Captain Paul Watson is going home for Christmas – the veteran anti-whaling campaigner has been released after spending five months in jail while Denmark considered an extradition request from Japan.
The news that Denmark had finally rejected Japan’s demands came yesterday (17 December) and means that Watson, who turned 74 while held in a detention centre near where he was arrested in Nuuk, Greenland, will be able to spend the festive season with his family in France.
Also read: Fin-whale hunt called off in Iceland
“This decision marks a significant victory for human rights, environmental activism and the anti-whaling movement,” declared the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), which has been campaigning hard since summer for its founder’s release. Its petition to that end surpassed 125,000 signatures and attracted wide-ranging celebrity support.
The Danish justice ministry told the BBC that in reaching its decision it had taken into account the time that had elapsed since the alleged offences occurred, and the five months Watson had already spent in detention.
Also read: Onto the good foot: Iceland doing right by whales
“Sometimes, going to jail is necessary to make your point,” said Watson as he walked free. “Every situation offers an opportunity, and this was another chance to shine a global spotlight on Japan’s illegal whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. If I had been sent to Japan, I might never have come home. I’m relieved that didn’t happen.”
According to the CPWF, Watson had been detained on politically motivated charges without the evidence having been thoroughly reviewed, and it has called for international law enforcement mechanisms to be reformed.
Hostile encounters
Watson’s arrest on 21 July had been based on a 14-year-old Interpol notice from Japan that derived from hostile encounters between Watson and his campaign team and Japanese whaling crews during filming of the Whale Wars TV series for Animal Planet in Antarctic seas.
When arrested, the Canadian-American activist had been heading to the Pacific on the CPWF vessel John Paul DeJoria on an anti-whaling mission, stopping over in Greenland only to refuel.
His whereabouts had been brought to Denmark’s attention by police from the Faroe Islands which, along with Japan, Norway and Iceland, is one of the outliers still hunting whales in the 21st century.
Danish police had tracked the ship from Dublin to Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, before stepping in to make the arrest. In late September, the Japanese Coast Guard had sent an officer to Denmark to call for Watson’s extradition in person, according to the foundation.
Steadfast in his mission
“Captain Watson’s detainment has shone a spotlight on the ongoing issue of illegal Japanese whaling,” says the CPWF. “Despite international treaties and regulations, Japan has resumed high-seas whaling with the construction of the Kangei Maru, a $47 million factory-processing vessel launched in May to target threatened fin whales.”
“With Captain Watson back, we’re more motivated than ever to keep fighting for our oceans and making sure our mission stays strong,” stated the foundation’s CEO Omar Todd, who was present when his co-founder was released.
“Captain Watson’s release is a testament to the commitment of those who stand up for the environment. As he rejoins his family, friends and supporters, he remains steadfast in his mission to safeguard marine life.”
Watson was a founding member and director of Greenpeace. In 1977, he left to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which he in turn left in 2022 to start the CPWF with Todd.
He was named as one of the Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century by Time in 2000 and inducted into the US Animal Rights Hall of Fame in Washington DC two years later. In 2012 he became only the second person, after Jacques Cousteau, to be awarded the Jules Verne Award, dedicated to environmentalists and adventurers.
Setback for whales in Iceland
Unwelcome news for Watson while he remained under lock and key came on 6 December as Iceland’s acting fisheries minister Bjarni Benediktsson granted two whaling licences for the next five years, authorising the Christian Loftsson-owned Hvalur and Tjaldtangi companies to hunt endangered fin and minke whales respectively.
“Iceland’s corrupt caretaker government cares more about returning political favours paid for by the blood money of Christian Loftsson than protecting endangered species in the world’s oceans and upholding international marine-mammal protection laws,” stated CPWF campaigns director Locky MacLean.
“We will be there for the whales this summer to put an end to Hvalur’s North Atlantic cetacean death machine”.
Also on Divernet: Faroes tip-off led to arrest of ‘thorn in side’ Watson, ‘Vengeful’ Japan wants Watson on 2010 stink-bomb charges, Paul Watson jailed as Japanese kill fin whale, Paul Watson cleared in Costa Rica
