anti-whaling activist held in Greenland prison

  • Post last modified:September 12, 2024
  • Reading time:10 mins read


This week, authorities in Greenland decided that veteran anti-whaling activist Captain Paul Watson must remain in prison whilst they considered his extradition to Japan – despite global mounting pressure for his release:

Captain Watson’s anti-whaling activism

Captain Watson was arrested by Danish police back in July when his ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland. Authorities from Greenland – an autonomous territory of Denmark – claimed the arrest was due to an international arrest warrant issued by Japan. This was related to his his previous anti-whaling interventions in Antarctica more than a decade ago:

At the time of his arrest, Watson was travelling through the Artic to stop Japan’s new factory ship the Kangei Maru. The Canary previously reported on this ship back in May, when it first set sail. The ship is hunting endangered Fin Whales and carries drones with a range of over 100km which allows them to quickly find and kill them.

Less than 10 days after Watson’s arrest, Japan killed 59 Fin Whales. They also began harvesting the endangered animals in the North Pacific. This confirmed the Paul Watson Foundation’s suspicions that the Japanese government had ulterior motives behind the arrest.

In a press release, Watson stated:

They want to set an example that you don’t mess around with their whaling

Ignoring the evidence

The courts in Greenland allowed Japan to show their video evidence. However, they did not allow captain Watson to. The charges against him were bodily injury of a Japanese crew member, destruction of property, and trespassing.

However, had they allowed Watson’s team to show their video evidence, they would have seen that the charges were bullshit. His lawyers claim that the first charge is irrelevant – as:

the Japanese sailor was not at the spot that they claimed they got injured

Japanese authorities are trying to claim that the injuries came from a stink bomb which Watson set off. However, the video evidence very clearly shows Japanese sailors trying to fire tear gas at Watson’s boat. Hilariously, the wind blows it straight back into their own faces. From the video, it looks painful.

The second charge of trespassing comes from an incident whereby a Japanese whaling boat – the Shonan Maru – drove into the Ady Gil – an anti-whaling boat. Captain Pete Bethune then boarded the Shonan Maru to deliver a bill for the destruction of his ship. They arrested, charged, and then deported him on a suspended sentence. He was then forced to confess that Watson ordered him to board the ship – which he retracted once he was released.

The final charge of destruction of property is what Paul’s extradition is based on. This is allegedly due to damage to a $800 net – which Bethune cut when he boarded the Japanese ship. Meanwhile, the captain of the Shonan Maru was never charged or fined for taking out the Ady Gil.

Lawyers have pointed out that both trespassing and destruction of property are punishable by fine only, under Japanese law. Under both Greenlandic law and the Danish constitution, authorities are not allowed to detain anyone for an offence that is only fineable. Danish law enforcement are turning a blind eye to the evidence.

International law

Earlier this year, Japan defied international consensus and resumed commercial whale hunting. They are aiming to catch nearly 400 whales this year alone:

The International Whaling Committee (IWC) banned commercial whale hunting in 1986, with the exception of scientific research. Whilst Japan did always technically obey this, they continued to kill a whopping 333 whales each year and stated ‘research purposes’:

In 1998 Japan started conducting scientific research on whaling in the North Pacific and Antarctic. Countries within the IWC and conservation groups called it commercial whaling in disguise:

Notably, in 2019 Japan withdrew from the IWC. They then announced the resumption of commercial whaling within Japan’s EEZ – but they never announced catch quotas:

Commercial whaling is illegal under international law – which captain Watson is now in prison for trying to uphold. This is far more than any authorities did when Japan repeatedly broke said laws, when they decided to resume their whaling programs. Now, Japanese, Danish, and Greenlandic authorities are all culpable in detaining captain Watson under false pretenses. There is currently a petition to help free Watson.

Feature image via Captain Paul Watson Foundation/Youtube 





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