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The Misadventures of the "World Whale Police"
CERTAIN wishes to share some of the mounting pile of...ahem...contradictory statements issuing forth from Bill Moss of the World Whale Police with our visitors. Moss is a prolific (if occasionally redundant) writer, but shares an interesting trait with Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (also known as the "Not at Neah Bay this year because there aren't enough cameras SSCS") and his ally on the water (who is remaining safely outside the exclusion zone) Jonathan "Mr. Sound Bite" Paul of "Ocean Defense International" - an inability to keep his stories straight.
Moss created a series of reports late last year following the successful Makah whale hunt of May 1999, in which he details "World Whale Police" activities. He also posted comments to a number of Internet message boards and forums (once signing himself as "a former sachem of the Mohawk Nation" who opposed the Makah hunt - the name he chose to misrepresent himself was that of an honored statesman of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy, who died nearly 200 years ago, and who is so honored that his name in his native language has never been re-used).
CERTAIN brings you the following three messages from Mr. Moss:
- Moss' report from November 1999 - from a file on the WWP website in a directory named "CoastGuardLies_files" - Moss writes disingenuously about moving close in to Coast Guard activities after being warned off and failing to heed such instructions, something to note in light of his actions and his subsequent arrest on Monday, April 17, 2000, for violation of the exclusion zone during the hunt.
- Moss posted to fellow-activist Pam Kelly's "For the Love of Whales" message board, a Yahoo Club, at http://messages.clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/fortheloveofwhales/bbs?action=m&tid=fortheloveofwhales&sid=12173469&mid=256, in his "Fish or Cut Bait" message that includes Moss' statement that activist should "throw boats" at the Makah.
- Following his arrest and the impounding of the Tiger, Moss, writing in a bizarre third-person style (and referring to himself, in the grandiose manner of "Captain Paul Watson" and "Captain Jonathan Paul," as "Captain Bill Moss"...this is the Navy I should have joined instead of the US Navy - these people make rate and rank at a speed unheard of in the regular Navy...), defends his attempted attack on the Makah canoe. Moss' statements have been contradicted by everyone (not of the activist groups) who has seen the videos, by the Makah, and by the Coast Guard. Moss maintains that he was innocently in the exclusion zone - although that does fail to explain his attempts to restart a full-throttle run at the canoe even after being hailed by the Coast Guard and ordered to stop, and being 'shouldered' twice by one of the smaller Coast Guard craft. It took 'shouldering' (not ramming) by the larger 41-foot Coast Guard cutter to bring the Tiger to a stop, at which point Moss was arrested (and properly so).