Opinion

Extensive studies say that endangered whales won’t even reach half their pre-hunting numbers by the year 2100. Devastating isn’t it? And yet they are still being hunted for the meat or for ‘research’. How is this fair? How is this legal?

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have been combating overfishing, poaching, and environmental waste since 1977 with the aim to defend, conserve, and protect the biodiversity of our oceans. There is, however, two little words that can make a difference. Direct. Action. What does this mean? Is it necessary?

Protection or Piracy?

Sea Shepherd has had two very different fronts in the media. Either being depicted as aggressive villains or as environmental heroes who save whales and dolphins from becoming canned food. Paul Watson, the man behind this organisation, embodies the thought that any media attention is good as it shines a light on the issue at hand. Keep in mind he was asked to leave Greenpeace as he wasn’t passive enough in his approach, so this was his brain child. An organisation that would take action. This action taking includes tactics such as hunting down whaling ships, ramming them, tearing holes in their hulls, fouling their propellers with rope, not allowing them to refuel from a tanker ship so they have to head back to shore, cutting drift nets, throwing gallons of butyric acid (rancid butter) onto their decks so that the whale meat is no longer fit for sale, intimidating crew, boarding ships, the list goes on.

These methods have seen Sea Shepherd’s crew castigated, especially by the Japanese government, as terrorists, pirates, criminals, and have threatened many times with legal action that would shoot their protests dead in the water. In 2013 a number of these tactics were found to be acts of piracy by the United States Federal Court in the institute of Cretacean Research v Sea Shepherd. Other fleets shadowed by Sea Shepherd state they have been attacked on a number of accounts, one man even claimed to have a fish hook sunk into his arm by their crew. However, Sea Shepherd state they only intend to damage ships, supplies, and hauls as economic loss means fleets can’t continue their operations. Sea Shepherd state that violence towards crew is only ever in self-defence. So are these protest methods counterproductive? Is there reason to this force?

From a small Sydney based group of people who left Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd is now a global entity with multiple ships carrying out campaigns across the world, a multi-million-dollar budget, and hundreds of volunteer crew from around the world. Sea Shepherd have also been known to work with countries in the pursuit of justice. With the help of Sea Shepherd, Australia took Japan to the international court of justice over its illegal Southern Ocean whaling program in 2014. Japan claimed the whales were being used for scientific research, the court reject this argument on the account of the alarming numbers of whales pulled up onto the fleet’s decks. The evidence? It was recorded by the Sea Shepherd’s fleet. But still the Australian government investigates and searches their boats when they arrive back in Sydney harbour, they have been trying to apply for charity status for ten years but refused, and crew members from overseas often have problems getting visas due to their reason for being in the country. Is the hostility towards them necessary?

This year Sea Shepherd have already made massive headway. The world’s largest breeding ground and nursery for Southern Right, Blue, Sperm, and Humpback Whales is located in the waters of the Great Australian Bight. This February Norwegian oil company Equinor abandoned its plans to conduct deep sea drilling after mass support for Sea Shepherd’s Operation Jeedara. For the second year in a row, Iceland have said no whales will be hunted in 2020. They are one of three countries that still carry out commercial whaling. This summer was the first year that the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary was just that: a sanctuary, when Japan finally announced its whaling program in the Antarctic was over due to the economic damage inflicted on their fleet due to Sea Shepherd’s intercepts. A good out come right?

Sink or Swim?

I for one would not call myself a hippie at all. Despite my claims to not be, I do use a Bali bag, have extensive gemstone knowledge, and frequently shop at Tree of Life. Just to dig myself further into a hole, I attend the yearly Whale Dreamers Festival at Norah Head. Yes. A Whale. Dreamers. Festival. What is it? Well, it is held in July, around the time that Humpbacks and Southern Right whales head north. People stand at the light house and watch all day for a sighting of the whales. There are climate groups, marine diversity groups, coast watch, and more importantly – or at least closer to the subject – Sea Shepherd. This was my first encounter with Sea Shepherd, and they seemed as normal as anyone. With this in mind I went out on one of their Zodiacs with some of their crew. We killed the engine and sat just out past the white caps. It was still. Then two tail flukes appeared. A Humpback and her calf. It was a beautiful display of breaching, spouting, spy hopping, and fluking. In those moments of wonder a thought crossed my mind: how far would I go so ensure these whales stayed protected? I have an answer. Do you?

