Hotel Captain Cook Bars Sea Shepherd from Entry to IWC Meeting in AnchorageCaptain Paul Watson walked into the lobby of the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage on the morning of May 28th and was greeted with hugs by the Australian Teens Against Whaling.
He spent about twenty minutes talking with Skye Bortoli, who with her sister and friends had come all the way from Australia to appeal to Japan to not slaughter the Humpback whale.
As they were talking, a serious looking man in a suit approached Captain Watson. He was accompanied by a number of Anchorage police officers. They asked him to step outside and then informed him that the Captain Cook Hotel would charge him with criminal trespass if he steps foot in the hotel again.
Captain Watson was informed that the Captain Cook Hotel did not welcome certain opponents of Japanese whaling operations.
Outspoken dolphin defender Ric O’Berry was also denied permission to set foot in the hotel.
As Captain Watson and Sea Shepherd crewmember Shannon Mann left the hotel, a man suddenly aimed a camera at them and began taking pictures then disappeared quickly around the corner and jumped into a red unmarked police car and sped away.
Then two uniformed Anchorage police officers approached them on the sidewalk and asked them what their intentions were. Captain Watson said that his intentions were to enforce international conservation law against illegal whaling activities.
Captain Watson also assured them that Sea Shepherd was not a protest organization and had no intention of disrupting the IWC meeting or breaking any laws. “We fight the Japanese criminal whaling activities on the high seas,” he said. “Not here.”
When asked why he was in Anchorage, Captain Watson replied that as one of the world’s leading defenders of whales from illegal whaling activities it was perfectly appropriate that Sea Shepherd participate in the meeting of a Commission that rules on whaling activities.
Sea Shepherd’s primary purpose in being in Anchorage is to respond to Japanese propaganda and the proposed Japanese resolution to have the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society condemned by the International Whaling Commission.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not concerned about any IWC resolution condemning Sea Shepherd. Sea Shepherd has already been barred from attending the IWC meetings since 1987 after enforcing the IWC global moratorium on commercial whaling by sinking half the Icelandic whaling fleet in 1986.
After being banned for two decades, a resolution proposed by Japan to condemn Sea Shepherd will not make any difference.
“We are quite frankly proud to be the mavericks, the renegades and the outsiders.” Said Captain Watson. “Sea Shepherd activists are the “ladies of the night” of this movement. Many of the delegates inside agree with us and support us quietly and behind closed doors, but are afraid to be seen without in public during the light of day.”
At yesterday’s meeting Japan attempted to blackmail the Commission by saying that they would take the 50 Humpback whales off the kill list if the IWC allows the resumption of commercial whaling by Japan.
Australian Green Party leader Bob Brown said Japan's demand that Australia accept the killing of whales in the north Pacific in exchange for saving the humpbacks was Mafia-style blackmail.
He said Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull "should reject it out of hand and raise the threat of global ostracism of Japan".
Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, said that if New Zealand and Australia wanted to save the 50 humpbacks they must support Japan's coastal whaling plan.
"This comes down to a very simple question: how much do Australia and New Zealand want to protect those humpbacks?" Mr. Inwood said.
"Japan is prepared to compromise."
Mr. Turnbull said Australia had an excellent relationship with Japan, but would not support its slaughtering of humpback whales.
“If Japan values the strong friendship and goodwill of the people of Australia it should drop the humpbacks from its proposed scientific whaling program," Mr. Turnbull said.
The attitude of the Hotel Captain Cook Hotel was rude and threatening. It is deplorable that the management of the Hotel Captain Cook has ordered that two of the greatest whale and dolphin conservationists in the world be barred from entry into their building.
The Hotel Captain Cook advertises itself as the “the recipient of Preferred Hotel's 2004 Hotel of the Year/Best Service award. And they state that people can expect exceptional, genuine Alaskan, and service-minded hospitality.
When Captain Watson asked if the management of the Hotel Captain Cook were concerned about how they would be viewed for barring anti-whalers from their establishment the head of security stated that he was unconcerned and that his orders were to use force if required to prevent any Sea Shepherd members from entering the hotel.
This means any members who identify themselves or are identified as Sea Shepherd members. According to the security officer that means that any of our thousands of members could be arrested or violently thrown out of their hotel for wearing a Sea Shepherd shirt, baseball cap or for identifying themselves as Sea Shepherd members or supporters.
So if you are a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society or a defender of whales, please take the time to drop a comment to the Hotel at the website address below:
http://www.captaincook.com/contact.phpOR contact the hotel by phone or fax to let them know your views.
The Hotel Captain Cook has officially declared that they are sympathetic to illegal and commercial whaling interests and that anyone who is opposed to illegal and commercial whaling activities including all members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are forbidden to enter or patronize their establishment.
The Hotel Captain Cook
4th at K Street
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
USA Tel: +1-907-276.6000
Fax: +1-907-343-2298
Website: www.captaincook.com
Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org
"Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all."
- Walt Whitman
www.Seashepherd.org
Tel: 360-370-5650
Fax: 360-370-5651
Address: P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250 USA
(Press release received via email.) 
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