Costa Rica News – Captain Paul Watson’s personal odyssey of the sea has ended with him arriving onshore to join Bob Brown in fighting a US court case. Watson is an anti-whaling activist who avoided authorities by leaving Germany before a Japanese extradition order and staying at sea for over a year.
He arrived in L.A. on the Australian Sea Shepherd and was met by his lawyer and supporters. He learned that Costa Rica has dropped the Interpol “Red Notice” that sought his arrest. His court date is next week, for a case brought by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research.
They claim that he and the Sea Shepherd USA are in contempt of a restraining order by clashing with its whaling fleet in the Antarctic. Dr. Brown, the director of Sea Shepherd Australia will provide evidence that it is the Australian branch running the anti-whaling campaign, not the American arm of the organization.
Mr. Watson claims that the campaign against the Japanese fleet was done without him and he is prepared to give evidence.
About his long travel by sea, he said, “I got to see turtles lay their eggs, saw hundreds of thousands of seabirds, swam with sharks and with whales. So I can’t say it was an ordeal.”
He says that if Japan pursues a case against him, “it will be seen that this is purely political.” He is looking forward to spending time with his daughter and granddaughter, after so long at sea.