Inspired by this quote by Anton Checkov 'Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.'

Currently on my bookshelf, I have the books: War and Peace, Infinite Jest, Les Miserables, The Odyssey and Sapiens. Have I read any of these books you may ask? No. No I have not, but that is not what matters here, what matters is that they sit pompously on my bookshelf, allowing others to think that I am someone that will read The Peoples History of the United States in my free time, when in fact, I have just finished watching the 7^th season of the Bachelor. By having these books on my bookshelf, I do not see it as lying, but simply performing.

Ah, the art of performing. Making something look different to its inherent reality. I want people to think that I am very clever because it may appear that I read profound books. You see, performing and performance is not exclusive to actors, singers, dancers, rather it is something everyone does, I believe that performing is a deep part of humanity. I don’t speak the way that I write, I want you as a reader to view me in a certain way, so I write in this way to influence the image you build in your mind of what kind of person I am. I perform. When you perform, you present something to an audience. As humans, we are constantly interacting with others, we are very rarely absent of an audience. The world is your stage, as they say, and we are all very talented actors.

In this day and age of technology and social media it is becoming harder and harder to escape the constant state of performing. It’s quite literally in the name, a ‘social media platform’, platform. It is very likely that you perceive yourself in a different way to how others perceive you, based on their judgements on what they see on social media. You are able to build and almost fabricate this image, a performance of what you would like to be, make yourself seem prettier, more interesting, more intelligent and funnier. You don’t tell people “The moon is shining” you show people a new, more exciting you, you show them “the glint of light on broken glass”. You know yourself in a different way to anyone else, because it is when you have no audience, that you are stripped back to the core of your own identity.

So, does this mean that we are all fake and shallow? I don’t think so. I don’t even necessarily think that us performing all the time is a bad thing. I think it’s human nature. It shows how adaptable we are to different settings and people, slightly changing the way we present ourselves to make a different impression. And does it matter, that we all perform? Perhaps we perform to account for deep insecurities, or purely just to be seen in a certain light that makes us feel better, whatever it is, it probably doesn’t matter. I mean, don’t we all want to make the moon look a little more interesting?

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10 THINGS THAT REQUIRE ZERO TALENT

1. Being on time

2. Work ethic

3. Effort

4. Energy

5. Body language

6. Passion

7. Doing extra

8. Being prepared

9. Being coachable

10. Attitude.

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They don’t RESPECT you at the bottom.

They IGNORE you when you get to the top.

Then, they HATE you when you get to the top.

You’ll never have everyone’s approval, so it's best to focus on YOUR OWN.

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‘HOW TO TRAIN YOUR BRAIN’

• Read everyday

• Get out of your comfort zone

• Write down ideas

• Exercise

• Keep a journal

• Meditate

4

A shark in a fish tank will grow 8 inches, but in the ocean it will grow to 8 feet or more. The shark will never outgrow its environment and the same is true about YOU. Many times we’re around small thinking people so we don’t grow. Change your environment and watch your growth.

5

We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.

6

‘Better Yourself Everyday’

• Music or Podcast

• Fast Food or Healthy food

• Comedy or Books

• Spend money or Invest money

7

An apology without change is just manipulation.

Read that again.

8

F-E-A-R HAS TWO MEANINGS:

Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise.

The choice is yours.

9

You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.

10

Wearing unbranded and cheap clothes doesn’t mean you’re poor. Remember: you have a family to feed. Not a community to impress. - Emma Watson

11

Nobody wants to tell you why discipline is so important,

Discipline is the strongest form of self-love,

It is ignoring current pleasures for bigger rewards to come, it’s loving yourself enough to give yourself everything you’ve ever wanted.

12

Difficult doesn’t mean impossible.

It simply means that you have to work harder.

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People may hate you for being different and not living by society’s standards, but deep down, they wish they had the courage to do the same. - Kevin Hart

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You can go to the gym, drink your water, and take your vitamins, but if you don’t deal with the stuff going on in your heart and head, you’re still going to be unhealthy. - Jaymie Moran