Greenland arrests anti-whaling activist on Japanese warrant July 22, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Jul 21, 2024
- 3 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Greenland arrests anti-whaling activist on Japanese warrant
Greenland police have arrested prominent anti-whaling environmentalist Paul Watson under an international warrant issued by Japan, detaining him until August 15, authorities and his foundation said.
His ship had just docked on Sunday in Nuuk to refuel, on its way to “intercept” Japan's new whaling factory ship in the North Pacific, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) said.
A video posted by the CPWF on social media showed officers handcuffing Watson on the bridge of the ship John Paul DeJoria, placing him inside a police van on the pier, and taking him away.
Watson was then taken to a district court which decided to detain him until a decision was made on his possible extradition to Japan, Greenland police said in a statement.
The district court in Nuuk, Greenland, “decided that Paul Watson would be detained until August 15 and the decision has been appealed to the Greenland High Court,” Judge Stig Norskov-Jensen told AFP.
The Danish Ministry of Justice will decide whether or not to extradite Watson to Japan, according to the police statement.
"The arrest warrant from Japan is illegal. It violates all international human rights treaties,” said François Zimeray, one of Watson's lawyers, adding that by extraditing his client, Denmark would ‘violate its constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights’.
Watson, who took part in the reality TV show “Whale Wars”, founded the organizations Sea Shepherd and CPWF. He drew attention for his direct action tactics, including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
CPWF said it believed his arrest was linked to an Interpol red notice related to Watson's previous activities against whaling in Antarctica.
The group added that the arrest was a “surprise” as his lawyers had informed them that the red notice had been withdrawn.
“However, it appears that Japan has made the warning confidential to facilitate Paul's travel to make an arrest,” said a statement.
Japan's government did not comment on Monday, but a spokeswoman for the Japanese coastguard told AFP that it was aware of the arrest.
“The Coast Guard will continue to take appropriate measures based on coordination with related entities,” the spokeswoman said.
The CPWF said the ship was en route to the Northwest Passage in its campaign to “intercept Japan's newly built factory ship, the Kangei Maru, in the North Pacific”.
The 9,300-ton “mother ship”, which set sail from Japan in May, slaughters whales caught and killed by smaller vessels.
It has a powerful winch that can carry carcasses of up to 70 tons up a ramp and 40 freezing containers, each with a capacity for 15 tons of whale meat.
Tokyo argues that eating whales is part of Japanese culture and a matter of “food security” in the resource-poor country, which imports large quantities of animal meat.
However, whale consumption has fallen to around 1,000 or 2,000 tons a year, compared to around 200 times more in the 1960s.
Activists aggressively pursued the Kangei Maru's predecessor when, before 2019, Japan hunted whales in Antarctica and the North Pacific for what it claimed were “scientific” purposes.
That year, Japan left the International Whaling Commission and today conducts commercial whaling, but only in its waters and on what it calls a sustainable scale.
The CPWF said, however, that it suspects Japan intends to resume deep-sea whaling in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific by 2025.
It added that it believes the reactivation of the Red Notice against Watson is “politically motivated, coinciding with the launch of the new factory ship”.
The Red Notice was issued in 2012, with an Interpol statement at the same time saying that Watson was wanted by Japan on charges of causing damage and injury in two incidents in the Southern Ocean in 2010 against a Japanese whaling ship.
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