Japan has issued an arrest warrant for the firebrand Canadian head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, charging him with obstructing operations by Japan's whaling fleet.
According to Kyodo News on Friday, the Japanese Coast Guard has obtained an arrest warrant for Paul Watson, the founder of the anti-whaling group, for allegedly ordering his volunteer members to obstruct whalers.
Far from denying the Japanese allegations, an unrepentant Watson told CTV News Channel Friday that he will continue his efforts to block the Japanese whaling fleet off Antarctica.
"I'm surprised it's taken them six years to realize we're obstructing whaling operations," he said in an interview from New York. "I go down there to obstruct illegal whaling operations. Japan's targeting endangered whales in an established whale sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on whaling."
"They're poachers and we're an anti-poaching organization."
Sea Shepherd activists had a major confrontation with whalers in January when the Japanese ship Shonan Maru 2 collided with the Ady Gil, a high-tech, high-speed boat captained by Peter Bethune. The Ady Gil was destroyed in the collision.
Then in February, Bethune allegedly jumped from a moving personal watercraft onto the Shonan Maru 2. He was attempting to make a citizen's arrest and hand over a US$3 million repair bill for the damage incurred in the January collision.
He was taken into custody, brought back to Japan and has been held there ever since.
"Japan seems to do whatever it wants to do," Watson said. "We're talking about the Wild West out there."
The controversial anti-whaling activist scoffed at the arrest warrant, saying he was not worried about being extradited to Japan.
"The only reason the Japanese can issue a warrant is because they're a government: Nobody's going to respect that warrant," Watson said. "Interpol doesn't act on warrants that are politically motivated."
He said the Japanese are moving against him and his group now because they are becoming more and more successful at disrupting their whale hunt. "And they're getting increasingly angry with us, but we will be back at the end of this year and once again we will obstruct their operations."
Japan's annual whale hunt is sanctioned by the International Whaling Commission as a scientific program. However, opponents say it is nothing more than a cover for commercial whaling, which has been banned since 1986.
The Sea Shepherd activists have received large measures of criticism as well as commendation for their tactics.
The well-funded group trails whaling vessels and attempts to disrupt their efforts by dangling ropes to snarl ships' propellers, as well as hurling packets of stinking, rancid butter on the ships' decks and getting between the whalers and their prey.
Even if the Japanese do manage to arrest him, Watson vowed that his crew will continue efforts to disrupt the whaling. "If I get arrested then our ships will go there nonetheless and my crew will continue to obstruct their whaling operation."
