism".
No whale conservation society approves of Japan's lethal research programme in Antarctica and the North East Pacific. However, it is essential that the facts be given.
Sea Shepherd has claimed it went to Antarctica to stop Japan's "illegal" research whaling.
What Japan is doing is not inconsistent with the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, and Japan has a special permit to carry out research.
In relation to Sea Shepherd's vessel, Farley Mowat, Henrich and others insist that the vessel is detained in Cape Town harbour at the bidding of nations who rape our seas.
We have it on good authority that the vessel can sail at any time provided it conforms with South Africa's safety regulations. Why then is it still there?
Nan Rice
Save the Whales Campaign Fish Hoek
