Unfinished Business in #Taiji

Martin Luther King said, "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends." 

It's been a while since I last blogged, more than 8 months in fact despite closing my last musing with this paragraph:

"I thought that I was fully prepared for the experience of actually being a Cove Guardian but I now know that nothing prepares you for Taiji, there is always going to be a surprise around the corner. One pleasant surprise has been the warmth and pleasantness of the Japanese people we have encountered and I have no doubt that as more and more Japanese nationals become aware of what is going on in this village of hell that we are approaching the start of a credible solution for this solvable problem. I will explore that much more fully in a day or two when I am in a calm place and able to focus on the positive. For now, please accept that there is a lot of positive and it does give great hope for the future."

Let me tell you that I thought I was fully prepared to continue blogging in "a day or two" but I just couldn't bring myself to push the "publish" button. Too many of my friends were still silent and it upset me too much to realise that.  I also found myself increasingly unable to calm down as I realised more and more that the only people who really understood the true horrors of Taiji were either still in Taiji or were other returned Cove Guardians and Cove Monitors all of whom were resident outside Scotland.  To date only two of us have traveled to Taiji from Scotland and we don't need to talk to each other about what is still happening there, we just need to look at each other to know. It is a dreadful place. It leaves permanent mental scars.

But it doesn't need to be a dreadful place. It could be a beautiful place sharing moderate wealth from eco-tourism amongst all three and a half thousand residents rather than its present status as a capture/kill machine concentrating extreme wealth in the hands of a greedy, murderous few. Meanwhile the remainder live on in that village in relative poverty and their children leave for University in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan, never to return. Why would they?

But I am returning. Very soon.

I do still have far too many friends who choose to be ignorant about what is going on. Far too many friends who can discuss the best way to play Candy Crush or buy stuff from each other for an imaginary farm in cyberspace but haven't got a clue what is really going on in the physical world. Far too many friends who are so consumed with their own importance that they think it worth sharing their latest achievements in [insert latest facebook game name here]. Far too few who are prepared to make any sacrifices at all to change the entrenched mindset in Taiji.

I do still know far too few who are willing to give up even the cost of a pint of lager to support those who might be willing to make personal sacrifice of their own.  To support those who are willing to accept divorce or redundancy or bankruptcy or to do whatever else it takes to stop the killings, stop the live thefts, stop the blatant barbarism and to drive and support whatever effort it takes to replace the captures and killings with something better.

To those who are and always have been supportive, I thank you. You are making a difference. the mindset is changing. Slowly for sure but it is changing and that change is gathering momentum.

There are now Japanese nationals campaigning in Taiji - a fabulous reward for years of investigation, education and intervention from some of the most courageous individuals I have ever had the privilege to meet.

Now is the time to add your own weight to that building momentum. Now is the time to make a difference.

Please support the Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian Campaign.

For Japan.  For the dolphins.  For us all.

Thank you for reading.

101 Damnations

This is my first post as a Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian, having been in Taiji, Japan for just over 24 hours, partnering my very best friend Anna as a team from Scotland in support of this most important campaign.

It has been one of the most emotional full days of my life so far, and I do mean full!.

I had to laugh when I logged onto Facebook this evening and it asked me to review what it thought were "my" top 20 highlights of 2012. There can be little doubt after today's events that my top 20 most memorable events of 2012 will now happen during the next 2 weeks.

No one comes to Taiji under any illusion that it will be a holiday and that was particularly true for Anna and myself having had the benefit of first class briefings on what was happening and what to expect during the first day or so. We also had the benefit of excellent reporting on the Cove Guardians' Facebook Page and knew that in the few days before our arrival somewhere in the region of 200 bottlenose dolphins (the "Flipper" dolphins most prized by the captive facilities) had been hunted and driven into the Cove to await an uncertain fate.

We were told that dolphins netted into the Cove means we should expect one of 3 things: either capture and processing into a life of captivity performing tricks for the entertainment of the unaware, or, just as bad, slaughter to turn beautiful life into unwanted meat or, hope against hope, we might see them being released back into the wild from which they were stolen in the first place.

Today we experience all 3 and I am feeling completely wrung out.

Let me pause for a moment and tell you our experience of the Japanese people since arriving in Osaka and travelling South to Wakayama Prefecture - most famous for the Nachi Waterfall at Kii-Katsuura, a ten minute drive from where we are staying during our sojourn in this part of the World.

I only mention that because people seem to know all about the waterfall and lots of people have recommended that we visit it but nobody knows about Taiji and they find it hard to believe when we tell them.

Regarding the Japanese, we had been told to expect hostility from the outset. We had been told that, "[They] are cruel and callous."  We had been told that they hated foreigners. We had been told that they especially hated Sea Shepherd. None of this came from Sea Shepherd sources of course and I am not surprised because none of it was true.

Without exception we have been met with friendly smiles, pleasantries and courtesy of the sort that makes you feel so uncomfortable because you know you have never been as gracious to perfect strangers as the grace and dignity being offered to you. We have received gifts twice already as random acts of kindness from complete strangers in a land where gift giving is imbued with the greatest significance. We have seen hard-work and effort, courage and citizenship to the highest degree. We have even had our first interview with the police by torchlight on a cold and windy dockside in the small hours of the morning and that interview ended with smiles and laughter and best wishes for the day ahead.

I love Japan and I love her people. Well, almost all of Japan and almost all of her people, there is, after all, still the issue of Taiji and the Dolphin Drive Hunts. Not tradition, just a bloody, an oh so very bloody, excuse for extreme profit from extreme disregard of the difference between right and wrong. Not a Japanese trait, not an any nation trait, just a sad and all too common trait amongst evil, selfish and greedy men the World over, in this case they just happen to be in this country where I am still just a temporary visitor.

The evil men (and women) capturing and killing dolphins in Taiji have surpassed themselves in diabolical design this week, cynically attempting to win a propaganda coup with the release back into the wild of between 80 and 100 dolphins, perhaps hoping that no-one would notice the 23 bottlenose dolphins which earlier today they slaughtered for meat.

The full tally for the last week was 25 beautiful dolphins which transferred to the butcher's slab when you add the 2 which had earlier died by horrible drowning trapped in the nets of the Cove.

Most dreadful of all though has been the total of 101 bottlenose dolphins sold into captivity.

101 Damnations

Let me go straight back to the wonderful Japanese people we have met. Kind, generous, hard-working - extremely hard working - and, like kind, generous, extremely hard-working people the world over earning just about enough to cover the bills with not a lot left over.

Contrast them with the wealth that is now plainly evident to me as I have been moving around Taiji today and consider that 101 captured and sold into slavery dolphins could represent as much as $1 million per day for each of 6 days work and that will be shared amongst just 30 or so men and women.

I will be returning to the theme of captive dolphins a lot over the next few weeks because in just 1 single day here it has become crystal clear to me that the dolphinarium industry is THE problem at Taiji, not any kind of "traditional" indigenous means of putting food on the table for an otherwise starving family. That isn't and they are not.

I also need to get my head round the dolphin trainers - men and women from all over Japan and beyond who stood by watching whilst 23 dolphins were ruthlessly, bloodily and noisily slaughtered.

Dolphin trainers who then dragged their own live prizes through the blood fouled waters to start earning a return on their investment in the marine parks which paid their expenses for this mission of evil.

I can't write about that at the moment, I am still too shocked at their calculated refusal to acknowledge any sort of moral responsibility by the very act of participation in a bloodbath such as the one we were forced to witness.

Following today's events my emotions are still all over the place but I am trying so desperately hard to bottle my anger at the theft from their families and from the wild of those 101 dolphins, temper my rage at the cold-blooded and wholly unnecessary murder of 23 dolphins from that same family, suppress my fury at the pointless and avoidable deaths of 2 more members of that dolphin family in the nets which were used to hold them all in the killing Cove and instead try to ignite the spark of comfort from the remaining 80 or so dolphins who we saw swim to freedom this afternoon.

I think that is the happy thought I would like to end this blog on today.

Thank you all for reading, thank you all for your support.

Risso's No More

Today's blog is dedicated to the beautiful Risso's Dolphin (Grampus Griseus), the largest Dolphin species with the word "Dolphin" in its name.

I haven't been blogging this last week. I have wanted to. Day after day I have logged in ready to pour out my heart but day after day I have logged in and gone straight to the Cove Guardians page on facebook to see what has happened in Taiji while I have been sleeping. This week I have wanted so much to pour out my heart - this week my heart has been ripped from me.

Cove Guardian Nicole McLachlan

Nicole, who is actually on the ground in Taiji and not just viewing from afar as I am for now, has poured out her own heart in her report of the week up until 5th December here, Operation Infinite Patience: December 5, 2012 and as well as her powerful words, there are videos on that link that you should see.

As I read her report I came to this comment, "It was on December 2nd that the most horrific display of greed played out before our eyes. All of us Cove Guardians, who were present during the three days that followed, will never be the same."

I knew what the rest of the report was going to be about because I had followed it frame by horrible frame on Taiji Dolphin Defense TV. I am sorry for not blogging but no words of mine could soothe that pain, it would not have been therapeutic for me, it would not have been good reading for you.

If this is all new to you then please follow each of those 3 links in turn and make sure you know what is happening in 2012 in the World that we share. If you won't take the time to follow the links then please read my November blog, #Taiji or Head in the Sand instead.

From speaking to close friends, some who have already been in Taiji as Cove Guardians and others who have flights booked and are just about to go, as I will be doing soon, I know that we all read those notes in numb disbelief. Little could any of us have realised that it was about to get even worse.

Photo Courtesy Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians,
Slaughter of 7th December 2012

The Today in Taiji report from December 7th began,

"A pod of 15 Risso's Dolphins were hunted and slaughtered within the cove this morning.. They frantically fought against the dolphin killers' deafening boats and terrifying walls of nets- all were killed for human consumption as none were 'suitable' enough to spend their lives entertaining humans in the captive trade."

Risso's are an amazing species of dolphin and one of the largest if you exclude Pilot Whales and Orcas. They span a wide range of ocean habitats between 60° North and 55° South. In Scotland -  where I spend most of my time - we see them alone or in small family groups of up to 20 although there are reports of mega-pods of Risso's 100+ in number.

These beautiful creatures grow up to 12 feet in length and can live to at least 30 years old. As long as they stay away from Taiji.

Slaughtered Risso's Dolphins

If you have seen the film The Cove you will know that the Taiji fishermen claim that they kill every dolphin caught - but not sold into captivity - as "pest control" because they have been told by their Government that the collapse of wild fish stocks is nothing to do with man and his insatiable appetite for ever larger and ever more effective fishing programmes.

Somehow they have convinced themselves that if you kill every dolphin and whale then somehow, magically, the nets of their pelagic trawlers will be full to bursting on every haul. This "scientific wisdom" coming from a nation which has contributed so much to genuine science!

Even if that was true for some species (it isn't) then it most certainly does not apply to the Risso's which prefers a diet of squid, octopus and cuttlefish which they catch and swallow whole. Have another look at the picture at the top of this blog, those scars did not come from a mackerel encounter!

This diet already puts the Risso's in severe danger from mankind, specifically from mankind's most destructive invention: the plastic bag.

