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TALES
AND INSIGHT FROM THE KILLING FLOES
(Reflections
and observations from Harpseals.org founder)
 3/28/05
Prelude: Allow me to set the mood lights:
As I slowly turned in a full 360% circle, I remember
counting over 50 different sets of lights coming from the
generators of the idling sealing boats nearby...
It was very late in the night (early morning actually)
and only a few hours before opening day of Canada's
annual slaughter of baby seals began for 2005. The
weather was bad and had been getting worse for days.
On the deck, amidst the blowing rain and sleet and
freezing cold temperature, I and a fellow crewmember I
had only recently met leaned on the handrails of the boat
and talked about the craziness of our situation and the
surrealness of the moment...
After days of travel to get here, and for me over 2 years
of waiting, the moment had finally arrived: We had made
it to our destination... but where exactly was that and
what were we doing here?
To us, it seemed to be the middle of nowhere, but in fact
we knew ourselves to be in the middle of the Gulf of
Saint Laurence, just a few miles off the coast of
Quebec's Magdeline Islands, waiting for Canada's annual
seal hunt to begin.
 This was
indeed a very strange thing for us both: to be in this
fascinating position of being onboard this vessel,
completely surrounded by over 80 sealing vessels we knew
to be in the area, and trying to be ready for a day that
we knew we could never really be ready for.
As we stared out at the lights of the sealing boats, we
wondered about what kind of people were onboard those
vessels and what they must have been thinking about. Were
they excited? Were they looking forward to tomorrow? Were
they getting drunk and talking about how great it was
going to be to be back on the ice in a few hours bashing
in the heads of the baby seals again? Could they sleep?
Or, was it just business as usual for them as they waited
for the morning light?
The reality for us was that we were onboard the world's
most famous conservation vessel, the Sea Shepherd
Society's Farley Mowat, captained by none other than the
enigmatic Paul Watson, (the world's most loved and/ or
hated conservationist, depending on which side of the
animal exploitation coin side you were on), determined to
do what we could to document, record, describe,
photograph, draw attention to, and god only knew what
else- (as crew members, we certainly didn't) the largest
mass killing and senseless slaughter of marine wildlife
on earth... and we were waiting for the morning light to
come.
 And at
this very moment, with only the sounds of the wind and
rain hitting the ice, we looked over at the open water
lead below us and a seal popped his little head out of
the water just 20 feet from our eyes, and looked at us.
We looked down at him and said hello. We had already seen
several seals in the past few days as their numbers had
been increasing as we entered into their icy domain. Then
another seal popped his head up, and another, and yet
another... 4 little beautiful seal beings right in front
of us, bobbing their smooth heads.
We wished we could talk seal and warn them about the
upcoming day and to flee the area... but of course we
couldn't, so we just leaned over the rail and watched
them swim and play for a few minutes, then they went
away.
We looked at each other and felt very emotional about the
moment. These seals were in grave danger and would
probably not be alive in a few days, maybe only hours...
but we tried to look at it as some kind of a sign - and
hoped to think they were saying they believed in us and
what we were doing. We both promised them we would try
our best, although neither of us knew what that would
entail.
It is a moment frozen in time for me now as I think back
on it.
 The
Sea Shepherd Seal Campaign: 2005- Phase 1- Gulf Region
On the evening of 3/21/05, I left California and headed
north for the ice floes of Canada to join Paul
Watson and the Sea Shepherd crew onboard
the conservation vessel Farley Mowat, for our long
awaited 2005 seal hunt opposition effort.
4/08/05: Although I didn't know exactly what would happen
on the campaign, I had been very apprehensive, and can
now look back on it and say the trip definately lived up
to it's expectations: the whole past 18 days has been a
surreal experience.
Over the course of this campaign, I have seen and done
many strange things...
A few weeks before the trip, I had applied for an
"observation permit" for filming the hunt, and
that was my position on the ship- one of several media
and photographer personnel on board to visually document
and describe it.
Although I had a pretty good understanding of the seal
hunt after having studied it for over 2 years now, and
having had actually been to the ice and experienced the
undescribable magic of the baby seals 2 years ago, I
still felt I needed to know more. I wanted to understand
the issue more intimately- with the ultimate goal of
playing a more effective role in stopping it... and, as
much as I didn't want to witness the insanity of the
killing, I knew I needed to.
