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Paul Watson, the 73-year-old veteran activist, is known for his bellicose sea crusades and social media posts. He was an original member of Greenpeace before he was ousted for violence. Then he went on to found the combative group Sea Shepherd, from which he was also ejected. That led him to form his latest group in 2022, the eponymous Captain Paul Watson Foundation.
Watson was arrested in July in Nuuk, Greenland during a maritime refueling stop. He was on his way to Japanese waters as part of a foundation campaign to “block and stop” Japan’s ongoing whaling operations. The Greenland Police made the arrest on the basis of an earlier 2012 Interpol request from Japan. It cited previous Sea Shepherd campaigns in the Antarctic that led to damaged Japanese whaling ships and injured whalers.
Many Maneuvers to Avoid Extradition
Watson has been held in a Greenland jail since the arrest. Meanwhile, he and his legal team have employed various maneuvers to avoid extradition to Tokyo to face trial.
He has tried attempting to post video evidence of the run-ins at sea, which the court denied as it is deciding on extradition, not guilt, and asking for political asylum in France, which was denied because he is not in the country’s territory.
Most recently, Watson tried seeking French citizenship. French President Emmanuel Macron previously voiced support for Watson, who lived in France until his arrest.
Lifelong Fascination With Japan
While Watson struggles to avoid having to go to Japan, he has long had a fascination with the country. Furthermore, it is his long-running feuds with Japanese whalers that have led to some of his most prolific campaigns.
In his book “Earthforce!” first published in 1993, he compares himself to the legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. He quotes Musashi’s famous dictum from 1648, “It is said the warrior’s is the twofold way of pen and sword,” before adding his own quote from 1984, “The way of the Earth warrior is the twofold way of camera and confrontation.”
Scoring a Hit TV Show with Activist Notoriety
Sea Shepherd, Watson’s previous group, carried out Antarctic campaigns that brought the group global notoriety. They were also the subject of Whale Wars, a hit reality television series on the Animal Planet cable network. The show spanned seven seasons from 2008-2015. It was filmed entirely from the Sea Shepherd perspective, with TV crews onboard the group’s vessels and extended interviews with its activists.
During the same period, Sea Shepherd sent dozens of activists to the small village of Taiji, Japan. Once there, they protested and publicized local dolphin and whale hunts. The group called its teams the “Cove Guardians.”
They successfully capitalized on the success of the independent documentary The Cove. This was a scathing broadside into the local hunting practices that won an Academy Award in 2010. Those campaigns, run under names such as “Operation Infinite Patience,” faded out as the group’s members were barred from entering Japan under tourist visas.
Relentless Pursuit of Japanese Whalers
A source close to Watson said that the activist still believes he won’t ultimately be sent to Japan. However, the distinct possibility remains.
Watson appears to have been caught off guard by the arrest. Indeed, the Interpol “Red Notice” requesting his arrest had been removed from the international organization’s website. Also, countries are free to ignore Interpol requests. Meanwhile, Watson had traveled through countries including France and the United States since it was issued.
In the past, Sea Shepherd had pursued Japanese whaling ships through international waters, citing various interpretations of global law. However, the current campaign by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation aimed to intercept them in Japanese territorial waters.
Extending Interference to Whaling In Japan
Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission, which regulates international whaling, in 2019. Since then, it has conducted commercial whaling for meat under strict self-imposed quotas off of its own shores. It is a practice that many in the West find outdated but one that is legal. Moreover, it is part of a centuries-long domestic history of hunting and consuming these animals.
Historically, global whaling mainly for oil brought several species of whales to the brink of extinction. However, most have since recovered under an international whaling moratorium passed in 1982. Today the biggest threats to whaling are widely accepted to be ship strikes, fishing gear, and pollution.
However, for Watson, direct confrontation with Japanese whalers has proven itself. It attracts sympathetic media coverage and donations. Furthermore, the country may be an economic superpower and home to some of the world’s most famous brands, but Japan’s government is notoriously bad at defending its policies abroad. Often it opts instead for soft diplomacy and legal challenges over direct confrontation.
A spokesman at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government is aware of Watson’s arrest arrest and “will continue to address the case appropriately.”
Watson’s ‘Donation-Driven Business’
Sympathetic protests for Paul Watson have been carried out at various locations worldwide, including in Tokyo. At a ceremony to mark the start of Taiji’s dolphin hunting season, local authorities noted Watson’s arrest. They said they would be on alert for any related activity. An online petition to free him has surpassed 200,000 signatures.
At a press conference held in Tokyo in October, the president of whaling company Kyodo Senpaku expressed the industry’s view. Kyodo Senpaku owns the ships Watson aimed to target in his latest campaign.
Hideki Tokoro, the company president, said the activist was motivated to outlandish actions to draw attention and financial contributions. “The world needs to understand that Paul Watson is not addressing environmental problems, but rather operating a donation-driven business,” Tokoro told reporters.
In a September interview with JAPAN Forward, Sea Shepherd lawyer François Zimeray called a potential extradition “unjust” and politically motivated.
Denmark’s Interests
Greenland is a self-governing territory within Denmark, which controls its foreign, defense, and monetary policies. Ultimately Denmark’s Ministry of Justice will determine whether Watson is extradited to Japan. Meanwhile, Copenhagen awaits legal assessments from Greenland authorities.
The Faroe Islands, another Danish territory under self-rule, has also had run-ins with Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Society. The Faroese have for over a thousand years hunted local pods of small whales and dolphins. They drive them to shore in hunts called grindadráp. The animals are then slaughtered in shallow waters and the meat is distributed to local inhabitants.
In fervent campaigns such as the current “Operation Bloody Fjords,” the anti-whaling groups have taken advantage of the open nature of the grindadráp to record and stream crimson footage around the world. The Faroe Islands in turn have strong links to Japan. Klaksvic, a town in the Faroes, is a sister city of Taiji.
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Author: Jay Alabaster