Newsmaker
Monday, April 6, 1998
Name: Michael Bailey
Age: 43
Birthplace: Vancouver, B.C.
Position: Greenpeace Hawaii director
Pastimes: Swimming, bodysurfing
Michael Bailey joined a crusade to save the whales in 1975. Save whales, save the planet
"At that time, the Greenpeace organization had about a dozen people that would get together in a bar and talk about saving the whales," Bailey said.
"They needed someone that was willing to take a rubber raft in front of a Russian harpoon ship. It resulted in some very dramatic images of Russians firing their 90-millimeter harpoon canons at myself and the rubber boat off the northern part of the Hawaiian Islands, several hundred miles from here.
"I'm very glad to have been part of those first expeditions to help save the whales. If the Russians had been allowed to continue killing whales off Hawaii waters for 22 years, the humpbacks would be very rare at this point in time."
In 1998, Bailey -- now director of Greenpeace Hawaii -- is still trying to save whales.
"Now we are trying to save whales from the U.S. Navy," he said.
Instead of harpoons, the current threat is low-frequency sounds, in particular the low-frequency active sonar tests recently conducted off Kona.
"What exactly low-frequency sounds will do to whales and dolphins is not known, and that's the question," Bailey said. "Even the studies being conducted off the Big Island are not truly designed to find out what the long-term impacts are.
"The small area studies of humpback whales (are) very short term, just for one season. No studies, for example, are being done on the squid or the deep-water fisheries that could be sensitive to these sound transmissions, too, and we may not see the impact for generations."
Greenpeace wants to slow down the push for a new sonar system.
"Whatever the values may be for developing a new form of sonar system for the United States military, our position is that it should be done in accordance with U.S. environmental laws, with recognition to the impact upon endangered species," Bailey said.
"This should have just as high a priority as some project designed to create sonar."
Bailey, who earns his living in film production and international public speaking, is pushing a hard message.
"What we need to learn nowadays is to walk softly, to be more careful," he said. "We're consumers, and we're consuming the planet.
"And the problem there is, if we continue to consume it all, then eventually there won't be anything left for our children and grandchildren.
"The only way to save the planet is to change public attitude, shift it to where we can respect the oceans and the life around us."
Rod Ohira, Star-Bulletin
