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Sea Shepherd Crew Members Arrested in Faroe Islands
OCEAN WARRIOR, North Atlantic Ocean, July 11, 2000 (ENS) - Three crewmembers of the Sea Shepherd's whale protection ship Ocean Warrior, have been arrested by Faroe Islands police.
The vessel with 40 in crew plus teams of journalists from across Europe, arrived in the Faroe Islands Saturday on a mission to protect pilot whales from the annual hunt by Faroese fishermen.
Pilot whale kill on the Faroe Islands (Photo courtesy Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS))
Sea Shepherd development director Frank Trinkle and Dutch comics Hans Teeuwen and Theo Maassen were arrested shortly after 11 pm Monday by Faroese police when they stepped off an inflatable life raft at the dock in Torshavn, the capital of this Danish protectorate.Three indictments and a fine of 50,000 DKr (US$8,000) have been levied against the ship by the Faroe Island authorities.
Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson has been served with indictments for entering Faroese waters illegally, for not leaving when instructed after he was first refused entry, and for not leaving after all crew were served with formal refusal of entry.
Sea Shepherd founder and president Paul Watson (Photo courtesy SSCS)
"We went exactly where instructed when ordered by Faroese Customs, and we have our Customs clearance in hand," said Watson. "Legal harassment from authorities is nothing new for us. The Faroese always become unhappy when attention is brought to the fact that they persist in the slaughter of a sentient species that should have stopped more than a hundred years ago. That's what we're here for."Sea Shepherd has lodged an official complaint with the British government against the Faroese police for having instructed the crew of the Ocean Warrior to "forcefully convince the captain to leave, or purposely prevent him from re-entering Faroese waters."
Watson considers the attempt by Faroese police to influence the behavior of the Ocean Warrior crew as "an attempt to incite a mutiny" on a British-registered vessel in undisputed international waters, an act he says "is a grave offense under maritime law."
Ocean Warrior (Photo courtesy SSCS)
On Saturday, Faroes police thoroughly searched the Ocean Warrior and interviewed every person aboard. They then gave every crewmember a "refusal of entry" document. Everyone aboard the ship was told that only media with international press cards would be allowed to go ashore in the Faroe Islands. The rest of the media was considered crew by the Faroese. Media representatives on board with international press cards went ashore Sunday.The Faroese annual pilot whale hunts are called grinds. The pods of pilot whales and dolphins are driven into shallow bays and killed with gaffes and long knives.
Sea Shepherd's "Operation GrindStop" has organized a boycott of Faroes seafood by European food chains. Four of the largest - Aldi's, Edeka, Tenglemann, and Rewe - have agreed not to renew their Faroese purchase contracts until the Faroes end the grind hunts.
Dead pilot whale and dolphin on Faroe beach (Photo Joe Hashman courtesy Cetacean Defence)
It is the position of the Faroese authorities that "a sustainable harvest of pilot whales occurring in the waters around the Faroe Islands is a legitimate activity." The scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission has estimated that there are approximately 750,000 pilot whales in the North East Atlantic."The annual catch corresponds to only a small fraction of the annual natural rate of increase, so there is no doubt that the Faroese pilot whale hunt belongs to the category of substainable use of natural resources," according to the Royal Danish Embassy in Washington, DC.
Attempts to deprive the Faroese people of their right to harvest this resource is seen to be in violation of the UN Covenants of 1966 on Human Rights, the Embassy states.
