Globe and Mail

The boarding and seizure of the environmental vessel the Farley Mowat
and the arrest of her captain and first officer is not only a grossly
disproportionate response to the efforts of opponents to document the
seal hunt, but it is itself an overtly political act.
At a news conference about the seizure, Fisheries Minister Loyola
Hearn condemned the protesters as "a bunch of money-sucking
manipulators." He mocked Paul Watson, the head of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society, for "quarterbacking from his nice, posh hotel
room in New York somewhere." Earlier, he labelled Mr.
Watson "gutless." This was clearly no routine enforcement of marine
mammal regulations under the Fisheries Act.
Mr. Watson said the seizure of his organization's vessel by an RCMP
tactical squad operating from two Canadian Coast Guard vessels was in
response to graphic footage the crew of the Farley Mowat had obtained
of seals being slaughtered. He said the images would harm Canada's
reputation as the European Union considers a ban of seal products.
That's one way to look at it. Another is that it is an easy way for a
federal government to impress Newfoundlanders and improve its
popularity in Atlantic Canada following its battles with Premier
Danny Williams. It is also a way for the Coast Guard, which falls
under Mr. Hearn's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to redeem
itself with the sealing and fishing community following the tragic
sinking of the fishing vessel Acadien II while under tow by a Coast
Guard ice breaker.
Four sealers from Quebec were killed in the icy waters when their
vessel overturned in that notorious incident two weeks ago. Accounts
of the tragedy allege bungling by the Coast Guard crew, followed by
callousness in the official response to the tragedy and search for
survivors. Mr. Hearn's department was forced to attempt damage
control and the minister fell back on his own roots "coming from a
small fishing community" to try to calm the anger.
While allegations that the Farley Mowat came dangerously close to a
sealer deserve to be taken seriously, some eyewitness accounts
suggest the Coast Guard icebreaker Sir William Alexander posed a far
greater threat to the well being of sealers.
Mr. Hearn is correct that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is
known around the world for causing "all sorts of troubles." Mr.
Watson is a renegade in the environmental movement whose
confrontational tactics - for which he was expelled from Greenpeace -
have won him some friends, many enemies, and a great deal of
publicity. His extremism was evident in his comment that the killing
of seals is "a greater tragedy" than the deaths of the four Quebec
sealers. The Farley Mowat has bravely confronted Japanese whalers
operating in Antarctic waters, defending endangered species that
Japan to its shame still hunts, but Mr. Watson's actions to stop the
seal hunt are not justified on conservation grounds. Instead, they
focus on a gruesome and marginal hunt targeting plentiful seal
populations only to pander to public revulsion, mainly in Europe,
over cuddly little seals being bludgeoned. No doubt this aids the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society's fund-raising efforts.
Rather than marginalizing Mr. Watson, however, the government has
played directly into his hands. Thanks to Mr. Hearn's political
machinations, Mr. Watson just got more free publicity than he likely
ever dreamed of.