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Sea Shepherd has called for the “immediate release” of its founder, anti-whaling activist Captain Paul Watson, following his arrest in Greenland on Sunday. Watson could be extradited to Japan after Danish police detained him as his ship was on its way to intercept a new Japanese whaling vessel in the North Pacific.
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Watson left Sea Shepherd in 2022 and co-founded the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) to continue his work defending marine life. CPWF said on X that it believed Watson’s arrest was connected to a previous Red Notice for his anti-whaling activities in the Antarctic. “This development comes as a surprise since the Foundation’s lawyers had reported that the Red Notice had been withdrawn,” wrote CPWF. It now believes that Japan made the Red Notice “confidential to facilitate Paul’s travel for the purpose of making an arrest.”
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A country can issue a Red Notice to law enforcement worldwide to find and provisionally arrest someone pending their extradition or surrender. Interpol issued the initial notice against Watson in 2012, two years after the Japanese Coast Guard put out a warrant for his arrest. He is currently in custody awaiting a decision on whether he will be extradited to Japan.
New whaling threat
Japan ceased whaling in international waters in 2016, years after a ruling by the International Court of Justice forbidding it from whaling in the Antarctic. It has since continued to slaughter whales in its territorial waters. Watson and CPWF suspect that Japan intends to use the new ship, named Kangei Maru, to start whaling in the high seas again. According to the CPWF, the reactivation of the Red Notice was “politically motivated.”
Japan claims its whaling activities are for “scientific” purposes. The owner of Kangei Maru has also denied it will be used to resume whaling in international waters, and says it will be used for killing whales on Japan’s coastline.
As well as Japan, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands (an independent Danish territory) continue to slaughter whales, despite a 1986 ban by the International Whaling Commission on commercial whale hunting. Though whaling has lost popularity in Iceland, the Icelandic government granted its last remaining whaling company a license to kill 128 fin whales this year.
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