Post mortems on squid eating cetaceans such as Risso's Dolphins and Sperm Whales regularly reveal that the animal had nothing in its stomach other than plastic bags. Not a nice way to go and, although they can dive to depths of over 1 kilometre and can remain below the surface for up to 30 minutes, Risso's are believed to eat mostly at night when squid rise closer to the surface - guess where plastic bags float?

I once had a "half in fun, whole in earnest" dig aimed at me on a facebook post asking why, if whales and dolphins were such hyper-intelligent creatures, how could they not tell the difference between a squid and a plastic bag? My response was even simpler:

If we are such hyper-intelligent creatures how can we not tell the difference between right and wrong?

To all those Risso's Dolphins who lost their lives yesterday in Taiji's killing cove I am sorry my fellow man lacks the humanity that you should be entitled to take for granted. We will remember you swimming wild, swimming free, swimming far and swimming deep.

Thank you for reading.

Time is all we have...

Lose an hour in the morning, spend all day looking for it.

So goes the quote and I think we can all sympathise with it to some extent. Even the most effective time manager cannot predict the unpredictable

It's been a struggle to fit everything in today but for once I don't feel to blame. Everything that had to be done no matter what has been done and I have coped with a number of unexpected but both urgent and important issues into the bargain. If I had spent the morning writing the blog instead of concentrating on what actually pays the bills then I may have been guilty of messing up my own day but I dealt with the really important stuff first and left the more pleasant tasks for later. Or maybe that's my way of saying sorry for posting 3 hours later than normal.

It's a roosting fruit bat (vegan!)

Most of the really active Sea Shepherd volunteers who I share such a large part of my life with are incredibly busy people. They are the sort of people you always wonder how on earth they manage to fit everything in.

Some of them you wonder if they ever sleep, or if you assume that they must do sometime then you can't help wondering when?

At risk of creating the same sort of fable as Pliny the Elder managed with his ostriches (see blog #Taiji or Head in the Sand) I wonder f some of them have chiropteran blood flowing through their veins and like to surprise us all by being up and active when we are tucked up safe and warm.  Good thing for the planet to have Sea Shepherds on 24 hour watch just the same!

So how do you get more into an average day than the average person does? Simple, you never ever even contemplate having just an average day.

Of course how much you want to do is always going to be a matter of choice. I am certainly not about to suggest that there is anything right or wrong about the lifestyle choices any of us make - as long as you stick to the principle of First Do No Harm. But if you really want the extra time you need in order to make all the difference you want, here is a point to ponder:

If you genuinely set your alarm clock for the time you wanted to get up, why did you hit the snooze button when it went off? Or if you did set it accurately and you did still hit the snooze, what difference did it make?

Have a look at these numbers:

1 minute per day works out to 6 hours per year. Even if you were slow getting out of bed, someone somewhere is already doing more than you.

Stretch that to 4 minutes per day and you have lost an entire 24 hours (or 3 full working days if you are a tpical wage slave.)

Stay in bed 30 minutes longer than you needed to and you have lost an entire week. Imagine all the amazing things you could do with an extra week. And then imagine not having it when everyone else does.

I wonder where the quote, "If you snooze you lose!" came from?

Thank you for reading.

Plenty More Uses for the Sea

Yesterday the Vestas Sailrocket broke the World sail speed record averaging 59.23 knots with a highest recorded speed of 62.53 knots.

Just watch the video below and be amazed at this yacht. There is a lovely moment about half way through when a flock of pink flamingoes come into shot emphasising the "natural" against a vessel which represents the cutting edge of technological advancement but is still one of the most "natural" of vessels on the surface of the ocean by virtue of the fact that it is entirely wind-powered. And what incredible results that produced!

It isn't lost on me that this record was set in Namibia where the Government is engaged in seal killing on a massive scale. Worse even than the excesses of the Canadians or the Scots with their own seal culls, the Namibian seal cull is something altogether more horrible in scale: it is the world's largest and cruelest, anual, marine mammal slaughter of 85,000 still-nursing baby seal pups. Info from: Sea Shepherd's Operation Desert Seal

Today's blog considers which is the better use of the ocean - killing to profit a very, very few whilst damaging our common wealth of resource or pushing the limits to eventually benefit everyone with technology and the inspiration to do something new, something positive, something to be proud of not ashamed of.

Did you know it is illegal to film the seal slaughter in Namibia?

Similarly in Canada it is illegal to approach within 1,000 metres of a seal cull because the one weapon they are most afraid of is the camera and the Scottish authorities will not reveal the addresses of establishments with a licence to shoot seals because they fear the inevitable publicity as well.

You can film the nice stuff with absolute freedom though. Hey, Governments will even help publicise it through their tourist boards and I approve of that completely. What I do not approve of is the mindset that has you ashamed of bad behaviour but unwilling to take steps to change it. That is as true for entire Governments as it is for all of us as individuals.

The argument which we always hear from governments the World over whether they are killing seals or not is that they need to support the fishing industry because it provides the only source of employment in small coastal communities. I assure you, dear reader, that I am not insensitive to the needs for employment, in coastal, other rural or any other community anywhere at all but I am wary of the belief that there is only ever one way of doing things.

I do think that it is Government's job to create the conditions under which communities can thrive but I also think that it is up to us all to make sure that we take advantage of that and in my business life it is something that I am actively engaged in and like to think that I am making some kind of a difference.

The fishing boat pictured here is typical of the Scottish coastal fishing fleet with a crew of 2 and providing onshore full-time equivalent employment for maybe another 2 or 3 people. A wildlife watching tour vessel matches that. A dive support vessel matches that. A pleasure cruise vessel matches that. And whilst a private sail or power yacht may not match the direct employment, it will certainly more than match the shore-based full time equivalent support jobs.

