Seal Wars: 25 Years on the Front Lines with the Harp Seals

by Paul Watson

Book Overview

Captain Paul Watson has rammed fishing trawlers, smashed whaling ships, sailed boldly into Soviet-controlled waters, and stood bravely on an ice floe between a baby harp seal and an oncoming seal... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1552635104
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Key Porter Books
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

My Hero

I love this book! Paul Watson is a real hero. How incredible brave he is. The only person who does something against the cruel and unhuman seal hunt. Some pages I couldn't read. Everybody in this world should read that book to get another view of life. Paul Watson tells from the beginning of the seal and seal hunt until today and incredible things he has to go through, when every reader can only shake its head about Canadian government. What else on this world must happen that humans learn to appreciate animals and what they suffer for us. When will that change in the minds come? I am sure I won't be alive anymore. Christine

A true tale of heroism

This is an amazing book that is riveting in its account of the bloody brutality of the seal slaughter, and the author's incredible bravery and intelligence in trying to end it. Confronting drunken mobs of angry sealers, braving the dangerous ice floes of the gulf of St. Lawrence and "The Front", the baby seals nestled on the ice pans, the sealers crushing their skulls and sometimes skinning them alive while they bleed and scream in terror. The political and economic underpinnings of the baby seal killing business are explained, as well as the background and history. It's an ugly spot on humanity and on a country that prides itself on being humane. The author learned early in life about how animals are treated with cold indifference, and the violence one is at risk for when one saves animals from humans. The author's own father beat him cruelly for saving animals, and he learned to be tough and fight back for the creatures of nature who were his friends.

Eye Opener!

I feel so foolish after reading this book. I thought that all it would take to end the barbaric and cruel seal "hunts" is join along with millions of others who are against it, let it be known in a letter or an email and wait to see what happens. I guess I could never fathom a good people, a good government that would allow animal cruelty and to allow it as a proud tradition, a heritage, a right. Yet the world has not seen even a inkling of what really happens come March every year. Cameras aren't allowed. Videos aren't allowed to record the cruelty. If by chance cruelty is recorded, it is a fake, a lie, made up. I NEVER IMAGINED A GOVERNMENT THAT WOULD ALLOW SUCH CRUELTY. I never imagined a government that would defend brutality to animals and to people! I never imagined this country - the country that allows all this - would want a person who defends an innocent animal, because of what he was witnessing, because of the horrible pain he saw year after year after year, because he couldn't sit back and do nothing, a government that would rather see him dead or imprisoned because of it, yes the government! What an eye opener. How any man could take the most gentle creature on the face of the earth and torture it is beyond my imagination. These people have no compassion, not an iota of mercy. IT'S HAPPENING! AND A GOVERNMENT THAT CALLS THEMSELVES A GOOD PEOPLE IS ALLOWING IT AND PRAISING IT! Paul Watson's title "Seal Wars" is right on. This book is about a war to protect the seals. Mr. Watson will take you year by year into his life as a Sea Shepherd to the harp seals. He has fought valiantly throughout the years to protect the harp seals and he himself has suffered, but he has never given up. The war still rages on today. These creatures, very gentle and trusting of people, are living their lives on the ice as they were born on this earth until March of every single year. The seals don't expect it, they don't know it, they trust humans, and then a man comes at a baby seal with the bottom of his boot hard to the face then skinned while still alive, its mother can only watch helplessly as it is squealing in pain, or a club to the head before being skinned (40%+ seals are skinned alive!) or a hakapik into another baby, the heartless fisherman dragging it across the ice while it is still alive, the seal crying in pain - it is only a few days old; a ship - a Coast Guard ship at that - who run the little animals down on the ice purposely, out of spite for those who are trying to protect them; baby seals can't swim, or even a bullet to a mother seals head, for one vain and unnecessary thing - fur. These animals suffer and they suffer for vain. They will continue to suffer until more people become angry and more people get active. Read this book! READ IT AND DO SOMETHING!! DO WHAT YOU CAN! I guarantee if you have a heart in you, you will want to after reading this! There are several causes on the internet you can find to join. P

Everyone who cares about earth should read this book

Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are true heroes, and this book will inspire you to help end the barbaric Canadian seal hunt once and for all. This book is a great story - and very hard to put down.