One of Watson's older ships used to carry a tally of sunk whalers on its side in the fashion of a fighter ace, and among the sinkings the group took credit for was that of the Sierra , an unlicensed whaler.
In , Watson rammed the ship and damaged it at sea, and it limped into port. Limpet mines were later attached to its hull and brought it down. Watson proudly defended his claim of 10 ships sunk on his website, saying "we rammed and we sunk the pirate whaler Sierra in Portugal , the whalers Isba I and Isba II in Spain in , the Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7 in Iceland in , the Nybraena in , the Senet in and the Morild in , all in Norway.
In and , Watson's group said it had tried to disable the propeller on the Nisshin Maru , the largest ship in the Japanese whaling fleet and the world's last factory ship for processing whale meat, blubber and oil, with a series of homemade devices — lengths of strong cable attached at both ends to buoys. The group said the intent was for the ship's bow to pass over the cable and for the cable to foul, and hopefully damage, the ship's propeller.
The effort failed, something Greenpeace applauded. Watson said Greenpeace were hypocrites, and that they'd both rammed and sought to disable ships in the past as well. Watson understands that his group thrives on notoriety, which generates financial support.
Since Animal Planet picked up the reality show "Whale Wars," about his group's efforts against the Japanese in the Southern Ocean, its profile has soared. It is now the most powerful ship in their fleet.
In one of books he wrote that "all confrontation is based on deception. Past statements like that led to a great deal of skepticism when a episode of Whale Wars showed an aide pulling a piece of metal from a bullet proof vest Watson happened to be wearing.
Watson claimed it was an assassination attempt by the Japanese whalers. The Japanese denied taking a shot at Watson. Watson was not knocked down by the alleged shot. Already a subscriber? Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations. Your subscription to The Christian Science Monitor has expired.
During Operation Nemesis , the Sea Shepherd ships did get close and our helicopter even managed to get evidence of their illegal whaling operations but we could not physically close the gap. We cannot compete with their military grade technology. We need to cultivate the resources, the tactics and the ability to significantly shut down the illegal whaling operations of the Japanese whaling fleet. Sea Shepherd has been down in the Southern Ocean doing what the Australian government has the responsibility to do but have refused to do, and that is upholding international and Australian conservation law.
The Japanese whalers have been exposed, humiliated and most importantly have been denied thousands of lives that we have spared from their deadly harpoons. Thousands of whales are now swimming and reproducing, that would now be dead if not for our interventions. That severed the connection between Sea Shepherd and Animal Planet while the activists were trying to stop whaling. As part of the licensing agreement, Sea Shepherd was under no obligation to film anything, and Animal Planet could use whatever footage was delivered in any way they wanted.
But buying footage from the organization presented its own challenges. Shannon Mann, a Sea Shepherd crew member and former star of Whale Wars ended up with the task of overseeing filming. While she got advice from former freelance crew members who'd worked on the show, Mann ended up using her experience on the other side of the camera, having been interviewed and filmed for four seasons of the Animal Planet series.
While she considers herself an executive producer, she'll be credited by Animal Planet as a supervising field producer. She has been Whale Wars' executive producer since season one, but this season, did not start work until post-production began this fall—well after the show's typical June debut—because neither Animal Planet nor Lizard were involved in filming, and the remainder of the footage wasn't delivered until late summer.
Bronstein previously told me that the footage Sea Shepherd shot was "really great," though there were "technical issues," including the need to spend 5, hours of post production converting footage that was shot on five different formats. With a limited budget, Mann says she was unable to have uniform equipment. With so much material, Bronstein could have gone in a number of directions with the special.
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