#FreePaulWatson & Vote for the Planet

Skaana Ocean News Round-up July, 2024

Jul 30, 2024

Mark Leiren-Young With Captain Paul Watson and his son Tiger (before he became a chess shark). In Friday Harbor, Washington for the Friday Harbor Film Festival - 2018. Photo - Rayne Benu.

The biggest news in whale world in July was the arrest of Captain Paul Watson - founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, one of Greenpeace’s first serious %$#!-disturbers and now the leader of Neptune’s Pirates, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation and whale lovers everywhere. #FreePaulWatson

If you’d like to know more about how you can help stop him from being extradited to Japan (where he could potentially serve thirteen years in jail) here’s a link to his homepage. And another link to what you can do to help #FreePaulWatson depending on where you live.

Part of the campaign includes writing letters to the government of Denmark demanding that they release him and refuse to extradite him to Japan.

Here’s my letter.

Feel free to use any/all of it as your own.

Attention Ministry of Justice,

I am writing to express my concern about the arrest of Canadian/American citizen, Captain Paul Watson, by your police in Greenland and to urge you to release him immediately.

Your police said they were acting on a "red notice" issued by Japan for Captain Watson's arrest. Based on who is normally placed on red notices, the notice for Paul Watson appears to be an illegitimate abuse of international law by the Japanese government.

According to interpol, red notices are only issued for “serious ordinary crimes such as murder, rape and fraud.”

Has anyone else on the planet merited a red notice for acts of vandalism?

Captain Watson is not being detained for his “criminal” acts. He’s being targeted for political reasons.

According to interpol’s official website red notices, "may not be published for… offenses that raise controversial issues in some countries relating to behavioural or cultural norms.”

Since whaling is no longer considered acceptable behaviour by any country that doesn’t claim it as part of their cultural heritage, wouldn’t Captain Watson’s actions qualify?

Europe has banned whaling and Denmark is part of the EU. So why are you arresting one of the only people on the planet who is protecting whales - who, in some countries, have been granted personhood status?

Extraditing Paul Watson to Japan would make your country fully complicit in Japan’s commitment to the brutal practice of slaughtering whales for profit.

Sincerely, Mark Leiren-Young

Saanich, BC (Territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples)

Canada

Here’s the contact info:

Ministry of Justice in Copenhagen

Phone: +45 7226 8400

Email: jm@jm.dk

And here’s the official statement from Jane Goodall and many of her supporters demanding the release of Captain Paul Watson.

If you’d like to know more about what he’s currently up to and why, here’s an interview I did with him for Skaana not long before he went back out on the water.

And here’s a poem: Written From Prison by Captain Paul Watson

Haiku from Nuuk

In the Pacific

The whales weep.

We cannot reach them,

Sadness prevails.

The sea is salty,

With the tears of a million whales,

Slain for our greed.

The Ocean is life,

We are death.

We must become life,

Or we will die.

Embarrassed whalers want their revenge

They want me to die,

For their sins. pw

To contact Paul in prison, please send all letters to:

Anstalten Prison

Nuuk Greenland

DK-3900

America and the Future of the Oceans

So if you’re American and able to vote… Let’s talk climate for a moment where your vote - or refusal to vote - has the potential to be apocalyptic for life on the planet.

Your Democrats are nowhere near perfect on climate or environmental issues (he writes, seriously understating the obvious). But the official climate policy of the Trumpster fire and Project 2025 is apocalyptic with a promise to end any and all meaningful environmental protections and hand the keys to your country to the oil companies. Also… this… Donald Trump secures his legacy as the worst ocean president in American history.

Meanwhile, Trump confirmed in a speech that if you vote this election… “You won’t have to do it anymore… It’ll be fixed; it’ll be fine; you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” This isn’t a “progressive” pundit making melodramatic pronouncements; this is the candidate doing what’s known as saying the quiet part out loud.

And speaking of sharing the quiet part out loud, here’s a climate analysis of the Republican game plan from Scientific American speaking out for the survival of American science. What to Know about Project 2025’s Dangers to Science - Scientific American Project 2025 would jeopardize federal scientists’ independence and undermine their influence.

Meanwhile, the scoop on Harris… From Grist: What would a Harris presidency mean for the climate? And the New York Times: Can Kamala Harris Finish Biden’s Climate Agenda?

Since whales, sharks, seals, octopus, krill and coral can’t vote to save their habitat, it’s all up to you… Vote for the planet.

USA Voter Information: https://www.usa.gov/voting

If you’d like to know a bit about the policies worrying us — and Tahlequah…

About supporting Skaana… I’ve often been asked why Skaana hasn’t applied to become a charitable non-profit society - despite the fact that we definitely are not making any profit and it can be a scramble to afford to keep doing this… Today’s post is pretty much the answer.

Charitable non-profits in Canada aren’t supposed to take political stances. And I’m convinced that in the world we live in that not taking a political stance IS a political stance.

You don’t speak out?

You don’t vote?

You don’t support causes with your time or money?

I’ve heard all the rationalizations - and they are adorable - but the bottom line is that your actions or inactions = you’re just fine with the status quo or whatever shakes it up.

Arrest footage of Captain Paul Watson provided by The Captain Paul Watson Foundation. July 21, 2024.

And now… Octopuses…

On sale for advance orders now… My next book Octopus: Ocean - Geniuses of the Deep... Here’s an amazing endorsement from Craig Foster - star and producer of My Octopus Teacher & co-founder of the epic Sea Change Project.

"Mark Leiren-Young's book gives young readers a wonderful sense of many aspects of the world of octopuses in a very clear, concise and interesting way. It makes the reader think and educate without preaching. This book is a door to the magnificent world of the octopus, a door that if opened and explored will bring much joy and connection." - Craig Foster

The book arrives in the world next year - but it’s available to order now…

Skaana released a great episode in July covering the epic world of octopuses

The Beyonce of Octopuses and The OctoKing on Why Octopuses Needed a Publicist

Sy Montgomery (author: Soul of an Octopus) and Warren Carlyle (founder of OctoNation) on friendly octopuses, the Mayor of Octopus City, and their top octopus secrets from their new book Secrets of the Octopus that accompanies the National Geographic TV series. Second of a two-part interview about the wild world of octopuses! “We’re in the age of octopus,” Sy Montgomery.