Paul Watson geraakt door een walvis |
Paul Watson is oprichter van Greenpeace en van Sea
Shepherd.
Het hieronder geciteerde moment gebeurde op een van zijn tochten
ter bescherming van de walvissen. Om te voorkomen dat
walvissen worden geraakt probeert hij met zijn boot
tussen de walvisvaarder en de walvissen in te komen.
Soms lukt dat, soms niet.
Op een keer werd een vrouwelijke walvis geraakt en door
de walvisvaarder binnengehaald. Een mannelijke walvis
blijft al die tijd in de buurt. De harpoenier schoot
deze walvis aan, zonder een lijn aan de harpoen, alleen
om te doden.
Paul Watson vertelt hoe hij in de ogen van de stervende
walvis kijkt: With a shock, my eyes met the
left eye of the whale like Odysseus facing the Cyclops.
That one eye stared back, an eye the size of my fist,
blackish brown and with a depth that astonished and
gripped me. This was no brutish creature. This was no
dumb animal. The eye that I saw reflected an intense
intelligence. I read the pain and I read understanding.
The whale knew what we were doing. This whale had discriminated.
That message was beamed directly into my heart by a
mere glance. Fear there never was, but apprehension
vanished like a crest upon a wave. I felt love both
from and for. I felt hope, not for himself but for his
kind. I saw a selflessness of a spirit completely alien
to our primate selves. This was a being with an intelligence
that put us to shame, with an understanding that could
only humble us. And the most shameful message of all
passed over to me; forgiveness.
In an instant, my life was transformed and a purpose
for my life was reverently established.
Contact lasted only a few seconds but it seemed like
much longer. The whale became quiet and began to sink
back into the cold embrace of the sea and death. As
he slid slowly back, I could see the life fading from
his eye. I followed that rapidly extinguishing sparkle
of light as the cold briny waves doused the final spark
and the soul of a majestic greatness departed, leaving
only a mammoth corpse behind.
Many whales had died during my lifetime, all victims
of the ruthlessness of my species. It had all been academic.
This was different. This was a death witnessed and attended
by my shipmates and me. Between that one unknown whale
and myself, a bond had been established. I would honour
this great being with my service. I would side with
his species in opposition to my own.
That experience remains for me, to this day, my single
greatest moment of revelation and the source of all
my strength, courage, commitment and sadness. I was
scarred and left with an accursed task. The experience
robbed me of all sense of joy and wonder. Human happiness
would never be completely possible for me. I had looked
into the eye of God. I could never be the same again.
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