Ocean Breeze Rib Tours

So where are the Government grants? Where are the community development initiatives? Where are the grand plans to shift employment from the desperately hard, unprofitable and increasingly unsustainable coastal fishing industry to a modern employment, still making full use of the sea but doing so in a profitable and sustainable way?

Imagine the impact of that happening worldwide with an estimated fishing fleet of almost 2.5 MILLION fishing vessels smaller than 10 metres, just like the one above. Imagine what we could achieve by investing in innovation rather than shoring up the old and failing? Imagine an entire new worldwide industry and an entire new way of viewing the ocean as a resource - profit without exploitation.

Consider finally, if you will, the size of team it must have taken to put together the Vestas Sailrocket project. How many scientists, technicians, designers, planners, builders, transporters, marketers and a dozen other specialised crafts it must have taken to get the boat from first thought to smashing the record? Consider the same for America's Cup, Volvo Ocean, Sydney-Hobart and all the other famous - and not so famous - yacht races. Consider a marina, any marina. Go and visit one near you and consider, please, there ARE plenty more uses for the sea.

Thank you for reading.

Give It All

It never ceases to amaze me that the people with the least are always the ones who give the most. Some of them give everything they have with no thought of any return other than the knowledge of having done the right thing. Or of having done something no-one else was prepared to do but which someone else, i.e. them, absolutely had to do.

Today's blog for some of us will be about giving it all but I also hope that for many it will be about giving just that little bit extra. Just that tiny little bit that will make all the difference.

The British Olympic Team trainers all talk about the "one percenters" and I remember a tale told by David Carry, the British Olympic and Scottish Commonwealth swimmer from Red Sky Management when he spoke about the way in which the Commonwealth team went from doing not terribly well on the World stage to winning everything in sight, David himself becoming a double gold medallist and setting all sorts of records on the way.

The tale concerns a visit to the British Cycling team who themselves had come from nowhere to become the most champion of World champions and needing more than just a pedal bike to carry the haul of medals home. The trainers pointed out the attention to detail and how they individually prepared every single, individual, tiny component of every bike and how the bikes could not go anywhere near the track until every single procedure was finished.

One procedure was so infinitesimally tiny that the comment was made, "..but that can hardly make any difference at all..." to which the inevitable reply was, "Yes. Hardly any." with a cheery wink.

Thereby hangs the birth of a thought; if one percent is enough to make a difference, can you imagine what would happen if you added up a whole load of one percents?

The answer as we now know was Britain's athletes emerging from the doldrums of no funding, precious little science and wing-and-a-prayer support to fantastic results inspired by Lottery funded provision of the best advice, the best motivation, the best support and an attention to detail coupled with "one percent" thinking that continues to produce the most amazing results. It also continues to inspire others. Amazing what you can produce with just one percent.

Now although the tag "one percenter" was new to me, the thinking behind it was not. Since the very early 2000s I have been living by the mantra of "the extra degree" as embodied by my very great friend and mentor, Sam Parker in his mindset changing philosophy 212° The Extra Degree. The philosophy goes like this:

At 211 degrees, water is hot.

At 212 degrees, it boils.
And with boiling water, comes steam.

And with steam, you can power a train.

Follow this link to find out more about two-twelve and see the video: 212° The Extra Degree  This simple philosophy has made a huge difference to my life and I think it is fairly likely that I will be referring to it often in future blogs.

I am sure many of you are wondering if I will make it through a blog without mentioning Sea Shepherd and the answer today is emphatically, no. That should not surprise anyone given today's subject matter because our ships are crewed by individuals who give much more than one degree, who give much more than one percent. Our ships are crewed by people who give it all.

The first time I heard that spoken out loud to a (very) large audience was at a Rise Against gig. The band returned to stage for an encore but instead of launching straight into music, Tim took the time to tell the fans all about the amazing job Paul and his captains and his crews were doing in the Southern Ocean. 

And then he dedicated this song to them. 

Sometimes one percent is not enough. Sometimes one degree extra just wont get you to boiling point. Sometimes you need to Give It All.

Thank you for reading.

Moby-Dick; The Whale

Today is the 161st anniversary of the publication of Moby-Dick; The Whale, a novel by Herman Melville which first became available on the 14th November, 1851.

The wiki description of this novel is fascinating, "In Moby-Dick, Melville employs stylized language, symbolism, and the metaphor to explore numerous complex themes. Through the journey of the main characters, the concepts of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God are all examined, as the main characters speculate upon their personal beliefs and their places in the universe. The narrator's reflections, along with his descriptions of a sailor's life aboard a whaling ship, are woven into the narrative along with Shakespearean literary devices, such as stage directions, extended soliloquies, and asides."

The review continues with, "The book portrays destructive obsession and monomania, as well as the assumption of anthropomorphism—projecting human instincts, characteristics and motivations onto animals. Moby-Dick is ruthless in attacking the sailors who attempt to hunt and kill him, but it is Ahab who invests Moby-Dick's natural instincts with malignant and evil intentions. In fact, it is not the whale but the crippled Ahab who alone possesses this characteristic."

The Wikipedia contributors to that article are most certainly well read, intelligent and articulate, literary critics and so it is no surprise to find that they do not perceive the whale as being evil, actually stating that it is Ahab "alone" who exhibits any evil intent. However, in popular culture, amongst the less well-read (or perhaps the more television brainwashed) Moby-Dick is, in fact, perceived as a terrifying sea monster.

That is hardly surprising because as a species we have always sought to demonise that which we simply do not understand and are further content to accept the truisms that everyone knows must be true, especially if that truism is, "Here be monsters!"

There is also the obvious commercial advantage in that anything which can be caused to be reviled by the general public can be slaughtered without risk to reputation as a commercial enterprise. Moby-Dick; The Whale as a reverse-marketing piece? Why not, George Orwell did the same for pigs with Animal Farm after all...

