Thoughts on life by mother&wife

I get off work at 1 on Fridays, which I love because it gives me time to run errands, do chores, have lunch with friends or maybe even take a nap before I pick Aubrey up from daycare. This past Friday, however, I decided to turn the TV on while I folded some laundry. While flipping through the channels, I stopped on Animal Planet, who was having an all day marathon of their last season of “Whale Wars” to lead up to the new season’s premiere later that evening. I got sucked in and ended up DVRing the whole thing because of that whole “having a kid who wants to eat and play” thing.

 I don’t know what it is with my fascination with shows about people on ships in arctic conditions, but I am also hooked on Deadliest Catch, a show on Discovery about crab fishermen. I guess the idea that people can stay on a boat for two months at a time and not go insane fascinates me, not to mention the fact that what they are doing is very risky and, to a certain extent, solitary. At any rate, I finished up the first season of Whale Wars later that night after Aubrey had gone to bed.

 This show documents the crusade of a man named Paul Watson to stop the slaughter of minke and fin whales by the Japanese in a whale sanctuary located in the Antarctic waters between Australia and Antarctica. Paul Watson was one of the founding members of Greenpeace, a protest organization formed in the 1970s. He was voted out of the organization due to his radical tactics and unwillingness to simply protest- this was a man who wanted to actually STOP the things being protested. He calls his organization, “Sea Shepherd”, an intervention group, not a protest group. You can learn more about him and Sea Shepherd here.

 I think the thing that really made my jaw drop was how this group of people really does “intervene” on behalf of the whales. They do everything from taking inflatable Zodiac boats out to the harpoon ships and driving in front of them to try and stop them by putting a big rope into the propeller, to actually jumping onto the harpoon ships in order to create international incidents in which the Japanese and Australian government must face this issue. They are non-violent in their intervention, but do throw some sort of chemical to the other ships that is, in essence, a stink bomb and taints the whale meat on board. They say they never aim at people, they only wish to deter the hunters.

 It seems to me that there are laws in place banning commercial whaling, but no one is enforcing them. The Japanese say they are killing the whales for scientific research, and they are allowed to kill a certain number of whales every year. The Sea Shepherds, however, see every life as one worth saving and intervene on behalf of every whale they can. Until this new season, they had never seen a whale killed. Last season they saved over 500 whales.

 I am not quite sure of my opinion on this effort. On the one hand, I love what they are doing. I mean, who doesn’t love whales, am I right? I think as Christians we are to value every kind of life, from the largest creature on earth (blue whale) to the smallest (the plankton it eats). On the other hand, I believe there is a balance to living in this world while still caring for it.

I have blogged before about my efforts to “green” my life, and how I have made it work for our family. While I think taking all cars off the road would solve a ton of problems (no car accidents, no pollution, etc.), it doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t find it to be a huge inconvenience or accomplish a lot less without that mode of transportation. In this same light, I can’t fully jump on board with the whole Greenpeace movement or become a vegetarian even though I know God loves chickens. A lot of the people on the Steve Irwin (a ship in the Sea Shepherd fleet) are of the mindset that the whales are equal with humans (because they can feel pain like we can). One girl even told the camera that “when it comes to our ecosystem, whales are more important than humans”. This would prove why these people are willing to risk their lives to save these creatures. I would compare their passion to those of us who might do the same to save people, whether it be unborn children or the refugees of Darfur.

I don’t know what possible reason the Japanese have for “researching” on whale carcasses. It all seems so barbaric and these animals do not die peaceful deaths. The saddest thing is that the whales they hunt are some of the most curious, so they go right up to the boat to see what it is, only to be harpooned, thrash around, shot and dragged along the side of the boat. Surely there is a better way for the Japanese to do research. And surely by now they have killed enough to get the information they need. I find myself rooting for these renegades on the Steve Irwin, as radical as they may seem. But is what they are doing any better than the Japanese? Jumping onto someone else’s ship is, in essence, pirate activity. Sinking ships in harbor and ruining propellers is surely illegal, not to mention dangerous.

 I suppose the biggest point that Sea Shepherd makes that gets me on their side is that just because something is legal doesn’t mean you should do it. Just because the Japanese can kill 500 minke whales a year doesn’t mean they should. Our society is driven by money, yet these people volunteer their time and risk their lives for a cause they believe in.

 It may be crazy, and it may not be worthwhile, but you can bet I will be following the adventures of Paul Watson and the crew of the Steve Irwin this season on Whale Wars.

What about you? What do you think? As Christians should we support or agree with Sea Shepherd’s efforts, even though it breaks the law? What do you think God would have to say about killing whales for profit?