Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson arrested in Nuuk
It was an eventful weekend in Greenland’s capital, following the arrest of an international activist firmly opposed to whaling.
Captain Paul Watson was arrested by a dozen police officers in the port of Nuuk, Greenland, on Sunday July 21.
Famous for his anti-whaling stance, the 73-year-old environmentalist was stopping off on the West Coast aboard the John Paul Dejoria, a 34-meter ice-strengthened former U.S. Coast Guard vessel with a crew of 23.
Handcuffed, he is reportedly facing a first charge relating to the 2023 “Bloody Fjords” intervention in Faroese waters. Like Greenland, the Faroe archipelago is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark.
For Paul Watson, it was an “aggressive non-violent” action on behalf of pilot whales. In 2022, the emblematic founder of Sea Shepherd was forced to leave the organization and set up the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, again to protect the oceans from illegal operations aimed at exploiting marine life.
However, there is also a second motive behind the arrest. The activist had been on Interpol’s Red Notice list since 2012, following an arrest warrant requested by Japan after violent clashes between whalers and Sea Shepherd activists in the Southern Ocean in 2010.
“The notice had recently disappeared from the Interpol website,” says Sea Shepherd France on X, a fact we were able to observe, “leaving Paul Watson and his lawyers to believe that he was now free to move.”
The John Paul Dejoria was en route to the Northwest Pacific, on a mission to hinder Japanese whaling operations. It is possible that the Sermersooq court and the Greenland Ministry of Justice will decide to extradite Paul Watson to Japan.
Camille Lin, Polar Journal AG
Find out more about this topic:
