Japan 'regrets' release of anti-whaling activist Watson

by Tomohiro OSAKI

Japan's government voiced dismay on Wednesday over the release of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson after Danish authorities refused Tokyo's extradition request.

Greenland arrested the Sea Shepherd founder in July for alleged damages and injuries caused by the group's high-seas battles to stop Japan's "scientific" whale hunts in the 2000s and 2010s.

"It is regrettable that the Denmark government did not accept Japan's request of passing him over and (the government) has conveyed this to the Danish side," said top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi.

"The suspect Paul Watson is wanted internationally as an accomplice of the February 2010 incident where activists of anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd injured members of Japanese whalers and damaged properties, after which an arrest warrant was issued," Hayashi said.

"The Japanese government will continue to deal with it appropriately based on law and evidence," he told reporters at a regular briefing.

- 'Whale wars' -

Authorities in Greenland -- a Danish autonomous territory -- released the 74-year-old Canadian-American on Tuesday after Copenhagen turned down Tokyo's extradition request.

Watson featured in the reality TV series "Whale Wars" and founded Sea Shepherd and, after being thrown out, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF).

Adept at gaining publicity, he gained notoriety for "direct-action" tactics such as ramming vessels and using acoustic weapons, water cannon and stink bombs.

In the 2000s and 2010s Sea Shepherd played a rough game of cat and mouse with Japanese ships as they sought to slaughter hundreds of whales every year for "scientific purposes".

AFP Japan halted its hunts in the Antarctic and North Pacific and since 2019, has only caught whales in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone

Former harpooner Shintaro Takeda described in a September interview the dangers posed to whalers by the activists.

"(They) tried to wrap ropes around our propeller, and all kinds of things, which escalated year by year," he said, adding that "no one died but I think it was close."

Japan eventually halted its hunts in the Antarctic and North Pacific and since 2019 has only caught whales in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

The catch list was limited to sei, minke, and Bryde's whales, but this year fin whales -- the planet's second-largest animal -- were added and on August 1 the first killed.

In May, Japan launched a new "mother ship", the Kangei Maru, to butcher the several hundred whales that its fleet catches every year and store the meat.

The CPWF says that its vessel the John Paul DeJoria was on its way to intercept the Kangei Maru when Watson was taken away by Danish police on the quayside in Nuuk.

Activists believe that in building the new ship, Japan intends to resume whaling in the Southern Ocean, but the company operating the vessel has denied this.

- 'Inhumane treatment' -

AFP Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has attracted public support over his legal woes

Watson's arrest attracted major public support, with a petition attracting over 200,000 signatures.

Backers included actress-turned-activist Brigitte Bardot and prominent British conservationist Jane Goodall, who urged French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.

Macron pressed Danish authorities not to extradite the campaigner, who applied for French nationality.

Supporters of whaling however accuse their critics of double standards given the methods used to produce much of the millions of tons of meat from other animals consumed every year.

In September, Watson's lawyers contacted the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, claiming that he could be "subjected to inhumane treatment" in Japanese prisons.

"My arrest has focused international attention on Japan's continuing illegal whaling operations and their intent to go back to the Southern Ocean... So, in fact, these five months have been an extension of the campaign," Watson told AFP on Tuesday after his release.

Jean Tamalet, one of his lawyers, told AFP that "the fight is not over."

"We will now have to challenge the red notice and the Japanese arrest warrant, to ensure that Captain Paul Watson can once again travel the world in complete peace of mind, and never experience a similar episode again," Tamalet said.

Japanese government has been tight-lipped throughout Watson's incarceration.

In a rare public comment on the case, Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said in October that the extradition request was "an issue of law enforcement at sea rather than a whaling issue".

Hideki Tokoro, president of Japan's main whaling operator Kyodo Senpaku, said Wednesday that the Japanese government should keep pressing to bring Watson to justice.

"They slammed into our ships... What they do is simply a business to collect donations," Tokoro told AFP.

© Agence France-Presse