Most species of whales, as we all now know, were hunted to near extinction over the next 100 years but, sadly, whaling still has not stopped.

I won't blame Moby-Dick directly but there is something in our collective psyche that is stopping a mass public outcry against the 4 nations which are doing most to prevent the recovery of those most endangered species. That same something is stopping the protest that there should be against those 4 nations. Those same 4 nations who are still hunting those whales not yet proven to be endangered to the same levels of extinction as their cousins.

Those nations are Iceland (pictured), Norway, Denmark (specifically Faroe Islands although allegedly rather a lot of Icelandic whale meat ends up in Danish pig feed - and I thought I was being somewhat tenuous linking Animal Farm with Moby-Dick!) and, of course Japan, whose pirate whaling fleet plunders the Southern Ocean Whale SANCTUARY year after year for bogus research to fill supermarket shelves with toxic, and largely unwanted, meat. Did you know that in the whale sanctuary they kill an extremely high percentage of pregnant females because they swim slower and spend more time at the surface therefore are the easiest target of all for a military grade explosive harpoon? And people say I shouldn't call them disgusting barbarians! Societal norms for polite conversation notwithstanding, they are; therefore I do.

Only one NGO actively combats the killers at sea and that organisation is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who are now proudly embarked on Operation Zero Tolerance which you can read more about at this link: Sea Shepherd Operation Zero Tolerance

Another wonderful animal which has been been hunted to near extinction and remains under the most extreme threat is the shark. People blame Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg for demonising this animal with the novel and film, Jaws and that is certainly true in part. But they were not the first to do so.

Here are 3 newspaper reports from my part of the world, Scotland, published in 1937:

"*FATAL* - On the 1st of September, 1937, there was a triple fatality in the Kilbrannan Sound off Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula when a basking shark capsized a boat containing three people - named as Captain Angus Brown and his son and brother."

"On the 11th of September, 1937, a basking shark attacked a fishing boat, causing damage to its propeller. This incident happened off the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, very close to the Carradale attack."

"On the 12th of September, 1937, the Clyde steamer the Glen Sannox was attacked by a basking shark and two 5ft observation windows were broken. Again this happened in the same general area, just off the Isle of Arran."

Just look at the language being used: "attacked by," "causing damage to" and, my personal favourite, tales of a basking shark breaking observation windows. How? Seriously, how? And do please look at the picture, the basking shark - although a huge animal - is a true gentle-giant. I know, I have been assisting with surveys in my part of the World for a few years now and it is wonderful to see their numbers starting to stabilise, hopefully to recover in the years to come.

So why demonise them? Maybe this will answer your question, "Between 1946 and 1986 basking shark fisheries in Norway, Scotland and Ireland took 77,204 basking sharks." (EU Fisheries Report) and the last basking sharks were harpooned in the Clyde in Scotland as recently as the late 1990s.

I will certainly return to shark issues with future blogs and you can be sure I will be following Operation Zero Tolerance defending whales with great interest. If you still have the appetite for more today then please see my 31st October blog, Sharks and the Gold Standard but for now, thanks for reading.

Get Motivated, Stay Motivated

I took a phone call this morning from someone who had been talking to someone who had heard from someone who had heard from someone else about my blog and particularly liked my post Smiling for Sea Shepherd which I introduced with the wonderful sentiment that, "The Opposite of Happy is Very Happy."

David lecturing at the Global Village during
the Volvo Ocean Race, Galway, July 2012

"I'm organising a conference for [major organisation]," she said. "We need a motivational speaker from the world of business with an interesting story to tell. Would you like to do it?"

Of course I said yes. It is what I do most of when I am not volunteering for Sea Shepherd and, let's face it, where else are they going to find a vegan, ocean activist business executive with experience of talking to large audiences in this part of the world at short notice?

I don't always speak exclusively from a mostly business angle of course, sometimes I get to speak a bit for Sea Shepherd - but only when there is not an even more motivational speaker like Captain Paul Watson or Captain Peter Hammarstedt around, both of whom make me look like not much more than the warm up act for the warm up act.

They are truly awe inspiring to listen to and I am proud to number myself amongst their followers as someone dedicated to ocean preservation. Dedicated, I should add, mostly because of their incredibly powerful motivational influence. But don't take my word for it, judge for yourself with this full-length video of Capt Paul speaking at Sea Shepherd's 35th Anniversary Event in Colorado:

From my own experience having delivered many lectures with some great and some not-so great results and having listened to other lectures - like those from Paul and Peter - which have produced amazing results, one thing seems clear. It is possible to be either a "motivational speaker" or to be someone who just speaks motivationally. The difference is measured in results - which lecture inspired the greatest commitment to action?

So what is it that makes the difference? Well it is not enough to get people motivated, we need them to stay motivated. I can do the latter for business because that is where my experience lies. Paul and Peter do it for the oceans because that is where their experience lies.

You can "get" anyone motivated by being genuine, honest and enthusiastic about something they are kind of interested in to begin with, talking from the head with passion if you will. You can only keep them motivated if you are able to demonstrate that you have been there and are determined to stay there, talking from the heart and talking from the heart with knowledge, experience and understanding.

If you haven't watched the video above yet, please do, I think it demonstrates that viewpoint admirably.

So we motivate people with compelling recollections of big life experience. Is that a defining characteristic of humans, the need to share knowledge? Perhaps, more than just humans, that is what defines the higher order species on our planet as this link to a BBC Science and Nature report suggests Humpback whale song spreads to other whales

If that is true then, "I think, therefore I am." is no longer sufficient. Existence without purpose is an evolutionary dead end and who wants to be one of those? And I never heard a song without purpose, that would just be called noise and who wants to be accused of that?

