Gaia's Navy: The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Battle to Stay Afloat and International Law

Abstract

This Article critically examines the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its self-appointed role to protect oceanic life. In Part I, the Article examines the history of this radical environmental group, the role performed by its charismatic leader, Paul Watson, its organizational structure, its strategies and tactics, its governing philosophy, and its attitudes to violence. Part II provides a history of the various direct actions carried out by the group; it examines the organization's ongoing confrontations with the Japanese whaling fleet, documents the current legal travails the group and its leader are experiencing, and asks whether its methods are counterproductive to its stated goals. Part III critically evaluates the group's claims that they are acting at the behest of international law, finding that such claims are fallacious. It goes on to evaluate the international maritime law that the group could potentially be subject to in light of recent legal developments.

‘Valuing Life Itself’: On Radical Environmental Activists’ Post-Anthropocentric Worldviews

“…The philosophical underpinnings and nuances of REA values remain relatively under-investigated (Pellow 2014, 30), though previous literature has laid the essential groundwork by investigating the general parameters, identities, historical trajectories, deep-ecological orientations, tactics and organisational dynamics of groups such as Earth First! (Taylor 1991;Lee 1995;Bragg 1996;Ingalsbee 1996;Wall 1999;Marangudakis 2001; Scarce 2016) and Sea Shepherd (Hoek 2010;Nagtzaam 2013;Stuart et al 2013;Cianchi 2015;Woodhouse 2018). John Cianchi's (2015) work has been especially instrumental in shedding light on REA kinship bonds with earth others as well as members/activists' depictions of more-than-human agency.…”

Make love, not war?: Radical environmental activism’s reconfigurative potential and pitfalls

“…The show, created from footage of Sea Shepherd's pursuit of -and encounters with -Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, attracted a large and broad audience and interest of scholars concerned with media construction of environmental activism, anti-whaling, and political conflict (Besel and Besel, 2010;Crouch and Damjanov, 2011;Kato, 2015;McHendry, 2012;Russill, 2009). Whale Wars also drew the attention of political scientists, sociologists, criminologists, and legal experts, resulting in investigations of radical environmentalism and identity (Cianchi, 2015;Nagtzaam, 2017;Stuart et al, 2013), activism and international law (Humphreys and Smith, 2011;Moffa, 2012;Nagtzaam, 2014Nagtzaam, , 2017Nagtzaam and Lentini, 2007), and political violence (Nagtzaam, 2014(Nagtzaam, , 2017Nagtzaam and Lentini, 2007).…”

Methodological considerations for the special-risk researcher: A research note

“…While existing literature has laid the essential groundwork by investigating the general parameters of REA identities, historical trajectories, deep ecological orientations, tactics and organizational dynamics (Bondaroff, 2011;Cianchi, 2015;Hoek, 2010;Ingalsbee, 1996;Marangudakis, 2001;Nagtzaam, 2013;Pike, 2016;Stuart et al, 2013;Taylor, 1991;Wall, 1999), key questions warrant further elucidation: what are their deepest motivations for action despite…”