War of words over Sea Shepherd's anti-seal hunt ship seizure
Posted: April 13, 2008, 11:03 AM by Shane Dingman
World, Canada
There's a few updates this morning on the strange saga of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Farley Mowat, seized Saturday for violating Fisheries laws around the seal hunt.

The two men charged in the fracas have received bail, but are still in custody pending post, and six more are in immigration custody and are embarking on a hunger strike. The crewmembers are refusing to sign into Canada, claiming to have been brought into the country "at gunpoint."

Here's how the war of words is breaking down so far:

The captain and first officer of the anti-seal hunt vessel Farley Mowat are facing charges in a Sydney, N.S. court in connection with a confrontation with a coast guard ship on March 30.

The Mowat, operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was seized by an armed RCMP team, working with fisheries and coast guard personnel, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence Saturday as it was monitoring the hunt.

"The Canadian Coast Guard seized a European-registered yacht in international waters which technically is an act of war," said SSCS leader Paul Watson.

Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn had little sympathy for the protesters' tactics.

"They are a bunch of money-sucking manipulators," said Mr. Hearn, "and their sole aim is to try to suck as much money out of the pockets of people who really don't know what's going on."

Mr. Hearn said the ship was boarded and the captain and first officer arrested because the Farley Mowat failed to comply with warnings and continued to violate marine and fisheries regulations. The Minister said that he wanted the activities of the Farley Mowat stopped before someone got killed.

"The action was taken because the Farley Mowat and its crew, acting under the direction of Mr. Paul Watson, contravened the Marine Mammal regulations and the Fisheries Act that govern the seal hunt," said Mr. Hearn.

On his web site Mr. Watson, always entertaining with his headlines (Hysterical Hearn Hatefully Harasses Harp Seal Heroes), had this to say:

Hearn accused Captain Watson of directing the campaign from his “posh New York hotel suite where he was dining on steak and lobster.” That was a revelation to Captain Watson who is a vegetarian and last night slept on the couch of a friend in Brooklyn.

“Mr. Hearn has the resources of the RCMP at his disposal and they can check my credit card records and they will find just how frugal we are,” said Captain Watson, “but why let evidence and the facts get in the way of good propaganda spin?”

So, what's new today:

The Farley's Cap'n Alexander Cornelissen, and First Officer Peter Hammarstedt are being held under $5,000 bail, which hasn't been raised yet.

The men have been charged with approaching a seal hunt without a permit.

“They haven’t been released yet,” Allison Lance, a spokeswoman with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said Sunday. “We’re posting bail and they will be released as soon as that happens.”

Lance said six crew members remain in custody by Canada Customs and Immigration because they declined to fill in immigration papers.

“They have refused to sign themselves into Canada,” she said. “They didn’t want to come into Canada. They were brought at gunpoint into Canada.”

The six have been identified as Amber Paarman of South Africa, Dan Villa, Greg Hager and Merilee Nyland of the United States, Anne Fournier of France and Merryn Redenbach of Australia.

The group have gone on hunger strike to protest their situation.

The Farley is said to be just arriving in Sydney now, originally it was to be towed by the Coast Guard, but that was switched up and the Sea Shepherd vessel is under its own power.

CP spoke to one of the people on the ship, a fella named David Jonas, from New Hampshire, who was released in Sydney:

He said an RCMP tactical squad boarded the ship at 11 a.m. ADT Saturday...

"We were placed under arrest, forced to lie down on the deck," said Jonas, a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. "We were then escorted to the stern of the ship and kept under armed guard."

Jonas reiterated Sea Shepherd Society honcho Paul Watson's line that Canada has no legal grounds to arrest the Mowat's crew.

"Canada did not have a right to board us and bring us to Sydney. We were in international waters. We're a Dutch-registered vessel and had the right of free passage."

Watson, who was in New York when his ship was boarded, said he would drive to Sydney on Sunday.