The Whale Warriors

A new book out by Penguin Books entitled The Whale Warriors, by Peter Heller, is getting some attention lately. The Whale Warriors focuses on a vegan attack boat, Farley Mowat, which attacks Japanese whaling ships in Antarctica. The book is a great read and shows the adventure and risk that goes on for the sailors on the ship. Here’s a review of the book.

“In this stirring account, Heller describes his two-month journey aboard the Sea Shepherd’s 180-foot converted trawler, Farley Mowat, and its running battle against a fleet of Japanese whalers. Capt. Paul Watson and his mostly vegan 43-member crew aren’t the shy retiring types. They fly the Jolly Roger from the ship’s mast, brew their own moonshine to celebrate New Year’s Eve in an Antarctic blizzard and exclude no strategy in their quest to save whales from slaughter by the persistent Japanese. Measures include everything from trying to entangle the whale ship’s propellers with steel cables to tossing foul stink bombs onboard to sicken crews.

The Farley Mowat also comes equipped with a steel-reinforced bow, used for ramming the much larger Japanese whalers head-on. Watson, one of the founders of Greenpeace, tired of watching endangered whales die while the organization merely unfurled protest banners. Considered a ‘lunatic’ and and ‘eco-terrorist’ by his enemies, (and possibly by some who’ll read this book), placed on the piracy ‘watch list’ by the US Office of Naval Intelligence, his full-frontal assaults against both whaling and seal hunting have made him revered by his supporters and crew.

Watson justifies his radical measures by pointing out that although commercial whaling has been officially banned by the UN Charter, the Japanese continue to ruthlessly kill hundreds of whales each year under the guise of ‘scientific research.’ In fact, Heller argues, the whales are merely slaughtered for Japan’s fish markets, a crime made even more senseless by the fact that polls indicate the Japanese consumer doesn’t even like whale meat. In fact, the Japanese whaling industry loses money every year. Still, the Japanese whalers persist, refusing to back down in the face of mounting international pressure.

A convincing, passionate account that both educated and infuriates. ”

Kirkus Reviews

For more information about this book, visit www.peterheller.net, or go to Amazon.com and search for The Whale Warriors.