In Praise of ... Taking on the Whalers

It was a choppy day on the high seas of the Antarctic. Two members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose ships have been pursuing a Japanese whaling fleet for nearly a month, claimed that - in freezing conditions - they were for three hours tied to the railings of a Japanese vessel after boarding it to deliver a letter of protest. Back on dry land, the Humane Society International won an injunction in Australia's federal court against the Japanese company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, to stop it whaling inside Australian-declared waters. The two developments are connected. In one, the eco-pirate Paul Watson, a man who has been ramming and scuttling whalers and drift-net fishers for many years, was rightly preventing the whalers from reaping their annual harvest. In the other, the ruling increased the pressure on the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to enforce the promise he made to his voters last year to crack down on Japanese whaling. One action is beyond the law, although Mr Watson believes whales are more intelligent than humans, and says that the actions of his Sea Shepherd enforce a higher law than the one currently operating on the high seas. The other action uses the existing law to advance the same cause. Both have their place. Applauding people who do brave things because they believe their cause is right does not mean giving every lawbreaker a green light. But Watson has arguably done more to publicize his cause than most, and it is the result that matters.