NewsA Greenland court ordered on Thursday that anti-whaling activist Paul Watson remain in custody until September 5 in order to ensure his presence in connection with the decision on his extradition to Japan, according to a statement published by Greenland Police. The statement added that the detained activist appealed this decision to Greenland’s High Court, which will decide on the case.
Paul Watson is an American-Canadian environmental activist known for his anti-whaling activism and radical tactics in defending marine biodiversity. He founded two NGOs, the Sea Shepherd and the Captain Watson Foundation, both dedicated to ocean conservation and marine fauna protection.
The President of the Sea Shepherd, Lamya Essemlali, criticized the conditions under which the trial was held. She said that Paul Watson was deprived of the right to have a translator during the trial, which is contrary to Danish laws. “Paul Watson didn’t have a translator, which meant that most of the time we weren’t able to understand what was being said, except when the lawyers or the prosecutor asked him questions in English. This was unfair,” she stated.
Danish police arrested Watson on July 21 when his ship docked in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, to refuel. At the time of the arrest, Watson’s ship was on a mission in the North Pacific to intercept a Japanese factory whaling vessel. His arrest was based on an international arrest warrant made by Japan over a prior encounter in 2010 between the activist’s vessel and a Japanese whaling ship. Japanese authorities accused him of causing damage to a Japanese vessel by throwing a stink bomb at a crew member in addition to causing injury. Following this, Japanese authorities asked Denmark to extradite Paul Watson so he could be tried in Japan.
During Thursday’s trial, the defense lawyers asked to present the court video evidence of the 2010 incident. They claimed that this video, filmed during the TV program Whale Wars, shows that the crew members of the attacked ship were not on deck when the bomb was thrown. However, the court refused to see the video.
Paul Watson’s activism relies on direct action strategies to disrupt whaling methods and force countries to comply with the International Convention For the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). This includes direct actions on the ground, using boats and a crew of volunteers to pursue seal hunters and manhunt poaching vessels, leading to violent confrontations.
The ICRW was signed in 1946 and is the founding document of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The ICRW aims to balance the proper conservation of whale stocks, the protection of the various species of whales, and the orderly development of the whaling industry. The convention mentions three types of whaling: commercial, aboriginal, and scientific. The first type of whaling has been subject to a moratorium since 1986, and the second type has catch limits set by the IWC every six years. As for the third type, it requires a special permit issued individually by countries under the advisory role of the commission.
Japan was a member of the IWC until it withdrew in 2019; therefore, it is no longer bound by the commission’s ban on commercial whaling. Five years later, Japan sought to expand its commercial whaling along its coast to larger species than currently permitted. Japan’s whaling has been a source of controversy, with anti-whaling groups condemning it. At the same time, the Japanese government defends it, arguing that it is part of the country’s food culture and economy.
