Sea Shepherd Update

The NZ press has had a great time with the story which took place over this past weekend on theSouth Island about Paul Watson, anti-whaling activist, avoiding arrest. Watson, who is wanted internationally by Interpol, dodged New Zealand authorities while finding time to swim with dolphins off the coast of Timaru on South Island. Watson evaded officials by switching ships in international waters off the NZ coast before the SSS (Sea Shepherd Ship) Steve Irwin docked at Timaru on Saturday to take on fuel.

Interpol has issued two "red notices" on Watson at the request of Costa Rica and Japan. A red notice is a request for any country to locate an individual for their arrest and extradition.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is on its ninth annual campaign against Japanese whalers and has four ships manned by more than 100 international crew plying the Southern Ocean to try to intercept the whalers. A fleet of Sea Shepherd ships visited New Zealand over the weekend. We saw two, the Brigitte Bardot and the Bob Barker, when we were in Wellington and took pictures of them which are in our Wellington Blog.

Three anti-whaling ships - the Steve Irwin, the Brigitte Bardot and the Bob Barker - had been required to clear NZ Customs before heading to the Southern Ocean for their protest campaign.

Watson was not on board the Steve Irwin, which he captains, when it docked in Timaru harbor on Saturday and New Zealand Customs carried out its standard checks.

He had been on the ship, but switched to the Brigitte Bardot before his ship arrived in Timaru.



The red notice was sought by Japan on charges of breaking into a vessel, damage to property, forcible obstruction of business and injury in relation to two incidents that took place on the Antarctic Ocean in February 2010


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