Animal legal rights protestor Paul Watson, released today from apprehension in Denmark, swore on Saturday to finish whale searching globally and to quit Japan if it attempted to return to whaling in the Southern Ocean.
Watson, a 74-year-old Canadian-American, went back to France on Friday after investing 5 months in apprehension in the Danish independent area of Greenland as a result of an extradition need from Japan.
“One way or the other we are going to end whaling worldwide,” Watson informed press reporters in main Paris where numerous hundred fans had actually collected to welcome him.
“We need to learn to live on this planet in harmony with all those other species that share this world with us.
“If Japan plans to go back to the Southern Ocean we will certainly exist,” said the founder of the conservation group Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF).
“We are not objecting Japanese whaling. We are just requesting they comply with the regulation.”
Under international pressure, Japan, one of three countries to conduct commercial whaling along with Iceland and Norway, abandoned these hunts. Since 2019 it has only caught whales in its own waters.
But in May, Japan launched the Kangei Maru, a whaling mother ship.
Activists believe this means Japan intends to resume whaling in the Southern Ocean, although the company operating the vessel has denied this.
“If the Kangei Maru mosts likely to the North Pacific or the Southern Ocean after that we will certainly interfere versus their unlawful procedures,” said Watson.
He also said he would oppose attempts by Iceland to resume whaling in 2025.
– ‘Enormous campaign’ –
In the 2000s and 2010s, Sea Shepherd played cat and mouse with Japanese ships that sought to slaughter hundreds of whales every year for ” clinical objectives”.
But in July, Watson was arrested and detained in Greenland on a 2012 Japanese warrant, which accuses him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler.
He was released on Tuesday after Denmark refused the Japanese extradition request over the 2010 clash with whalers.
Watson told reporters he had turned his incarceration into an ” substantial academic project”.
“Every circumstance gives a chance,” he said.
“And we have actually had 5 months to concentrate on Japan’s unlawful whaling procedures and additionally Denmark’s proceeded murder of pilot whales and dolphins in the Faroe Islands.”
On his release, Watson said he wanted to return to France, where his two young children attend school. He was looking forward to spending Christmas with his family before resuming his campaigns, he said.
His detention generated a high-profile campaign in his support that included prominent activists such as British conservationist Jane Goodall.
French President Emmanuel Macron was among those who spoke out for him and he also enjoyed massive support from the French public.
Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, said Watson had received more than 4,000 letters while in detention — more than 3,000 of them from France.
“He has actually obtained even more letters of assistance from Japanese people than from Australians,” she added, pointing out that ” much less than 2 percent of Japanese individuals consume whale meat”.
Watson told reporters: ” I am definitely overjoyed with the assistance that we got from France.
“But most importantly, I am so happy that so many people in France care about the ocean.”
cda-as/jj
