Greenland Keeps Watson in Detention
Court rules that Paul Watson must stay in detention for another month, until final decision on Japan's request for his extradition.
The anti-whaling activist Paul Watson must stay in prison in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, for nearly another month, the court ruled today, 5 September. The court finds there are reasons to think he may attempt to leave the country, awaiting decision on extradition to Japan.
He was detrained in July upon arrival to Nuuk with his yacht John Paul DeJoria, named after an American tequila billionaire. Watson has protested against his detention and so has tens of thousands of petitioners, backed by his new homeland France. His supporters argue that his alleged crime is minor, about a skirmish in the ocean by Antarctica that went too far. One vessel was rammed and sank, obstruction of work in progress occurred, and Japan claims that personal damage was inflicted by Watsons crew.
Watson is the founder of the Captain Paul Watson organization. He is also a self-declared pirate of sorts. Any serious seaman would concede that his behavior at sea is no less than reckless, no matter what his higher purposes are.
The episode was in February 2010, when the New Zealand activist Pete Bethune threw an acid stink bomb at the Japanese whaling ship from an inflatable boat. Watson was not on the boat himself, but he is charged with complicity. Pete Bethune was arrested and prosecuted in Japan after the incident. He was convicted of the same charges that Watson is charged with. In the case against Pete Bethune, the Japanese court found that a crew member of the Japanese whaling ship was standing on the ship's upper deck when the stink bomb hit. In this connection, he got butyric acid on himself and a burn on his face, Julie Stage, who is among Watson's defenders, has stated. Sermitsiaq local Greenland newspaper. Pete Bethune faced 15 years in prison and was sentenced to 2 years, suspended for 5 years. BBC
While still at the Nuuk detention Anstalten, ‘the Institution’, which holds all kinds of criminals from all of Greenland, he is visited by surprisingly many foreigners, given the remoteness of the place, and has been interviewed.
Prison is almost like the deck of my ship
Watson gave a short interview to AFP and says that he feels comfortable in his cell in Nuuk. Here he has a view of the sea and can see, among other things, whales and icebergs.
- It almost feels like being on the deck of my ship, he says and calls the prison "the best prison I've been in".
Watson’s foundation wrote on its website that after his arrest his ship has been closely followed by Danish Navy arctic patrol vessel P572 on a 3,000 km journey south to Halifax, Canada.
“The Danish naval ship was lurking off Nuuk Harbor in Greenland when Paul Watson was arrested and has spent the last 4 days closely following behind us inside Canadian waters since we entered the Strait of Belle-Isle. I am sure they will say it’s a routine exercise, but the timing is suspicious. This morning the vessel decided, after matching our course and speed for several days, to overtake us and get to Halifax in a big hurry”, stated Locky MacLean, Captain of the John Paul DeJoria.
It is just a guess, but the ‘lurking off Nuuk Harbor’ might also be what the Navy wanted to avoid, if the anti-whaler ship captain should have chanced that Watson might be able to get out of prison and then wanted a lift from the seaside. Sailors know their pirates.
Knowledge of Arctic conditions is a must when commenting on this type of procedures. Greenlanders notice how often things goes wrong for inexperienced people. This captain’s stated intention was originally to sail through the North West Passage after the visit to Nuuk. Without approved escort and without experience this is a highly risky endeavor. Greenland sees an increasing number of private initiatives and expeditions that get into severe trouble and have to be rescued. That involves land, ice and sea rescue resources that are of course very thinly spread in the enormous land, and intervention is expensive.
Ocean Explorer grounded in Alpefjord, East Greenland. Glaciers and icebergs in the background. It is still summer. Photo: Færgelejet.dk
Last year, 11 September 2023, the cruise ship Ocean Explorer ran aground in Alpefjord near Mestersvig in the National Park in East Greenland, reported the Greenland national broadcaster KNR. It is an area that is not charted, so there is a warning for all shipping not to enter because the water depth is not measured overall, and because of deposition by runoff from the land and glaciers, depth varies over time. In spite of the warnings, the cruise ship with 206 passengers and crew entered the fjord and ran aground. Fortunately, no one was injured. But the ship was stuck and with limited engine power it could not work itself free. There is a military station some hours away, run by the Sirius patrol. They came to assistance but cannot drag such a large ship off the ground. There was no other way than to call for more powerful assistance, and wait. The closest larger navy ship was hundreds of kilometers away but set out for the long journey to assist. In the end, a private research vessel turned out to be not too far away and came to help. After some effort, and after a few days, the Ocean Explorer was rocked by the tide and finally dragged off the ground.