The intrepid team of Burners at SHIFTPOD have recently been doing some extreme stress-testing of their products in the Arctic Circle – Greenland, to be exact. The products performed exceptionally, exceeding the team’s already high expectations. While there they discovered that Captain Paul Watson, the heroic founder of Greenpeace The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, had just been arrested – for something done by someone else 14 years ago. They were able to get an exclusive interview with Captain Watson in jail:

SHIFTPOD founder and CEO Christian Weber said:

Few individuals have shown such unwavering commitment to the planet as Captain Watson. He has risked his life repeatedly, placing himself between fast-moving whaling ships armed with high-explosive harpoons and the whales they target.  
 
Imagine being in a small rubber boat, navigating high seas at 20 knots, with a massive steel ship bearing down on one side and a majestic, intelligent whale on the other. This is the kind of desperate battle for life Captain Watson has faced countless times.
 
Today, Captain Watson is facing yet another battle. He has been jailed in Nuuk, Greenland, by the Dutch government and now faces extradition to Japan on a 15-year-old charge. His side of the story has yet to be told, and it is critical that the world hears it.

Source: SHIFTPOD.com

Captain Watson’s fierce battles against Japan and Denmark on behalf of whales have been well documented on the Animal Planet show Whale Wars, featuring boats donated by Bob Barker, Martin Sheen and the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

He was arrested on July 21. His custody keeps getting extended, with the latest court date for his extradition hearing now set for December 4, 2024.

He has been charged with “obstruction of business”, “trespassing”, and “conspiracy to trespass” based on a 2010 incident when the Japanese whaling trawler Shonin Maru rammed Pete Bethune’s vessel the 78-foot trimaran Ady Gil off the coast of Antarctica in the Southern Ocean.

Paul was 300 miles away on a different boat when this happened. Pete Bethune later boarded the Japanese vessel to make a citizen’s arrest under International Maritime Law despite Watson’s recorded statements on camera saying he didn’t want to be part of it. Bethune was arrested by the Japanese authorities, and after spending four months in jail in Japan he was told that if he said he acted on the orders of Watson he would be released with a suspended sentence, a deal he took. Two years later Bethune signed an affidavit that his statement was not true and made under duress; this was accepted by then U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who granted Canadian-born Watson a visa.

This Interpol Red notice was gone last November. People from Denmark’s Faroe Islands, who have an annual blood sacrifice of whales and dolphins called a grindadrap that Watson’s team have frequently disrupted, tipped off the Japanese, who re-issued the Red notice just to Denmark. When Watson landed in Nuuk, Greenland from Ireland, the 73-year old was met by 15 (!) Danish police who took him immediately to custody – where he remains today, despite the local punishment for these alleged “crimes” being a $600 fine. Japan wants to put him away for 15 years, surely a death sentence.

Captain Watson was denied an interpreter or any ability to present evidence.

“It’s obvious to me that Japan is seeking revenge for the international humiliation caused by the Whale Wars TV series, reporting our actions against illegal whaling,” Watson said in a statement to the court. “But my two little boys need me more than Japan needs its revenge.”

Source: DiverNet

Thanks to SHIFTPOD for this excellent interview, please help us all get the word out. We must free Paul, he cannot be left to rot in a Greenland jail or tortured in Japan due to political pressure from countries violating the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling as well as a 2014 ruling from the International Court of Justice.

Here’s some of the back story. This was a big deal Down Under in Australia and New Zealand when it happened 14 years ago.

Shonin Maru rams the $2 million Ady Gil, nearly killing 6 people, over an $800 fishing net:

Whale Wars – Pete Confronts The Captain:

Paul Watson on video saying “it’s really Pete’s call, I would leave it up to Pete, whatever Pete thinks”: