Iceland Storms And Seizes Anti-Whaling Ship In Biggest Operation In Decades
Iceland's coast guard and special police units have boarded and taken control of the anti-whaling vessel Bandero after the ship allegedly ignored orders to leave Icelandic waters and to stop. The operation followed a confrontation with a commercial whaling vessel and ended with the arrest of the ship's captain shortly before midnight on 31 July. The Bandero, operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, had entered Iceland's twelve-nautical-mile territorial waters while monitoring the whaling vessel Hvalur 9. She was subsequently escorted to Sundahöfn harbour in Reykjavík. Paul Watson himself was not aboard.
According to the coast guard, a report was received at around 1800 on 30 July that the crew of Hvalur 9 believed their safety was under threat after the Bandero approached. The activist vessel was ordered to leave Icelandic waters and did not comply. A coast guard helicopter already on patrol was sent to the area and repeated the order, again without effect. The patrol vessel Freyja was then dispatched to intercept and instructed the captain to stop his engines, an instruction that was also not followed.
Special police officers were flown by helicopter to the Freyja while the coast guard's special operations unit closed on the Bandero in fast boats. The boarding was completed shortly before midnight, with officers arresting the captain and taking control of the vessel. The operation was carried out in cooperation with Iceland's national commissioner of police, with the ministry of justice informed throughout. A coast guard spokesman described it as the biggest operation in decades and said it went exactly according to plan. Most of the crew remained aboard, reportedly under armed guard.
The foundation confirmed the seizure and said the vessel had been following Hvalur 9 for several weeks as part of a campaign against Iceland's commercial whaling. Earlier on 30 July it claimed the Bandero had collided with the whaling vessel, forcing it to abandon its hunt and return to port. The coast guard confirmed that the Bandero had approached Hvalur 9 and attempted to disrupt its movement, but did not confirm that any collision took place. It said the arrest related to reported threats involving the whaling ship.
The Bandero is a 65-metre, 500-ton motor yacht. The foundation launched its campaign this summer to monitor and interrupt Icelandic whaling after the country lifted a two-year suspension on the commercial hunt, and the vessel arrived in the area earlier in the season, briefly leaving after a crew member required medical treatment. Icelandic fisheries data recorded seventeen fin whales taken by 17 July; the foundation put the figure at thirty. The hunting season runs from mid-June to mid-September.
