Retiring a ship can be a costly affair unless you have a way of getting someone else to take care of the dirty work for you. Sea Shepherd has used the services of the Canadian government since 1992 when we first retired the Sea Shepherd II and again in 2008 when we retired the Farley Mowat. It is a strategy that has three benefits. First, it provides a means to remove a ship that has become a liability at no cost to us, secondly, it can be used to launch a final publicized intervention, and lastly, it can be a gift that just keeps on giving. What we have done is effectively given the government of Canada a white elephant on two separate occasions. We get them to seize the ship and we convince them that it is their idea to do so. At first they feel very smugly victorious as they declare fines and costs to be rendered. This smugness turns to confusion when they realize we don't intend to pay the fines and costs. Confusion turns to embarrassment when they realize that the costs of keeping the vessel have become a burden onto themselves. This week the Farley Mowat was arrested in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Appropriately on April 1st, the sheriff posted an arrest warrant on the wheelhouse door where it is presently docked at the government wharf. The Waterfront Development Corporation, a provincial crown corporation, took legal action against “the owners and all others interested in the ship” last month. According to documents filed with the court, the corporation is seeking $29,410.96 for unpaid berthage between March 6 and December 15, 2010. In default of payment, the corporation is seeking an order “for appraisement and sale” of the ship. The ship is not Sea Shepherd's property so it's therefore not our problem. The current owners bought it from a government auction for $5,000 with the intention of fixing it up and making it seaworthy again. But they ran out of money and appeared to have abandoned the vessel. So once again, the government is stuck with the chore of unloading a retired Sea Shepherd ship. This is three years after the government of Canada seized the ship in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for interfering with the prestigious and glorious Canadian tradition of baby seal bashing. Then Canadian Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn was an easy politician to manipulate. He was a staunch, short-tempered Newfoundland supporter of seal clubbing and had vowed to defend the poor little sealers from the bullies like us who want to defend the baby seals from their clubs. So, I sent the Farley Mowat into the ice floes under the command of Dutch Captain Alex Cornelissen and Swedish First Officer Peter Hammarstedt. I was not onboard because I was a Canadian and that would have given the Canadian government the excuse to legally crucify me. What I wanted was a European registered ship with a European crew to bring attention to the seal hunt to help with the European Union's decision to ban seal products. Predictably, Hearn overreacted and attacked the Farley Mowat with a heavily armed SWAT team from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We could not have asked for a better scenario for publicity. The images of them brandishing automatic weapons in full combat regalia were priceless. The Farley Mowat was seized and Captain Cornelissen and First Mate Hammarstedt were both charged with the horrific crime of witnessing the slaughter of a seal pup. The Farley Mowat bailed them out with $10,000 worth of Canadian $2 coins that we call Doubloons because the Canadian $1 coin is called a Loon, or a Loony, which means that Canadian banks are Loony bins. Cornelissen and Hammarstedt were not allowed to return to Canada to stand trial because immigration Canada would not let them into the country, so the trial proceeded without them and they were fined some $45,000. But since they could not return to the country, they simply did not need to pay the fines. The government then arrogantly informed me that I would have to pay a $75,000 fine for the return of the ship. I replied that I was not interested in paying the fine. A year later, the government sent me a bill for $750,000 for the cost of berthage and security for the ship. I ignored the order. They then said they would be fining me $1 million unless I paid the costs and removed the ship. I ignored the order yet again. The government then ordered the ship to be sold to recover costs without even taking it to court. I issued a media release stating that I would consider the ship as belonging to Sea Shepherd and if purchased, we would steal it back. Not that we wanted it, but we wanted to discourage any purchase. Read the rest here
