Good Bye And Good Luck

I began writing this blog a year ago and during that time, it has been read over 3,600 times by people living in 57 countries around the world; people like you who care about whales and dolphins. I sincerely appreciate your patronage but I must confess that I wish I could have reached many, many more of you. I suppose that with the catastrophes, corruption, and chaos that mankind is currently facing, the plight of whales and dolphins is just not that important. Therefore, I have decided to take a hiatus from writing this blog; quite frankly, I do not know if I will ever be back. In parting, I will leave you with a poem from my book, The Tempest’s Roar: it is a prayer for all those in peril on the sea, including the whales and dolphins with whom we share this planet; this tiny blue marble drifting silently through space that we call Earth but they know as Planet Ocean.

Oh Great And Restless Sea

Hear us oh great and restless sea,
oh wondrous ocean deep and wide.
Your boundaries all beings keep,
your storms and tempests we abide.
Pray let us pass in the days to come,
free from thy wrath, safe on thy tides.
That we may cross thy mighty plains,
and suffer not like those who died.
And in the end, with our journey done,
may we to thee simple sojourners be.
Once here in time and place, then gone,
from thee oh great and restless sea.

Take care all, perhaps one day we will meet again…

You Humans Are A Curious Lot

Four million years ago, when your ancestors first walked erect, you were herbivores. By that time, my ancestors, the earliest whales and dolphins, had been swimming through the oceans for over forty million years, and the interaction between our two species was minimal. Two million years later, you became hunter/warriors, running around on your two little feet, clubbing and stabbing to death anything and everything that walked or crawled on land, including your fellow man; but still the interaction between us was limited. Ten thousand years ago, the inevitable happened: you took your killing ways to sea and began hunting my kind, but your methods were primitive and posed no serious threat to us. Thus, for nearly four million years, we co-existed peacefully.
But all that changed in the early 17th century when you began whaling on a commercial scale, and by the 19th century, you had taken your predatory skills to a whole new level, literally slaughtering hundreds of thousands of my kind. For nearly four centuries, this butchery continued unabated, driving many of us to the edge of extinction; until finally in 1986, a caring majority of you decided to bring commercial whaling to an end…sort of. Tragically, some among you, those living in Japan, Iceland, and Norway, still believe that it is their God-given right, their cultural prerogative, to perpetuate the slaughter.
And yet, even as this brutal bloodlust continues, others among your kind work passionately to bring the killing to an end through brave acts on the high seas, proposals submitted to the International Whaling Commission, and legal action brought before the International Court of Justice. You humans are a curious lot; the same DNA that makes some of you cold-blooded killers, makes others peacemakers. And meanwhile, caught squarely in the middle, my kind watches, and waits, and hopes…

Marine Mammals In The Military

On this Memorial Day, it is appropriate to note that the United States Navy will soon begin using Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions to guard Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington State, which serves as the home base for eight of the Navy’s ballistic-missile submarines, two cruise-missile subs, and one fast-attack sub. Reportedly, the dolphins and sea lions were trained by the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program in San Diego and will soon be moved north to Kitsap. Their primary mission will be to detect terrorist swimmers or divers and assist in their capture. It is a sad testimony to our time that such a use of marine mammals is necessary; however, using them to assist in the war against terrorism is a far more noble and justifiable purpose than allowing them to be enslaved in aquariums for entertainment purposes. As such, we wish the Navy well in their efforts to keep safe their nuclear submarines, which are a key part of the might and right that holds back the dark cloud of evil that seeks to destroy our world. May God bless all the men and women who serve in the United States armed forces, and in those of free nations everywhere.

Life Imitating Art

The catastrophe that is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is a stunning example of the harm and havoc that man is wreaking upon the oceans of the world. And while some of you may take a few minutes out of your busy lives to look on with concern as others struggle to contain the river of black death that is spreading through the Gulf, it is the creatures who live in those once pristine waters who will suffer for decades and perhaps centuries to come: none more so than the whales and dolphins. Despite this continuing assault on the domain of these sentient and self-aware beings, they have not sought to harm mankind in return.
But what if there comes a day when whales and dolphins turn against man? What if they seek to destroy you as you continue to destroy their world, through either the actions of the few or the apathy of the many? This is the premise of my novel, The Tempest's Roar, and the BP disaster is a tragic case of life imitating art. As such, the story has never been more timely, and I urge you to read it. If you do, you will never again look upon the deep blue seas that surround you through the same eyes. Whether you choose to believe it or not, you are not the only intelligent beings on this endangered blue marble drifting silently through space, this place of terrible beauty and untold potential that you call Earth but whalekind knows as Planet Ocean. For more information, please visit http://www.rarclouston.com

Let Me Be Clear

Let me be clear about my view of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. I admire the bravery and strength of purpose these people demonstrate in their efforts to interfere with the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. Their crews risk their lives on that cold and dangerous ocean at the bottom of the world.
However, this tragedy is not about the slaughter of a thousand whales each year off Antarctica, and Sea Shepherd’s ability to save some of them. It has devolved into what the Japanese government and people see as an imperialistic assault upon their culture—an insult to the entire population because of a few die-hard old men caught up in the ways of the past.
Sea Shepherd's actions only serve to widen Japan’s sense of isolation from the rest of the world: a cultural remoteness formed over two millennia that will not be bridged by acts of aggression. Author Richard D. Lewis, in his book, “The Cultural Imperative: Global Trends in the 21st Century,” points out that in any interaction with the Japanese, “What is said is actually of minor importance. How it is said, who says it, and when it is said are the vital ingredients.”
Accordingly, the only way to get Japan to stop the Southern Ocean whale hunt is by allowing them to save face, and that is exactly what the proposal being presented to the IWC in June by the U.S. and other anti-whaling nations will do. As good as Sea Shepherd’s intentions may be, their continued attack on Japan’s whaling fleet has jeopardized this compromise, which will mean that the annual slaughter will continue for many years to come. Now is not the time for confrontation; it is the time for cool heads and calm negotiations. Otherwise all hope is lost.

Whales And Crab Pots...

Commercial fishermen in Alaska are complaining that Sperm Whales and Killer Whales are stripping their longlines of fish. Now let’s see if I understand the problem: men in fishing boats go out onto the open ocean where these whales and dolphins live, and leave baited hooks on floating fishing lines, sometimes forty miles long. Halibut, sable, skate and other fish are attracted to the bait and bite on the hooks. After struggling for a few minutes, these fish die and hang there. And then along come the Sperm Whales and Killer Whales who strip the lines of these dead fish. Then the fishermen come back, find the fish heads hanging there and get angry at the whales.
But let’s say these same fishermen got off their boats, drove their pickups into the interior, and strung a forty-mile long clothesline from tree to tree with sirloin steaks hanging on hooks every few feet. Don’t you think that grizzly bears and black bears would figure out that this was a free lunch pretty quickly? And bears have one-tenth the brainpower of whales and dolphins, if that.
So here is my message to Alaska's commercial fishermen: if you do not want to lose your fish to whales, stop longline fishing, and go join the crab fishermen on the Deadliest Catch. Whales haven’t figured out how to open crab pots…yet.