By Captain Paul Watson
There is a phobia with regard to fish called Ichthyophobia.
But is there a phobia with regard to fishermen?
Commercial fishermen tend to react in a mob faction. I have myself experienced this many times, as an object of fishermen mob violence.
1977: I was thrown into the icy waters off Labrador and pulled through a gauntlet of Norwegian fishermen and pelted with seal guts. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were on the scene. They stood by and watched and did nothing.
1979: I was beaten by fisheries'officers and left exposed in subzero temperatures while soaking wet on the deck of a Canadian Coast Guard ship. The Coast Guard and the Mounties stood by and watched and did nothing. I was charged with assault because the boots of the officer came in contact with my head.
1993: I took my ship the Cleveland Amory to the Nose and Tail of the Newfoundland Grand Banks to chase Spanish and Cuban draggers out of the area where there was a moratorium, and Canadian fishermen had been banned from fishing. After forcing two draggers to depart without causing any damage, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Mounties arrested me and charged me with three counts of Mischief. Although I was acquitted after an expensive trial, the trawlers were allowed to continue their illegal activities.
1995: I was attacked by a mob of drunken fishermen in the Canadian Magdalen Islands. I was beaten, journalists were beaten and threatened and the police stood by and watched and did nothing. The Canadian Minister of Fisheries Brian Tobin said he understood the fishermen's anger and did nothing.
2000: My crew and I were attacked repeatedly from November 13-17, 2000, in the Galapagos by angry sea cucumber fishermen. They fishermen engaged in a number of violent activities, including seizing local government and research institutions, kidnapping giant tortoises and ramming tourist boats. The private home of the Galapagos National Park Director Juan Chavez was invaded and destroyed. Rioting fishermen threw rocks at the rangers and my crew and threatened to kill us. The response from the Ecuadorian government was to give the fishermen what they demanded. My crew and I were called to the Port Captain’s office and warned to not say anything publicly about the riot, or we would be jailed. My response was, “well then toss us in jail because we ain’t gonna be quiet.” He told us to get out of his office and to watch our backs because the Navy had no intention of protecting us.
2001: Ecuadorian fishermen demanding higher quotas on sea cucumbers rioted and seized the offices of the Galapagos National Park on Isabela Island and threatened to kill endangered tortoises unless they got what they demanded. Six of my crew were kidnapped and held hostage for a week. No charged against the kidnappers.
2002: At the request of the Guatemalan government, I stopped a shark poaching operation by a Costa Rican fishing boat. No one was injured, but I was charged with attempted murder based on the word of the fishermen. Fortunately, we had filmed everything, and the charges were dropped. Ten years later, they charged me again for this incident and placed me on the Interpol Red List. In 2019, Costa Rica dismissed the charges after a new government was elected.
2005: The crew of the Farley Mowat were physically attacked by Magdalen Island sealers and suffered minor injuries. The RCMP responded by arresting our crew. Attempts to charge the sealers with assault were denied by the authorities.
2008: Our ship Farley Mowat and our crew were attacked by a mob of fishermen in the French islands of St. Pierre and the Magdalen Islands. They cut our mooring lines with axes and threatened the crew. The French police stood by and watched and did nothing.
2011: My crew and I freed 800 illegally caught Bluefin tuna off the coast of Libya by a Maltese vessel. The crew violently attacked us. The company had our ship arrested in the U.K. we won the case eventually, but the illegal operations of the Maltese company were ignored.
2015: Sea Shepherd exposed the operations of the toothfish poachers in the Southern Ocean. The Spanish government were given the evidence. Although the ships had been condemned as poachers by Interpol, the Spanish courts dismissed the charges on the grounds that Spain has no jurisdiction over Spanish companies in waters outside of Spain.
2018: Poachers attacked both Sea Shepherd ships and the Mexican Navy vessels and their station with rocks and Molotov cocktails. At least in this case, the authorities were responding to defend the endangered Vaquita porpoise. The poachers, however, still had the support of some politicians. There were no convictions. A Mexican panga rammed the Farley Mowat. One of the fishermen was killed and another injured. Our crew rescued them from the water. The fishermen then attempted to sue my crew. None of the attacking poachers was charged.
In 2023, in the English Channel, we documented illegal activities by Dutch super trawlers catching enormous amounts of small fish for conversion to fish meal for factory farms and domestic salmon farms. We documented them fishing illegally inside French and British territorial waters. No charges followed, and our evidence was ignored.
From 2005 through to 2017, I intervened against the illegal Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The Japanese attacked us with stun grenades and in 2017 I was shot. In 2010, a Japanese harpoon vessel deliberately rammed and destroyed the vessel Ady Gil injuring one of our cameramen when all six of the crew were thrown into the frigid seas off the coast of Antarctica. No legal consequences for the Japanese vessels but both Peter Bethune and I were charged with conspiracy to trespass and obstruction of business and in 2012, an Interpol Red Notice was issued for my arrest and a demand by Japan for my extradition. As a result, I spent five months being detained in Greenland before Denmark denied the Japanese extradition request.
Read the column: Doing Good Time for The Whales in Greenland
In a situation in Nova Scotia, the police did very little to protect the rights of indigenous fishermen under attack by commercial lobstermen. The Miq'Mak people's take a small percentage of the total lobster quota, but the commercial operators wanting more began scapegoating the indigenous people, burning their property, assaulting individuals and making threats. Despite promises by the Trudeau government, very little was done.
The reality is that commercial fishermen usually get what they want, and their violence is either justified or ignored.
We are not afraid of commercial fishermen who are also poachers, most of them are uneducated cowards but it is clear that many governments and politicians are very much afraid to oppose the increasingly extremist demands of commercial fishermen operating illegally and even afraid to confront poachers.
They appear to be suffering from a phobia that I have labeled as Homopecheophobia or the fear of fishermen by politicians and bureaucrats.
Disclaimer: As a child I was raised in a lobster fishing village in New Brunswick, and I am very familiar with the violent behavior and ecological ignorance of commercial fishermen and poachers. I was witness to plenty of illegal activities that the authorities were not interested in investigating.
Comments