A Day in the Life of Sea Shepherd Volunteer Captain Cornelissen

An Eco exclusive  - 8th April 2008

When it comes to strategy, Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn needs to learn a thing or two. Perhaps he should be consulting with the Minister of External Affairs to get briefed on diplomacy. He has decided to charge the Captain and 1st Officer of the Farley Mowat with the horrible "crime" of approaching to close to a seal slaughter without permission of the Minister.

The problem for Hearn is that the Farley Mowat is a Dutch registered yacht not engaged in economic activity navigating with the right of free passage as allowed by International Maritime law in waters beyond 12 miles of Canada. The Captain is Dutch. The First Officer is Swedish. Other crewmembers are British, French, South African, and American. And this is happening just as the European Parliament is considering a ban on all seal products, a move that will surely cripple Canada’s nefarious sealing industry.

The government has delegations of lobbyists in Europe trying to convince the Europeans that the Canadian slaughter of seals is humane. The crew of the Farley Mowat have already released video images of a seal being skinned alive and other cruelties that have demonstrated that the slaughter is far from humane.

If the Canadian government forcefully boards a Dutch registered ship in international waters that will not be looked on very kindly in Europe.

If they actually arrest two Europeans for the "crime" of documenting a seal being skinned alive, that will not play very well in Amsterdam, Stockholm or London or Paris.

What better way is there to bring the reality of the seal slaughter before the European Parliament then to have the government of Canada bully their way onto a European ship to arrest Europeans for being compassionate over the seals?

Of course Hearn has already demonstrated his lack of diplomatic experience when he scolded the Europeans for not being grateful for the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian soldiers in the Second World War.

Farley Mowat, the international chair of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society took exception to that statement.

"I was there in Europe as part of that army of liberation. Hearn was not. How dare he use us to justify this slaughter? Millions of Canadians oppose this seal hunt and as one of those men who fought to liberate Europe, I applaud the European Parliament for their concern for this disgraceful massacre of seals."

If Captain Alex Cornelissen or 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt are arrested and brought to jail in Canada for documenting the seal slaughter, they will be seen as political prisoners in Europe. There will be protests before Canadian embassies and Consulates. European Parliamentarians will receive petitions and letters and this will serve to elevate this issue even further in the minds of all Europeans.

The Farley Mowat is presently navigating in international waters with the intent to document atrocities by Canadian sealers.

Loyola Hearn has vowed to stop them and has threatened to board the Farley Mowat and arrest the crew. Does the Canadian Coast Guard have the training and the experience to conduct a dangerous boarding at sea? What will be the European reaction to this assault and especially if any of the Farley Mowat’s crew are hurt or worse? 

"I cannot allow the Coast Guard to place my ship under tow," said Captain Cornelissen. "They have demonstrated that they can not competently tow a ship and have admitted they don’t have any guidelines for towing a ship through the ice. I have no intention of putting my crew in the same dangerous situation that the unfortunate sealers from the Magdalen Islands were placed in. If they cannot protect their own they certainly can’t be depended upon to protect our lives." 

Sea Shepherd (UK)

Spend £20 Billion!

How would you spend £20 billion?

That is the amount, (possibly much more) that the Government plans to spend on a replacement for the United Kingdom's Trident nuclear deterrent.

But wait a minute. Wasn't the rationale for the deterrent the threat from the USSR? Which no longer exists.

Isn't it just slightly obscene to be even thinking about spending such a staggering amount on weapons which we are never going to use, when there are millions of people starving in the developing world, and hundreds of thousands of people in the mountains of Pakistan without proper shelter. While in the UK there are long hospital waiting lists, families in overcrowded housing, schools with leaking roofs, people working for less than half the minimum wage.

Have we learnt nothing about the futility of war, and the immorality of a defence policy based on threatening nuclear attack on civilian populations?

So how would you spend £20 Billion? You have probably heard of Fantasy Football. Well, indulge for a while in Fantasy Government. Pick your winning team of measures and investment you would spend the money on, and email your ideas to Eco, so we can share them with other readers. And maybe get the Government to think twice about what a difference that kind of money could make if spent more wisely. 

Email your ideas to : webmaster@ecozine.co.uk

Ideas f rom Class 3 of a London School-

Dear Eco,
We think you should spend £20 billion by buying recycling bins.
Niamh & Sarah

DEAR Eco,we think you could spend £20 billion by stop cutting trees down.From Alicia and Samantha

Dear Eco,
WE THINK you can spend 20 BILLON
  BY MAKING A RECYCLE FACTORY.  FROM LEAH , JERENE.

Dear Eco,
We think you could spend £20 billion by making more recycling bins.
From Mabel and Janine.

Dear Eco,
We think that you should safe air pollution because it is made of diffrent gasses and recycle more.        from fin and malini 

 Dear Eco, We think you could send £20 billion by not cutting  the trees

To Eco,
I thing that it is destroying
the environment. From james and patrick

Dear Eco
We think you could spend £20 billion by cuting down less trees.
From Gemma and James

Dear Eco
we think you could spend £20 billion by making a factary of rubish & recycle it.

Dear Eco
you could speand £20.billon on companys that help the water drought
with electric machines.
love jess and brownyn

Dear Eco
we think you could spend £20 billon by stopping car pollution.from hannah and louis class 3

Dear Eco-

We think you should spend the £20.billion by giving money to companies
that make gases that are not as polluted as ours.You could allso spend some of the money buy making posters asking if people could walk instead of using the car.
From Angelica And Alannah