Anti-Whaling Activist Paul Watson Released From Greenland Jail

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has been freed from a prison in Greenland and will not be extradited to Japan, the Danish Ministry of Justice announced today.

“It’s good to be out and … good to see that they are not going to send me to Japan and so have a go-home for Christmas,” Watson said on social media after his release in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “The only hard part was that my two little boys. I haven’t seen them since June.”

Watson was apprehended in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, in July while refueling a ship. Local police were acting on an Interpol red notice issued by Japan. It related to the alleged boarding of the Japanese whaling ship Shōnan Maru 2 in the Southern Ocean back in February 2010. The 74-year-old had denied all the charges, including one of assault, which could have led to 15 years in jail.

Just last month he told the Guardian, “I know that if I get sent to Japan, I’m not coming home.”

Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s minister of justice, said that he had not received sufficient assurances from Japan’s government that Watson’s five months in jail would be deducted from any future sentence. That technicality was enough to see Watson released, and his lawyers said that after some lunch as a free man, he would find a way quickly to get back to his current home in Paris, where he lives with his partner and their two young boys.

While he received support from some celebrities including French president Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Bardot and Pierce Brosnan (three names that you don’t often see grouped together), the Japanese government had accused Watson and his various groups of eco-terrorism.

Watson was an early member of Greenpeace and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Working under the Captain Paul Watson Foundation since 2022, he has continued his decades-long fight to stop commercial whaling. He is perhaps most famous for Whale Wars, the documentary-style weekly reality television series that aired in the U.S. in 2008. 

Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019 and has since resumed commercial whaling within its maritime exclusive economic zone. They claim that whale meat is part of its food culture and it supports the sustainable use of whales. We really don't need to add the inverted commas around sustainable. 

It’s the second time Watson has evaded the Japanese authorities, having been arrested in Germany in 2012 on a Costa Rican extradition warrant, but skipped bail after learning that he was also sought for extradition by Japan. There was no immediate comment from the Japanese Embassy in Copenhagen. The Interpol red notice, the system which flags people deemed fugitives to law enforcement worldwide, remains in place and valid. However given President Macron gave Watson an honorary citizenship of the city of Paris last week, he will be safe in France. 

“I think it all backfired on Japan because this has put an enormous focus on Japan’s continued illegal whaling operations," Watson told reporters before signaling he was far from done fighting.

“I’ve had five months of not really doing much, so I’m not really tired,” he said. “But we have a ship, being prepared to oppose Icelandic whaling operations in June next year. And we have a ship in Australia that is ready to intervene against Japan if they return to the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary. So we’re prepared to take action when we need to.”