Whaling: why the arrest of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson is controversial ?

| July 23, 2024 | News | No Comments

Whaling: why the arrest of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson is controversial ?

Paul Watson en conférence dans l'Hérault en 2015 Midi Libre – Max BERULLIER

Paul Watson, célèbre militant écologiste américano-canadien opposé à la chasse à la baleine et visé par un mandat d'arrêt international émis par le Japon, a été arrêté au Groenland, territoire autonome danois, et placé en détention jusqu'au 15 août.

Paul Watson was arrested on his ship which had just docked on Sunday in Nuuk, capital of Greenland, to refuel in preparation for “intercepting” Japan's new whaling factory ship in the North Pacific, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) said in a statement.

Japan is one of the last three countries in the world that still practices commercial whaling, along with Norway and Iceland.

Detained until August 15

Video posted by CPWF on social media shows officers handcuffing Mr. Watson on the deck of the John Paul DeJoria vessel, then placing him inside a police van before driving him away. ;take away.

He was then presented to a judge who ruled on his detention until a decision was made on his extradition to Japan, said Sunday Greenland Police in a statement.

The Nuuk District Court, Greenland "decided that Mr. Paul Watson would be detained until August 15 and the decision made subject of an appeal to the High Court of Greenland", said Judge Stig Nørskov-Jensen of the Greenland Court in a message to the ;#39;AFP.

The decision whether or not to extradite Mr. Watson will ultimately rest with the Danish Ministry of Justice, according to the police press release.

Illegal arrest warrant according to his lawyer

"The Japanese arrest warrant is illegal. It violates all international treaties on human rights, said to AFP Me François Zimeray, one of Mr. Watson's lawyers, judging that #39;in the event of extradition, Denmark "would be violating its own Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights".

Paul Watson founded the Sea Shepherd and CPWF organizations. He caused controversy with his tactics of direct confrontation with whaling ships at sea.

"Do everything to save Paul"

According to CPWF, he was arrested on the basis of a red notice from Interpol, for previous actions in Antarctica, which had disappeared, suggesting that # 39;it had been removed.

"It appears that Japan made the notice confidential in order to facilitate Paul's travel to make an arrest", writes the foundation in its press release.

The former French actress, Brigitte Bardot, whose foundation is committed to the animal cause, estimated, in an interview with the daily Le Parisien, that the &amp ;quot;Japanese government (…) has launched a global manhunt" against Paul Watson who "fell into the trap”. "We must do everything to save Paul",said the star again. The Japanese government did not react to this arrest.

In France, many personalities are mobilizing to support Paul Watson. This is the case, for example, of the actor Pierre Richard or the presenter Stéphane Bern.

Maligned whaling

The ship of Paul Watson's foundation was heading towards the Northwest Passage – a sea route linking, through the Canadian Arctic archipelago, the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean – in as part of its campaign to intercept the Kangei Maru, a recently built Japanese factory ship, in the North Pacific.

Japan defends whaling as a matter of "food security" in this resource-poor country, which imports large quantities of animal meat. But its consumption has fallen to around 2,000 tonnes per year, whereas it was 200 times higher in the 1960s.

Japan left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019 to free itself from a global moratorium on whale hunting. It is thus once again fishing for whales openly for commercial reasons, but confining itself to its own maritime space.

CPWF suspects Japan of wanting to resume high-seas whaling in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific by 2025.

She believes that the reactivation of the red notice against Mr Watson is "politically motivated, coinciding with the launch of the new factory ship".

Mr. Watson was wanted by Japan for causing damage and injury in two incidents in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010 against a Japanese whaling ship.

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