Is it too much to extrapolate the theory that both whale song and motivational speech is an example of, "I think, therefore I must do?" I hope not, because it is where I find myself as I campaign more and more on behalf of Sea Shepherd, on behalf of the oceans, on behalf of us all.

If you feel even just a bit more motivated to do something because of today's blog then please...

...be motivated for the oceans. They need you.

Thank you for reading

Swim Wild, Swim Free Part 2

I promised everyone in the Taiji Action Group on facebook a video of dolphins bow riding so please read on and you will find it at the end of today's blog.

Gilli from England, Chris from Wales and David from Scotland
under the watchful eye of youngest ship's crew member, Chloe

Last summer we sailed to Galway, Ireland with a 3 nations crew from Scotland, Wales and England to support our great friends and colleagues at Sea Shepherd Ireland during the finish of the Volvo Ocean Race. It was a long, hard sail: 73 hours in mostly challenging conditions but we had the crew and the boat to get us there and had been building the sea miles in advance to prepare the crew for the journey.

I am particularly proud that 2 members of that crew - Chris and Gilli in the picture right are now crewing onboard the MV Steve Irwin defending whales from the hunter-killer boats of Japan's pirate whaling fleet. If you read my blog a few days ago about Passion, you better believe they have it and they are using it.

I am even more proud that 2 other members of that crew will very soon be in Taiji, Japan as Cove Guardians. One of those crew members is Anna and I would love you to visit her campaign page as she is still hoping to raise enough funds to be self-funding for the trip, link to page: Anna's Taiji Campaign Page

Gilli with the crew of VOR Race Boat Groupama

As well as support for Sea Shepherd Ireland we were there to spread the message that there are far, far better things to do with the ocean than kill everything that either swims in it or is dependent on it for survival, sailing being an obvious example, and I will return to that in a future blog.

During our stay, as well as meeting most of the crews from the race fleet, we were hosted at a gala dinner by JCI Galway and had many meetings with politicians and dignitaries from all over the world including Ambassadors from countries known to be friendly to Sea Shepherd. But what really impressed us all the most was the fabulous welcome which we received from the people of Galway who treated us like visiting royalty. It was a pleasure meeting everyone who stopped by to say hello or who stopped us in the street to say hi and I know that all of the crew very much look forward to a return visit.

The real highlight of the trip didn't happen on land though, it happened at sea off the Connemara coast when these common dolphins came to visit. It is just a short video, enough to show you how these wonderful animals choose to interact with their land-based cousins, but not so much that we interfered with the obvious pleasure they were taking in playing with us.

Something worth thinking about:

That video lasted only 40 seconds during which time the dolphins swam a greater distance than they could have swum in even the world's largest dolphinarium. In the wild they swim for miles and miles and miles in a straight line and range over thousands of square miles. These are not animals which should be held in captivity. Not ever.

Thank you for reading.

The Emperor's New Clothes

Today's blog is all about seals. Scotland's seals. Did you know that since 2011 the Scottish Government has been issuing licences to hunters to kill them in their thousands?

Although I have only been involved since early 2011, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) has a long history of campaigning to protect seals in Scotland dating back to the early 1980s when our volunteers took direct action against the then Scottish Office instructed cull in the Orkneys, risking their lives by lying down amongst the seals which otherwise would have been shot without hesitation.

Capt Watson and crew visit Little Green Holm Summer 2011

The very happy end result of that campaign was the cull being stopped and to ensure that it could not be restarted wherever SSCS had control over matters, SSCS Islands Trust purchased the Island of Little Green Holm which exists to this day as a Seal Sanctuary.

A wide range of stakeholders, including SSCS, then continued to campaign against the illegal killing of seals which sadly commenced almost as soon as the state-sponsored culls had ended.  Nobody can state with 100% confidence how many seals are being killed illegally every year but the Scottish Government told us that they put the figure at 1,000 and were aggressively dismissive of any other figure, higher or lower. I was at that meeting, the figure of 1,000 was actually shouted in my face by a senior policy officer from Marine Scotland. He would admit no deviation from that number and if that's the number he wants to use who am I to argue with a Government official?

On 31st January 2011 the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 became effective in law. The Scottish Government announced it with huge fanfare claiming that, amongst other things, it would provide increased protection for Scotland's Seals. Subsequent press releases have continued to be phrased in the most self-congratulatory style. How wonderful our Government is. We should all be very proud. If only.

Remember the figure which they insisted we use for illegal killings was 1,000. To protect those 1,000 seals from harm Marine Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government issued licences immediately to cull 1,298 seals which increased to 1,339 seals by year end. Talk about treating the electorate with contempt!

The following year they issued licences for another 1,167.

So to reduce the illegal killing of 1,000 seals we issue liences two years running to "legally" kill an even larger number. Hey presto, no more illegal killings, none, zip, nada, nil, how fantastic; the Scottish Government has eliminated crime. All it took was making this particular crime legal. All it took was criminals making sure they had a bit of paper allowing them to do what they were always going to be doing anyway and finding a Government Department willing to collude with them whilst they did so. I wonder what else that would work with?

Something else that was launched in January 2011 was the wonderful Visit Scotland advertising campaign, Surprise Yourself. I still love this video:

High point of the video is Mike Smith, the chef from Shirley Spear's wonderful Three Chimneys Restaurant on Skye, pointing out the seals to his diners. And so he should. The United nations identifies Scotland's seals as a flagship species invaluable to our country's tourist economy.

I still cannot for the life of me fathom why the Scottish Government should be allowing our essential tourist economy to be replaced with (mostly) Norwegian owned fish farms and (at least partly) non-Scottish owned hunting/shooting/fishing estates. All of these industrial and private commercial interests benefit only a tiny minority of already very wealthy people whilst destroying a(nother) generation of young rural Scots by putting tourism at risk allowing those non-tourism businesses to kill as many seals as they can get licences for.

Killing seals just for the crime of being seals. Please be under no illusion, our very fragile rural economy is at real risk, extreme risk and the very few that benefit from the decision to do this can not easily be shown to genuinely benefit any other part of our national wealth. Economically it is insane. Morally it is repugnant.

A very good friend with close connections to the Government described me (in the nicest possible way) as a "troublemaker" whilst very kindly promoting Musings on a Troubled Planet for me.

Yes I am. I'm exactly the sort of troublemaker as the little boy in the Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Emperor's New Clothes. This is the short story about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, or stupid, or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a little boy cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"

Did you spot the two Emperor's new Clothes observations in today's blog?

Emperor's New Clothes #1

Licences to turn 1,000 illegal killings per year into 1,000+ legal killings. The little boy shouts out to the crowd, "The Emperor's Immoral!" At best the Emperor is an accessory to crime.

Emperor's New Clothes #2

Salmon farms and exclusive hunting/shooting/fishing estates to replace essential tourism. the little boy shouts out, "The emperor is an economic illiterate!" At best the Emperor thinks he can ignore the moral majority because the money men can afford better lobbyists.

New clothes for the Emperor

We need the good politicians that still remain to fix this before Scotland faces her new future either as a fully independent nation or as a much more autonomous constituent country of the UK, 2014 will not retain the status quo no matter what way the vote goes. Either way, post 2014 the World's eyes will be on us to see what sort of clothes we are wearing.

If you would like to know more about the campaign to save Scotland's seals from being killed please visit www.SealScotland.com

Thank you for reading.

Passion is Everything

Today's blog was inspired by this most powerful of videos from Captain Paul Watson

He isn't kidding. As I watched the video I found myself reflecting on what had got me into the organisation. It wasn't slick presentations, it wasn't clever marketing materials (and I cannot begin to tell you how angry I get when I see charities spending donated funds on fancy advertising to get more funds to do more advertising to get more funds to...)  No, it was the passion and unshakeable belief of the very first Sea Shepherd volunteers we met early in 2011.

The background to this meeting was not particularly unusual, at least not for Sea Shepherd.

At the time I was the head of a long established Glasgow Trade Incorporation which every year distributes a number of cheques to deserving charities on the recommendation of our own membership.  Sea Shepherd was one of that year's recommended charities.

Of some note is the observation that the following year it became the first charity to be awarded a cheque for a second year in succession and has just surprised even me by becoming the first charity ever to receive a 3rd award.

Let me tell you that this Incorporation received its first Royal Charter from Scotland's King James V (father of Mary Queen of Scots) in 1527, that it is very definitely part of "the establishment" and that it does not give any money to any charity which does not follow charity rules - both within the letter of the law and, more importantly, the spirit of the law. It does give money to charities which accomplish miracles with next to nothing for resources and if you know any organisation which fits that bill more readily than Sea Shepherd we would all like to know about it. I will, of course, tell you lots more about this institution in a future blog so please add your email or join with friends connect on the right of this page to make sure you get notification when I do.

But back to my first encounter with the organisation which was soon to take over every spare minute of my time (and rather a lot that were never spare in the first place) What was it that got me, the then head of that charitable institution, so heavily involved with Sea Shepherd so quickly?

In a word, PASSION.

Having sent the cheque in the summer of 2010 we received a letter from Sea Shepherd UK that was clearly very different from the usual corporate thank you note we were so used to seeing from other organisations.  This was a letter from the heart telling us not only how much the funds meant but all the things they would enable the charity to do. I was impressed. So impressed that I phoned their UK telephone number and told Darren, the UK General manager for Sea Shepherd, just how impressed I was. His enthusiasm for (what was then not yet) my cause (but soon would be) rang out. When he unexpectedly invited myself and my wife to visit them in London early in the New Year after all his work for that year's campaigns was out of the way I accepted without a second thought.

Please take a look at the photo above. We were not being invited to visit some glass palace built on donated funds (and have you ever had a charity tell you up front that they would use YOUR funds to build a glass palace? Thought not.) We were not being invited to the sort of sumptuous board room which I found rather too normal on my many trips to the capital. We were being invited to meet the very heart of the organisation, its people, and they weren't too worried about comfortable surroundings, they just wanted to defend the oceans.

MV Steve Irwin, another visitor to London that year

Those young, and not so young, Sea Shepherds impressed us so much we agreed on the spot to become more involved. Knowledge is not power, knowledge is responsibility. Those amazing, passionate people gave us knowledge we could not ignore and they gave us an example of commitment to responsibility that we could not honourably ignore either.

Of particular note is the fact that three people in that photograph are now on board the MV Steve Irwin on their way to defend the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary from the pirate whaling ships of Japan's ICR (apparently the R stands for "research").

Today I am passionate about defending ocean wildlife worldwide. What are you passionate about?

Thank you for reading.

Glasgow Girls Take A Stand

I have been a corporate sponsor of Glasgow's Citizens Theatre for many years now and in turn the Citz has given me lots of support for Sea Shepherd (see video at end of today's blog).

Anybody who follows Sea Shepherd Scotland @SeaShepherdScot on twitter and saw the pics we posted last night will not be surprised at today's subject matter, we were at Glasgow Girls The Musical and it was BRILLIANT.

Brilliant with a message.

Not a touchy-feely, good always triumphs over evil, US sitcom style message. A real, gritty hard-hitting message in two-parts.  Firstly, some really shitty stuff is happening every day to people just like you and me. If only we would open our eyes and realise that the people it is happening to are just like you and me. Secondly, and most importantly, if we don't take united action against obvious wrong-doing what then? What kind of people would we become? Have we become those people already?

