Operation 86 Has Made it's Mark

Operation 86 Has Made It’s Mark.

Opposing an entire nation’s Coast Guard and policing agencies is no easy task. However, we faced a critical problem that needed solving: the ongoing violations of the International Whaling Commission’s Global Moratorium on Commercial Whaling.

With the Icelandic Coast Guard monitoring our every move and transmitting the Bandero’s position to the whaling ships hourly, it became nearly impossible to engage with the two whaling ships at sea. After a month it became evident that logistically Plan A would not work because of the advantages to the whalers by the Icelandic. Coast Guard.

Photo: The Bandero at sea off Iceland.

We had to resort to Plan B. We requested permission to enter Icelandic territorial waters but received no response. Therefore, we decided to proceed without authorization to intercept the Hvalur 9 whaling ship as it left the bay.

Upon sighting the Bandero, the Hvalur 9 turned and fled back to shore, calling for assistance from the Coast Guard. The Bandero then turned and departed back to international waters.

The Icelandic Coast Guard dispatched a large vessel, the Freya, along with three smaller boats carrying special forces, an airplane, and a large helicopter.

No expense was spared in what the Director of the Icelandic Coast Guard, George Lárusson, described as a “James Bond Operation.” “Special forces” dramatically repelling down from a chopper with full battle gear provided a great visual.

Photo: Icelandic “Special Forces” beginning their “Operation James Bond”

The pursuit lasted about five hours. I had instructed the crew not to respond to the Coast Guard and not to use anti-boarding tactics. Sometimes it is tactically useful to resist boarding as we have done successfully in the past with Soviet and Norwegian navies. Sometimes as in this case it is tactically advantageous to allow the boarding to exploit the drama for the camera.

Finally, as expected Coast Guard officers in full battle gear and masks, armed with guns, boarded the ship and detained all 21 crew members representing 13 different countries.

Photo: Is it ICE? No it’s a friendly neighbourhood call from the local Coast Guard

This led us to implement Plan C: using the seizure of the ship and the detention of the crew to draw international attention to the real crime—the unlawful slaughter of protected Fin whales.

The Coast Guard, the police, and the defenders of whaling all played their part well. The Coast Guard acted like they were copying full American ICE agents with their masks and guns. They had the right costumes, and the Coast Guard director helped considerably by comparing his officers to characters from a James Bond movie.

Meanwhile, I conducted interviews with international media, including CNN, Vikita and TMZ focusing on the real crime: the unlawful killing of the protected Fin whales.

I told the crew on the very day they were detained that no one was going to jail. Iceland simply does not want to showcase Loftsson’s renegade whaling operations despite the influence he has with the Coast Guard and the police.

There is a vote on August 29th on continuing negotiations with the Icelandic government about joining the European Union. Because of the possibility of joining the European Parliament, the Icelandic government is concerned about the controversy over whaling.

The captured Bandero placed before the bows of two Japanese warships and behind the Icelandic Coast Guard ship Freya. We are small but effective.

If Iceland does join the European Union, whaling will be ended. Killing whales and dolphins is illegal under the laws of the European Parliament.

The timing of this vote is one of the reasons for having the Bandero and the crew arrested. We needed a controversial international incident to focus attention on the killing of the whales especially in the European media.

Plan B moved Operation 86 from the sea to the shore with our crew being detained, threatened with prison and subjected to intimidation, seizure of property without a warrant, and finally to deportation orders and actual deportations.

The authorities acted as if I had written a script for them. They were incredibly predictable.

Now onto Plan C, to use the unlawful detention of our ship to continue to focus attention on the whaling controversy.

Our position is that the seizure of the ship in international waters was unlawful. We will not pay any fines, berthage costs, pilotage costs, or any costs associated with the illegal detention of our ship and crew. Iceland even paid the airfares for the crew they deported.

The Icelandic police preparing to move the Bandero to a more public viewing area.

We appreciate that they have moved the ship at Iceland’s expense to a dock closer to town and more visible to the public. They may have done this to show the ship off as a “trophy” after the over the top “special forces” commandeering of an unarmed crew that did not resist. It works for us, to keep the symbol of our opposition visible to the public.

Legally I am confident that our ship will be returned. There is no legal justification for Iceland to hold it. Of course there is always a small risk that it won’t be returned. Politics sometimes intervenes to subvert the law but it is a risk worth taking for the campaign because my position is that a ship is expendable, a whale is not.

Overall I am satisfied that Operation 86 has been a great success. The crew of the Bandero did what they had to do within the boundaries of our policy of aggressive non-violence and within the practicality of international and Icelandic law meaning no injuries or convictions. The crew have all been released without charges. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK continues to do an excellent job on shore documenting violations at the whale processing station.

We had a film crew onboard and we are working on a possible television show, perhaps a continuation of our former Whale Wars show.

It has been an interesting and successful summer.