Seal Wars: Twenty-five Years on the Front Lines with the Harp Seals

4.25 stars

Captain Paul Watson has been a champion for animals for all his life; he was also a co-founder of Greenpeace. This book focuses on his fight to save seals from the cruel Canadian seal hunt (which mostly includes Canadian and Norwegian sealers off the shores of Newfoundland and Labarador and Quebec (mostly the Magdalen Islands)). He does his best to protest non-violently, though he has been known to ram his ship into whaling or sealing ships to try to stop them. The non-violence, though, does not extend the other way, as he and his crew has been violently attacked multiple times; Police and politicians just stood aside to watch.

When Watson began his protests in the mid-1970s, the Canadian government just turned around and made show more illegal all the non-violent things he was trying to do to protest. And they did this quickly. This was so frustrating, as was the way police (both RCMP and Quebec Provincial Police) just stood around to watch. I could never do what Watson has done, though I’ve always admired him for it. I have been signing petitions against the seal hunt for a couple of decades (I think these were the first online petitions I ever signed). Watson is always able to find people willing to join him, though, and again, I admire those people. What’s worse: this book was published over 20 years ago and the seal hunt is still happening, with the Canadian government not only defending it, but subsidizing it, though the vast majority of people don’t approve of it (the odd time it actually makes the news, anymore). show less

This was a great read. Sometimes it got a little boring hearing about all the ladies Paul gets busy with, but that's ok. Totally recommend this to anyone who cares at all about animals, the ecosystem, and environmental activism.