My very great friend Steven Purcell once replied to a Toast I had made to The City of Glasgow and he said, to what was a multi-national audience, "You don't have to have been born in Glasgow to become a Glaswegian."  That phrase came back to me last night as I watched Cora's fabulous cast recount the tale of Glaswegian children being subjected to dawn raids by the UK Borders Agency. Does that still happen was a common question heard during the interval. The sad answer is yes. Why? Because politicians would rather do what the Daily Mail tells them "the voters" want rather than do what is right. Except...

Except I'm a voter too so why is my voice not being heard? That was covered very pointedly in the musical with clever voice overs of radio talk show phone-ins. These featured all the usual one-brain-cell radio ranters telling the world how all these refugees are on the scrounge, what an easy touch we are in this country, how they "steal" all our jobs and all the other blabbity nonsense that anyone who really has opened their eyes can see is just simply not true. But it is this vociferous minority whose collective voice is being heard and if you are not sure that you have popular support it takes enormous courage to speak out against what is perceived to be "the system" because we all know that the system doesn't like troublemakers. Don't we?

This was driven home in an unmistakable way in the musical when Roza was confronted by her mum who wanted her to be just like all the other girls, keep her head down, say nothing in case it hurt her and that song had me in tears, just as it had the first time I heard Cora perform it at the Indigo Hotel in Glasgow. What could hurt more than doing nothing?

The story of the Glasgow Girls is that you must do something. In my Swim Wild, Swim Free blog of 4th Nov, I introduced the lifestyle mantra, "If it is to be, it is up to me." The Glasgow Girls know that already. Now so does everyone who has seen that production. Now I hope so do you.

This amazing production deserves to take the world by storm. It is a story from Glasgow and about what happened in Glasgow but it is relevant to so much more than Glasgow. It is a tale that we should all hope will inspire ordinary people, just like you and me, to take a stand. Here's what National Theatre of Scotland has to say on the subject:

"Inspired by the real life Glasgow Girls and the show based on their campaign, #TAKE A STAND is a new National Theatre of Scotland project, in partnership with the Citizens Theatre and the Scottish Youth Parliament, and with sponsorship from ScottishPower inviting groups of young people to take action, to inspire others and to make a positive difference to society."

Now here is one of those odd multiple synchronicity moments that seem to happen more and more as I dive deeper and deeper into this new ethical world I wish to live in:

Anna, my best friend who I invited you in an earlier blog to Help Send Anna to Taiji (please click on the link and do just that) was one of the co-founders of the Scottish Youth Parliament. Anna is clearly taking a stand. It gets better though because eighteen months ago National Theatre of Scotland invited contributions for their first Five Minute Theatre day and so Anna, myself and a few other Sea Shepherds and Sea Shepherd supporters worked with NTS and were massively assisted by The Citz to produce our own Theatre piece which demonstrated - you guessed it - a business executive Taking a Stand. And that became a self-fulfilling prophecy for us all as we now are committed to take action, to inspire others and to make a positive difference to our society. How many connections are there in there? If we can get you to be Anna's sponsor, playing the part of Scottish Power, we will have synchronicty big style.

Here is the video. It was filmed in one of the Citz rehearsal rooms and was first aired by NTS. The acting is enthusiastic amateur rather than consummate professional, the direction is missing, the lighting didn't happen and the sound... well, please just bear with us on the sound.

But the message! I hope the message is as clear as the one Cora, NTS and the Citz are delivering right now:

TAKE A STAND

Thank you for reading.

Whales, what's the difference?

Before I talk about whales, let me tell you about the two occasions in the last week where I have been at functions with zero provision for vegans, despite plenty of advance warning that a vegan would be there.  Not even soup made with vegetable stock.  Not even a starter that didn't involve some potentially toxic shellfish from the cheapest possible source of supply.

Not a single thing that I could eat, leaving me with the choice of embarrassing my hosts as I sat at table with an empty space in front of me or being "the bigger person" by faking an excuse to leave and dealing with the issue quietly in a more reflective morning mood - and slightly more subjective morning telephone call.

Sometimes those telephone calls can be awkward because, apparently, vegans are actually the ones to blame for not being "normal" like everyone else.

Don't get me wrong, these are not uncaring people I am mixing with. In fact, many of them are very strong supporters of my volunteer work with Sea Shepherd and there is not a single person among them who would actively support the killing of whales, dolphins, seals or any other species of marine megafauna. Passive support is, of course, another story which I will return to in future (watch this blog for details).

They also know my philosophy that knowledge is not power, knowledge is responsibility; responsibility to act.  If you are truly ethical, truly compassionate, truly caring, truly determined to contribute to making your part of our world a better place then if you had the knowledge I have about the oceans and how they are being abused, how could you not become vegan? Honestly, how could you not?

Let's talk about whales.  Especially those whales which are entitled to a life free from harm in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  A Sanctuary in name, a sanctuary in law, a sanctuary which is being plundered year after year after year while most of the World wrings its hands and assumes it can do nothing. (Passive support for killing?  It is if you really are doing nothing more than wringing your hands!)

My friends in Sea Shepherd are not content to sit and wait.  They take action, direct action, and they have all devoted their lives to saving our most wonderful companions on this shared planet, the whales, from harm.

Others see whales - and whale meat - only in terms of financial gain.

One of the questions I have always asked is why would those who hunt but do not share in the profits which the money-men retain want to kill such magnificent creatures in the first place? There has never been a legitimate argument in reply but there is often the, "you do it so we do it too" excuse which goes along the lines of  we - i.e. Westerners - kill pigs and sheep and hens and cows and so what is the difference?

So,,,

What is the difference?

I don't think there is one and I even more think knowledge is responsibility.

Sometimes it is important to be vegan by example, even if it means going hungry.  Maybe I should have stayed with the empty plate in front of me...