Sunday, January 16, 2011

Ask a Sea Shepherd Crew Member

Part II - Animal Planet

By David Nickarz

Tenth Engineer

This is the second instalment of my article on what it’s like being a Sea Shepherd crew member. I’ve spent twelve years volunteering for the Sea Shepherds. I’ve been on 8 campaigns in total, four of which have been Antarctic Campaigns. The first Antarctic Campaign had someone filming on board, but since we didn’t find the whaling fleet, nothing came of it. The second one I joined was the 2006-07 campaign Operation Leviathan where we had two confrontations with the whalers. There was a documentary film team on board that campaign which produced the film At the Edge of the World. It is the most accurate and beautiful depiction of our campaigns I have ever seen. I highly recommend seeing it.

I was on board for both Operation Musashi (2008-09) and Operation Waltzing Matilda (2009-10), both of which had Animal Planet film teams on board. This corresponds to Whale Wars season 2 and 3. This blog entry was inspired by the following question in the comments section of the first blog entry. (see archives).

“I'd like to know if you've noticed any change in atmosphere onboard since Animal Planet film crews started coming along. Is it intrusive at all?”

I think the second part of the question can be answered easily. Yes, it was intrusive. It’s not that we haven’t had any other media on board—every campaign involves some form of filming. Animal Planet sends about 8-10 crew on board who film every aspect of ship life. They set up cameras and microphones in key places around the ship including the bridge, mess and deck. You can assume everything you say or do in these common areas is going to be recorded.


It’s not like we aren’t warned about this ahead of time. I want to be clear about this up front. You have a choice as a crew member—stay or go. It’s really that simple. We are told before the campaign starts about Animal Planet and their work.

They have a job to do. Their job is to film the campaign for their parent company and make money through advertising. We accept this arrangement because our organisation gets the exposure of being on a popular and award winning reality TV show. More importantly the whaling issue gets out to millions of people around the world. This has helped to put pressure on the government of Japan and the corporations that are involved in poaching whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Many of the crew come from activist backgrounds. I can speak for a few of them when I say we are not used to having our actions portrayed as they are on what is referred to as ‘reality TV’. After the first season of Whale Wars, one of the high ranking crew members was not impressed with how the show portrayed our ship and crew. He expected it to be more of a documentary film.

I could go on and on about ‘reality TV’ but I won’t. If you’ve seen it, you know what it’s about.

I had a bit of a “do-you-know-who-I-am?” moment the first time I was asked a question by the AP crew on Operation Musashi. There was an inane argument about modifying the bridge wing bulk head to allow for easier filming of the deck crew. There were strong opinions about it from everyone partly because the question was asked by the producer along with a cameraman recording the answer. When it got to me I was pissed off. I said it was a non-issue and cut the interview short.

I don’t know what I expected. I was a veteran crew member with years of experience and I (wrongly) assumed that I would be treated differently. Maybe I had visions of long conversations about my previous exploits on past campaigns, with the appropriate music in the background and everyone hanging on my every word.

Like I said, it was a “do-you-know-who-I-am?” moment.

Animal Planet filmed the action on board and interviewed the crew about it afterwards. The deck crew got most of the attention since they drove the small boats into battle with the whalers. The bridge crew were the next most TV-worthy. The galley and engine room were the least filmed. They would come down to the engine room (usually off-limits to everyone but engine room crew) only when there was a mechanical or electrical problem. Then we would have the added burden of fixing the problem in front of cameras.

As you may have seen from the show, some of the crew were filmed in their cabin as they are waking up. That’s pretty intrusive.

Atmosphere

Unlike campaigns in the past where there was media on board, the difference is the fact that you know this is all going to be on TV in a few months. Every mistake, misspoken word and argument will be out there for millions of people to see. You try to be on your best behaviour, but things happen that you can’t take back.

I think my only appearances on the show was when I was commenting on the ice scraping against the hull at the first few episodes of season 2. We were stuck in the ice with the Steve Irwin, which did not have an ice class hull. There was the very real possibility of having a hull breach and the ship sinking. One of my scenes was me speaking calmly about the predicament. The other one was me exclaiming “Who the fuck is driving this thing?” as I went to check for damage.

I wish I had chosen my words more carefully.

Even though it felt like it was too intense at times, I understand the role of AP on board. Over the last three years they are the reason why we have reached so many people. Our campaigns are stronger because of the donations and volunteer work of thousands of people who would not have known about us if they had not watched us on TV.

Everyone understands what it means to have them on board. Individually, some of the Animal Planet crew were quite a chore.

To be continued…

3 comments:

Steve-O said...

"Then we would have the added burden of fixing the problem in front of cameras."
A-men to that, brother. -Sikes

Marialice Antunes said...

God Bless You !

kujirakira said...

“do-you-know-who-I-am?”

An unemployed handyman that demonizes other peoples' cultures so he can feel better about himself ?