Paul Watson ; My Arrest in Greenland and the Fight for Ocean Conservation

Transcribed from Prison

I have been in a Greenlandic prison for over two months without court review of the evidence and with no decision concerning my fate. Up until now, in mid-September, it has been difficult to write. I am not allowed a laptop or a typewriter, and my left hand—my writing hand—painfully cramps because of the injury caused by the police handcuffs on August 15th when they first took me to court.

The question is: Why am I here? I did not injure anyone. I did not damage any property. I did not steal anything.

It all goes back 14 years to January 2010, when the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 deliberately rammed and destroyed the vessel Ady Gil. The collision injured an Animal Planet cameraman and left six crewmembers frantically swimming for their lives until they were rescued by the crew of the Bob Barker.

The Japanese whalers claim that the Ady Gil rammed the Shonan Maru 2—an absurd accusation easily defeated by reviewing the video of the incident taken by both the Bob Barker crew and the Shonan Maru 2 crew. At the time of the collision, I was 600 miles away on board the Steve Irwin.

The Ady Gil was not my ship, and I had no authority over its captain and crew. The ship was owned and operated by Pete Buthane. The Ady Gil crew became unwelcome guests on the Bob Barker and were later transferred to my ship, the Steve Irwin.

Captain Pete Buthane used his own crew and his own jet ski to board the Shonan Maru 2 at night. The next morning, after spending the night on the top deck of the Japanese ship, he waited for our helicopter to appear. He then walked to the starboard door of the wheelhouse and knocked. The Japanese crew was very surprised to see him, but Pete politely requested a meeting with the captain. He stepped inside the wheelhouse and was not seen again.

Within a day, the Japanese whalers transported him back to Japan, where they charged him with trespassing, destruction of business, and assault causing injury.

Pete was interrogated for hours each day and offered a deal: a suspended sentence in exchange for testifying that I ordered him to board the Shonan Maru 2. He agreed to the deal, and I was charged with conspiracy.

My policy has always been non-violent intervention, and the stink bombs were effective in dispersing the crew without causing harm. The Japanese claim that a whaler was burned by butyric acid is false. The material does not cause burns or skin irritation; that is why we used it.

At the time, our video evidence demonstrated that the Japanese crew was spraying pepper spray at the small boat crewed by Buthane and three others. The video clearly shows the pepper spray being blown back into the faces of the Japanese crew, and you can see them wiping their hands and sleeves. Pepper spray can cause blisters. All of this could have been proved with a chemical analysis of the clothes worn by the Japanese whalers.

Did the clothing contain traces of butyric acid or pepper spray? The problem is that the whalers admit they burned the clothing because they did not anticipate a need for evidence.

Captain Pete Buthane decided to board the Shonan Maru 2 to confront the captain who destroyed his ship. His plan was to deliver a letter and demand compensation for damages. I did not support his plan, nor did I involve myself with his preparations, but I did feel he had the right to peacefully confront the man who destroyed his ship.

On camera, I advised Pete Buthane to do a media tour of Australia and New Zealand, but he was passionate about returning to sea to confront the captain of the Shonan Maru 2 for destroying his ship. Australia and New Zealand authorities refused to investigate the incident.

Buthane participated with my crew in interventions against the unlawful whaling operations of the Japanese whaling fleet. This included splashing red paint on the word “research” painted on the side of the factory ship Nishin Maru. This was done to highlight that Japan was involved in illegal commercial whaling, not research, as they were falsely claiming.

The Japanese vessel Shonan Maru attempted to prevent our helicopter from landing by deploying a water cannon onto the helicopter deck.

Pete Buthane and three other crewmembers approached the Shonan Maru 2 with stink bombs in an attempt to intimidate them and turn them away from the helicopter deck of the Steve Irwin.

We had used stink bombs every year and had deployed over a thousand of them between 2005 and 2010. Each bottle contained 75% butyric acid and 25% water. Butyric acid is an organic, natural, non-corrosive, and non-toxic substance. It is found in human vomit and rotten butter and is less acidic than orange juice.

Japan continues to violate the 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling.

Denmark continues to support the killing of pilot whales and dolphins, in violation of the European Union’s Bern Convention, which makes it illegal to kill cetaceans.

In light of these blatant international conservation crimes, I remain imprisoned on charges Denmark refuses to investigate or resolve.

As Shakespeare wrote in Honesty, “There is something severely rotten in Denmark,” and this stench is the thousands of rotten corpses of dolphins, alongside a judicial system that protects cetacean carnage.

My arrest in Greenland has accomplished the objective of bringing this issue into the international spotlight.

I am scheduled to appear back in the Greenlandic court, where the judge has already indicated he will detain me once again for another 28 days, and perhaps longer after that.

The Japanese charges, if committed in Denmark or Greenland, would be punishable by a small fine and no jail time. They are minor charges, with no proven injuries or damages, and the charge of obstruction of business contradicts Japan’s claim that their whaling was for research purposes.

Japan will not be sneaking back to the Southern Ocean and violating whaling regulations in the North Pacific without the world noticing and challenging them.

As I look across the fjord from the window of my prison cell, it feels as though I am back in the Southern Ocean. I see icebergs and whales. At night, I see the Aurora Borealis dancing in the sky, connecting me to the Aurora Australis. This reminds me that what we do is global. Defending life in the sea means defending life, diversity, and interdependence for the future. If the ocean dies, we all die with it.

I am thankful for the support of the President and Prime Minister of France, the President of Brazil, the environmental Minister of Panama, Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Sylvia Earl, Ric O’Barry, James Cameron, Martin Sheen, Pierce Brosnan, Bryan Adams, Brigette Bardot, and Anthony Kiedis.

I am also grateful for the hundreds of thousands of people who have signed petitions, and for the more than 2,000 letters from 27 different countries, including Japan.

The efforts of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, Sea Shepherd France, and Sea Shepherd Brazil have been tremendous. I am grateful to my family for being patient and supportive.

Now, let’s look at the positive side of this long maritime odyssey that we have weathered for the past twenty years since 2005.

We drove the Japanese whale poachers from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, saving the lives of over 6,500 whales in the process. The objective of Operation Kangei Maru when we departed from Ireland in June 2024 was to focus international attention on the launching of Japan’s new factory ship, the Kangei Maru, and to prevent the return of Japanese whalers to the Southern Ocean.

As the leader of the anti-whaling campaign and as the star of Whale Wars, the Japanese government sought to punish me as an example to others who oppose their whaling operations. They also wanted to punish me for initiating the campaigns to oppose the killing of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, where I created The Taiji Cove Guardian Program.

Japan’s motivation is simply revenge for a television show that brought shame to the nation by exposing their illegal whaling operations.