Sea Shepherd off to Galapagos Islands

Conservation society's Seattle-based ship to enforce no-fishing zone

Sunday, November 26, 2000

By CHRIS GRYGIEL <mailto:chrisgrygiel@seattle-pi.com>

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

A Seattle-based ship involved in protests over the Makah whale hunts is

heading toward the Galapagos Islands, where it will patrol a no-fishing

zone environmentalists say is routinely violated by poachers.

The 95-foot Sirenian, one of two vessels operated by the Sea Shepherd

Conservation Society, is due to arrive in the archipelago 600 miles off

the coast of Ecuador in about two weeks. And as it did in Neah Bay, the crew

will find itself in the middle of another tense situation.

Earlier this month about 900 protesting fishermen took control of the

Charles Darwin Foundation's research facilities on the islands of Isabela,

Santa Cruz and San Cristobal to protest a government-imposed limit on

their catches.

The fishermen left the facilities after the Ecuadoran government met their

demands and loosened limits on lobster trapping, but not before vandalizing

the research stations, said Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society.

"We're bringing down equipment like computers and VCRs, all their equipment

was destroyed," Watson said in a telephone interview Friday from aboard the

Sirenian as the vessel passed through the Ballard Locks.

Watson said acts of vandalism have happened before.

"Conservationists in the Galapagos and the Darwin Station in particular have

come under attack several times in the last six years as commercial pressure

and human settlement in the islands has intensified," he said. "They're

being held hostage by these fishermen."

Sea Shepherd, a nonprofit group that investigates violations of

international laws designed to protect marine species, entered into an

agreement earlier this year with the Galapagos National Park Service to help

conduct conservation patrols in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, Watson said.

The Sirenian's 11-person crew -- which Watson says will include three

members of the Ecuadoran Navy -- will patrol a 40-mile-wide coastal

no-fishing zone along with a park service patrol boat.

The Sirenian, a former U.S. Coast Guard vessel, is scheduled to patrol in

the Galapagos through 2005, according to Watson.

The ship and the Friday Harbor-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are

no strangers to controversy. In 1998, when the Makahs resumed whaling for

the first time in generations, the Sirenian and several other protest boats

tried to thwart the tribe's efforts. The Sirenian's crew was warned after it

fired a Civil War-replica cannon when a motorboat carrying tribal whaling

officials was nearby. The cannon made a loud noise and created a lot of

smoke, but nothing was fired from it.

When the tribe killed a gray whale in May 1999, the Sirenian was speeding

toward Makah canoes, but stopped when a Coast Guard boat approached.

Critics of Sea Shepherd's involvement in the whale hunt said the group was

anti-Indian, not just anti-whaling.

Watson was a vocal opponent of Makah whaling. When he and his crew arrive in

the tiny Galapagos Island chain, they'll be more than 4,000 miles from the

rocky, rainy beaches of Neah Bay. The Galapagos archipelago in the Pacific

Ocean is Ecuador's main tourist attraction.

Its species of plants and animals, found nowhere else in the world, have

unique characteristics that helped Darwin develop his theory of evolution.

The foundation established its field station in 1964 and is the main

promoter of conservation for the islands.

Watson said the fishing situation in the Galapagos is a "test case for the

world."

"Can people there be convinced that if they continue to take all they can

get from such a place, this means there will soon be no more to take?" he

asked. "If the people who live there cannot be persuaded to save such a

place, then nowhere on Earth can be said to be special enough."

P-I assistant metro editor Chris Grygiel can be reached at 206-448-8363 or

cgrygiel@seattle-pi.com <mailto:cgrygiel@seattle-pi.com>

This report includes information from The Associated Press.