A Poem by Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

They entered the Sanctuary the hour before dawn, A deadly greasy fleet of grisly death, searching for innocent prey, Elusive, menacing, efficiently ruthless, and terribly swift and fast.

Harpoon guns screaming like Banshees throughout the long summer's day, Crouching in killing stances before their bleeding rigid mast, Sentient awareness expiring with each horrific harpoon's thundering blast.

Waiting for the word of law from the world, we held back our attack, But word of law from the world never came, Lawlessness has been bartered for hypocritical trade, The governments have betrayed the whales once again in deceitful shame, Posturing, talking, spouting hot air, breaking every promise made, Apathy and inaction, rising, as the integrity of compromised politicians fade.

Condemnation for those of us who sail to defend life, Accusations of terrorism against us from vicious merciless killing machines, The Japanese death ships bent and intent upon inflicting unbearable pain, Ships of steel softer than the heart of their crews of murdering fiends, From their decks of steaming gore, the hot blood of Leviathan does drain Into the frigid dark blue sea leaving a scarlet warm, obscene steaming stain.

Softly we navigate through the treacherous twisted ice, crossing their deadly path.

Blocking, harassing, intervening, protecting and defending the gentle giants.

Frustration mounting as harpoons thunder and innocent whales scream, Reminding ourselves that it is the whales who are our clients, We cannot care, nor be influenced by the hypocrisy of this human scheme We have to take action to stop these blood mad killers by any non-lethal means.

Killing for research is killing plain and simple, Killing for research is the legacy of the Nazi and Togo's barbaric Japan, There is no place in this new century for such vicious meddling, Japan has slaughtered tens of thousands of whales since the world whaling ban Lying about research to cover the whale meat they are peddling.

Pretending to deceive the world with the outrageous lies they are peddling.

Must we sacrifice our lives to awaken the world to this disgrace?

Must we toss away our freedom in this effort to stop this bloody slaughter? What will it take for governments to uphold the rule of law?

We have no choice but to take a stand for every son and daughter Why must we endure such hell because the law has this serious flaw?

The flaw that trade can dictate discrimination in the enforcement of the law.

We care not what our critics say we are, we do not fight upon the seas for them. We fight for our friends, the whales against the most evil of blood thirsty foes. We drive our ship to the Southern seas to defend the defenseless from the remorseless, We drive our ship towards the place where the hottest of blood floes We go into battle against killers cruel, hardened and merciless.

For in the end, what matters is that we stand for justice.

The steely Antarctic skies go on forever We risk our lives to allow the whales to also live forever, We cannot sit upon our ass, doing nothing as these gentle creatures die, Action in defense of life is the standard by which our lives must be measured.

We fight against cruelty, against death and against the Japanese lie, Seeking to stop the flow of blood, under the frozen Southern sky.

All of us are Ahab's children.

The death of millions of whales blights our history and our souls, The least we can do to expunge this awesome burden and curse Is to drive every existing whaling ship onto rocky shoals, To attack their profits and empty every greedy whaler's purse There can be no compromise and the whales must come first.

I know not what the future will bring,

I put my trust in my ship and my brave inspired crew, Our task is formidable and our resources are small, We are a band of warrior although few, we are a happy few, And if in this battle, some of us do fall, No one can say that we did not answer Leviathan's sad call.

The angels of the sea, the playful dolphins guide us, From out of the horde of billions we few do rise and sail, We are the children of Ahab now wedded to Moby's cause, And for the whales, we will not, can not, must not fail.

We do not fight for profit or for the world's applause And thus we hunt for the killers to uphold conservation laws.

Oh gentle, gentle Leviathan, most noble creature of the sea, In our actions you will know that not all of humanity is cruel, And we the children of Ahab, like knights with honour before you kneel, We have chosen and decided that we will not be destruction's tool, For deep in the depths of our outraged hearts, your pain we passionately feel, As your song echoes and stirs our souls beneath our sturdy keel.

Our shepherd's staff of protection crossed with the trident of intervention, We sail beneath the black flag of freedom on a righteous quest, Our bow points towards confrontation and dangerous pursuits, We have no choice to do anything else we must confess, For the call of Migaloo echoes and grabs our attention by the roots,

We must stop that cowardly harpooner before once again he shoots.