http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=77615545-22c1-4cc9-bf13-c4587ef74144

Seal hunt protest crew sued by Tories
Marianne White, Canwest News Service
Published: Saturday, November 29, 2008
T he federal government has filed a $487,000 statement of claim against the seal hunt protest vessel Farley Mowat, owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, to recover the costs it has incurred for maintaining the ship since it was seized last April during the annual hunt.
"The Government of Canada filed that statement of claim against the Farley Mowat (Thursday)," said Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Phil Jenkins on Friday.
The ship has been in the custody of the government and docked at Sydney, N. S., since it was raided on April 12, 2008 for allegedly encroaching on seal hunters near Cape Breton 12 days earlier.
The RCMP, transported by the coast guard, commandeered the ship and arrested 17 crew members. In the end, only the captain and first mate of the anti-sealing vessel were charged with approaching within about a kilometre of the seal hunt without a permit.
The U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Society maintains the ship was in international waters observing the hunt at the time.
Society leader Paul Watson was in Australia Friday and was not available to comment but, in an interview earlier this week, Watson said his group is preparing a lawsuit against the government to seek $30,000 for each month its vessel remains seized.The vessel is worth about $750,000, according to its owners.
The statement of claim filed by the Canadian government includes security, shipyard and berthing expenses, as well as marine survey costs incurred between April 12 and the end of November.
On top of the $487,000, the government also paid for air surveillance to track the Farley Mowat, travel and overtime for fishery officers and coast guard surveil-lance, according to documents obtained under access to information laws by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and given to Canwest News Service.
The costs attached to air surveillance and expenses for fishery officers were not detailed in the documents, but logs show icebreaker George R.Pearkes spent nearly 12 full days between March 29 and April 14 supporting the RCMP in tracking and seizing the Farley Mowat.
Government officials refused to provide the cost to operate the icebreaker for a day, arguing it is not related to the Farley Mowat case because the icebreaker is owned by the government and the crews are on salary. The department has in the past said it costs $40,000 per day to operate a larger icebreaker, the Amundsen, an Arctic research ship.
The government will also have to pay for legal fees related to the court case against two Farley Mowat crew members. Both parties are due back in court for trial in April 2009.
Paul Steele, director general of DFO's protection and conservation branch, noted in a May e-mail to the department's top managers that these legal costs are going to be "significant" and will put financial "pressure" on his branch.
Jenkins said the costs borne by the government in the Farley Mowat case are simply "the cost of enforcing the law."
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said the dollar figure is much higher than it anticipated.
"I think Canadians will be shocked to see how much money the government is willing to spend to prevent people from monitoring the seal hunt," said Sheryl Fink, research specialist at the IFAW.
The government asked the Sea Shepherd Society to make arrangements to get the Farley Mowat back last month, but Watson said the ship has not been properly maintained. "We want it to be fully operational, just like it was before it was seized," he said.