‘Whale Wars’ activist arrested in Greenland, could be extradited to Japan

Simone Del Rosario:

An anti-whaling activist and former reality TV star was arrested in Greenland on Sunday for something that happened 10 years ago. Now he could be extradited to Japan to face charges.

Danish police detained environmental activist Paul Watson of Whale Wars-fame in Nuuk, Greenland on a Japanese international warrant.

The arrest happened immediately after docking his boat. The ship’s captain Locky MacLean captured it and published it in a post on X.

“The John Paul DeJoria arrived this morning in Nuuk, Greenland, where We were immediately boarded by a SWAT team and Danish police, who wasted no time in cuffing Paul Watson, our founder, and arresting him on a decades-old red notice at the request of Japan.”

Watson’s camp believes the arrest stems from his anti-whaling in the Antarctic Ocean back in 2014. Japanese whalers used to hunt those waters and there was a long-standing red notice issued by Japan from that time.

Captain MacLean’s post states they were surprised by the arrest because “the Foundation’s lawyers had reported that the Red Notice had been withdrawn.” He further speculated that they had made the notice confidential in an effort to trick him into believing it was no longer active.

The crew had stopped in Greenland for supplies on its way to intercept a Japanese factory ship. The size and range of the ship prompted some to believe Japan could be gearing up to restart whaling operations in the North Pacific.

Watson was an influential early member of Greenpeace and went on to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which was the subject of Whale Wars, a show that followed a fleet of vessels attempting to disrupt Japanese whalers off the coast of Antarctica. The show aired on Animal Planet from 2008 to 2015.