So what did I do? I volunteered to be on the most direct
action, hard core, animal saving crew I knew about: the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society guided by my mentor and
friend Paul Watson.
The horror begins:
 On
3/29/05, the horror began. Morning light comes, and even
though the weather is really bad, we see all the sealing
vessels moving around and look through our binoculars to
see the crews running on the ice, raising and lowering
their hakapiks. With each swing of the killing tool, we
know another seal has been beaten to death. As the day
wears on, our vessel confronts and documents numerous
sealing vessels systematically slaughtering Canada's
famous baby harp seals.
At the end of the day, reports had told us that somewhere
between 15,000 and 25,000 seals had been beaten to death-
many skinned alive, their bodies left for waste on the
red ice.
What we did and what we saw:
 And
now I have finally witnessed with my own eyes the killing
of baby harp seals by hakapik death. Take a moment to
view some clips of the latest kill footage now:
Sea
Shepherd kill footage
HSUS kill
footage
(Note: Although this is a truly brutal thing to view, I
recommend watching it- even if it makes you cry, cringe,
or beat your fists down on the table, because I wan't
people to be outraged by this!)
It's the most brutal deed one can possibly imagine.
Heartless men smash the heads of beautiful, defenseless
baby seals and then leave their bodies on the ice after
skinning them. Many are obviously still alive when
skinned. All the while these sadistic jokers act like
they're enjoying it. They laugh, smoke cigarettes, shout
obsenities at us, and never seem to shed an ounce of
emotion or sympathy.
In some cases, just hours before, our crew had lay on the
ice with several of these seals and looked into their
beautiful sleepy eyes.
 Every
day, I took in everything I could of the wild scene I was
involved in with my cameras always at the ready. By the
end of the trip, I had photographed many live and
beautiful seals lying peacefully on the ice and in horrid
contrast, mayhem and massacre of every baby seal on the
ice floes in the area. These were the ones who didn't
escape the spotter helicopters and binoculars of the
ever-chasing sealing boats. After they ravaged the seal
nursery, I photographed piles of bloody carcasses on red
ice patches, and sealing boat after sealing boat
jockeying from ice floe to ice floe searching for more
babies to kill.
And of course, I can't forget about the trusty coast
guard icebreakers that cut ice for the killing boats when
they needed it. They claim they don't do this but we
recorded it on tape several times. These coast guard
vessels saved the sealers' sorry asses when the ice
conditions threatened their hulls, and
"protected" them from us- the worst kind of
nuisance- the seal defenders and observers of the hunt.
(All this courtesy of the Canadian taxpayers, thank you
very much.)
When we could, on certain occassions when the weather and
ice conditions permitted, (and when the coast guard
cutters were away, busy rescueing sealing boats from the
ice), groups of us would take turns leaving the boat and
foraying out onto the ice where we could encounter seals.
All of us thouroughly enjoyed this activity. We would
photograph them, hang around with them, and also
"spray them" with a non- toxic vegetable dye
that would, in theory, lessen the value of their pelts
for a while. The reason we did this should be obvious:
the seal killers were always nearby.
Time between "ice action" was spent writing
letters, editing tapes, and working shifts on the boat.
(Paul Watson was always in contact with various press,
writing, documenting, making phone calls, strategizing,
etc.) During the times when the harsh weather (good for
the seals) gave a break, we followed around other sealing
boats, and did what we could to document the tragic
circus of events.
On some occasions, we also managed to save a few seals by
using our boat as a shield from the sealing vessels,
floating near them until the cowardly killers got tired
of waiting on us and went away.
 The
Attack:
On a particulary interesting day, just after the weather
broke, there was some sealing activity nearby our boat.
Some of our crew leapt into action and traveled nearly a
mile over the ice floes to observe the sealers. When we
arrived, myself and ice partner were quickly
assaulted and attacked with hakapiks by these
"poor hunters, working so hard just to eak out an
existance on the ice". (the words in quotes are my
parenthetical mockery of the sympathy shown towards the
sealers by some of the local press.)
It was a clear cut display of aggression by these
cowardly baby killers, 7 of them with hakapiks waving
around and swearing and yelling ignorant and beligerant
crap at us while we just stood there and filmed them. By
the time I had finished photographing the whole incident,
I had been assaulted multiple times by 2 different
sealers and witnessed several other crew members
assaulted.
 Ironically,
I then witnessed the arrest of the same crew members who,
without violence or weapons, had so bravely defended me
from the attacking sealers as I filmed this encounter.
The sealers were targeting myself and a fellow crew
member, Jonny V, it seemed, because of our cameras. We
were the only 2 appointed videographers on the ice that
moment, recording the whole crazy scene. After the
incident wound down, I ran like mad for the Farley Mowat
and barely made it back in time to avoid being arrested
myself. Had that occured, the blatant assault footage I
carried would surely have been taken away by the coast
guard.
Amazingly, Jonny V. showed up after myself, video footage
in hand, having a story of his own to tell on how he made
it back. (Having actually given his name to an arresting
officer, he had somehow managed to slip away and walk
around the stopped coast guard vessel unchecked only
because the crew members around him were keeping the RCMP
busy by being non-complient.)
My arrested crew members alleged crime: "being
within a half nautical mile of a sealer fishing for seals
without an observation permit."
I return a new person:
Needless to say, I returned to California on 4/08/05 a
different person... I now have a new insight into the
hunt- and for that I'm glad...
But to be honest, for right now, as bad as I know I need
to explain my trip in more detail, I'm groping for good
words to describe my emotions, which I'm still wrestling
with...
Just a few hours ago, I saw for the first time our
primary hunt photographer's latest video kill footage (he
had to rent a helicopter to do it) up close and personal,
sharp focused and steady... and it made me cry as I just
sat and watched it and felt awful about the whole thing.
It wasn't the first time I have seen footage like this,
but for some reason it got to me yet again.
2 years ago, I was blown away by the beauty and
peacefulness of these amazing wild animals while
observing them on the ice, and this year they mesmerized
me again... only this time the situation was very
different. I wasn't here to watch them lay around and be
happy seals, I was here to record their violent and
completely unneccessary destruction.
Looking for words...
So how can I accurately describe my feelings on this
whole matter of the decimation of baby seals I find
myself so involved in?
I honestly don't know. I'm mad. I'm sad, I'm eager to get
back to the business of implementing our strategy to stop
it... I can't really elaborate any more than that for
now, it seems...
Anyway, as odd as this may sound, I'm not really so
surprised at this new feeling.... for I had actually come
to the ice this year to experience this circus of
death... to record for the world and to see for my very
own eyes. (This is something that after having now
witnessed it, I come to realize I will never truly be
able to comprehend fully).
But the good news is now I' m more angry and resolute in
stopping it than I have ever been.
Summary:
 For now,
I'll just say: Everything about this disgusting,
wasteful, and needless Canadian seal massacre is wrong.
It's a hunt for coats and greed - performed by ignorant,
violent whiners unwilling to look at alternatives, and
unable to feel emotions. They are subsidized fisherman
who feel sorry for themselves... but I don't feel sorry
for them.
How can this unbelievable f_d-up massacre of the
innocents go on and why you may ask?
I'll be blunt and tell you why: The killing continues for
political positioning, fur coats for the rich and
aphrodisiacs for frustrated Asian men. It continues for
the "lifestyle and cultural heritage rights"
(BS!) of a small minority of white, evil, ignorant men.
It continues because of the greed of a select few FISHING
companies and processing plant owners and it also
continues because of an arrogant government bureaucracy
that simply doesn't care what the majority of its people
say year after year: Stop the seal hunt.
Lastly, it continues because the rest of the seafood
industry remains silent, complicit in the massacre that
companies like the Barry Group lobby for year after year,
demanding ever-increasing quotas.
So, Canada, hear this: Your fishing industry will pay
with our Canadian
seafood boycott. Your
politicians are scoundrels. I look forward to pressing
charges against the fools who attacked me and the other
Sea Shepherd crew members. And most of all, I look
forward to seeing you capitulate to the world's demand to
ban seal killing this year!
For now, in addition to the regular changes you will see
on this website, I recommend checking out the actions and
points of view of Paul
Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
I also
recommend reading
the journals of the HSUS wildlife director, Rebecca
Aldworth.
She is one of the seal's best defenders, and her words
explain a lot about the situation.
As for
myself, with my new understanding of the matters
pertaining to this insane tragedy, I will continue to
focus Harpseals.org on ending the seal hunt. Surf it
regularly and please join us in defending the seals of
Canada!
- Ian Robichaud
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