Captain Paul Watson has been held in prison by Danish police ever since his ship arrived in Greenland on 21 July. The veteran anti-whaling campaigner was detained at the behest of Japan, still smarting from his activities in the Antarctic more than a decade ago.
Fewer than 10 days after his arrest, Japan had harpooned its first endangered fin whale in more than half a century. This, according to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), “confirms suspicions that a return to high seas slaughter of the world’s largest mammals was always its intention”.
The world’s second-largest whales after blues, fin whales can live for up to 90 years. The specimen caught off Hokkaido was a 19.6m long male.
Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, which says that the arrest came in response to an international warrant issued by Japan against Watson for his campaign against its whaling activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
In recent days Japan has submitted a formal request for Watson’s extradition and, if Denmark’s Ministry of Justice decides to comply, the activist could face a long jail-term there. A CPWF petition calling for his release has already attracted more than 50,000 signatures.
North-west Passage
Watson had stopped in Greenland to refuel his 72m ex-Scottish Fisheries Protection ship John Paul DeJoria. He had been on his way to the North Pacific with the crew and 25 volunteers as part of Operation Kangei Maru, a mission to intercept Japan’s latest factory whaling ship.
It would have been the first time an anti-whaling campaign vessel had attempted to reach whaling grounds by navigating the infamous North-west Passage.
Watson was led off the ship in handcuffs and is now in custody in remote Nuuk. He has stated that Operation Kangei Maru, which marked his 50th year of marine activism, was “the most high-stakes mission in all my years of opposing whaling in the world’s oceans”.
Watson was previously co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of Sea Shepherd, though he is no longer connected with those organisations.
Japan’s Antarctic “scientific research” whaling programme JARPA was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2014. Japan continued operating in breach of the ruling for several years before giving up on Antarctic whaling in 2016, but it still hunts whales in its own waters.
“Japan continues to flaunt international conservation law and Paul Watson is being punished for Japan’s crimes,” said CPWF ship operations director Locky MacLean from the John Paul DeJoria. “Denmark surely realises the political motivation here for this arrest request: Japan needs Paul Watson out of the way so they can resume slaughtering the world’s great whales.”
Resuming whaling
Japan has confirmed that it will allow up to 59 fin whales to be caught and killed by Kyodo Senpaku, its state-owned whaling company, says the CPWF. When it launched the Kangei Maru this March, it had insisted that it would allow only for the hunting of smaller Bryde’s, minke and sei whales – nothing as large as a fin whale.
Now the CPWF believes that Japan plans to resume regular high-seas whaling in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific next year.
Meanwhile more than 50,000 sympathisers have already signed the CPWF petition calling on Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to order Watson’s release. According to the foundation, prominent supporters so far have included French President Macron, film director James Cameron, oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle and primatologist Dr Jane Goodall.
“Captain Watson is simply taking action to try to prevent the inhumane practice of killing whales, which most countries have banned decades ago,” stated Goodall. “In so doing he is expressing the anger of thousands of people in many countries who absolutely support his moral courage in not only speaking out on behalf of the whales, but taking action.”
Also on Divernet: PAUL WATSON CLEARED IN COSTA RICA
