Iceland Seizes Paul Watson Foundation’s Boat as it Tracks Whale Hunt
The Icelandic Coast Guard and a team of special forces from the police boarded the vessel Bandero operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation on July 31 and arrested the captain. The forces took control of the vessel, which was accused of disobeying instructions from the Coast Guard as the activists were pursuing a whaling vessel.
The well-known activist group had reported it was launching a campaign this summer seeking to find and interrupt Iceland’s whaling efforts. The group accuses Iceland of violating a global moratorium on commercial whaling. The campaign was named “Operation 86,” which media reports said celebrated a November 1986 incident when two members of the Sea Shepherd group, also founded and formerly run by Captain Paul Watson, sneaked into a whaling station in Iceland and destroyed computers and equipment with sledgehammers.
The group had reported early in July that its vessel Bandero, a 500-ton, 65-meter (213-foot) motor yacht, had reached the region around Iceland. The vessel briefly left the region after a crewmember was injured and required medical treatment, but this week it had reported it was again “searching for Iceland’s last two active whaling vessels.”
The group asserted that, “The combined efforts of the Bandero crew and our ground team have helped slow the pace of the hunt.” It said it was also documenting the violations being committed by the whaling company.
Two weeks ago, media reports said that the Icelandic Coast Guard had observed the Bandero entering Iceland’s EEZ without transmitting an AIS signal. The vessel claimed its AIS was malfunctioning, and Iceland had ordered the ship to report its position hourly by alternate means.
The Icelandic Coast Guard said it received a report on July 30 that the crew aboard the whaling vessel Hvalur 9 felt threatened by the Bandero, which had sailed into the 12-nautical-mile coastline of Iceland. The Coast Guard said its headquarters radioed the Bandero and ordered them to leave the Icelandic coast, and received no response.
The Coast Guard then sent its helicopter, which was on a standard patrol, to investigate. Again, they instructed the Bandero to leave coastal waters and received no response. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation posted online that the helicopter was “interfering with our operation as we work to monitor the whaling vessel Hvalur 9.”
The Coast Guard vessel Freyja was also dispatched, and it said when it reached the area, it ordered the Bandero to stop the ship’s engines. It asserted that the captain of the Bandero disobeyed the instructions, and that is when the special squad was called out. Around midnight, the special squad boarded the Bandero. It apprehended the captain of the boat and directed the vessel to Reykjavik. Media reports from Iceland are quoting the Coast Guard as saying the matter has been handed over to the police and prosecutors for investigation.
Bandero held in Iceland between the Coast Guard vessel and two Japanese warships (Captain Paul Watson Foundation)
The foundation is now writing online that the Bandero is “being held captive.” It asserts that two Japanese warships have been positioned near the vessel, which remains docked in Reykjavik. Japan has been pursuing Watson since a 2012 incident and attempted to have him extradited in 2024 after he was arrested in Greenland.
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Captain Watson was not aboard the vessel, but has posted video messages to his followers calling for support.
It is the second time this year the Bandero has been involved in a reported incident. In April, it was accused of ramming a fishing boat as part of its efforts to interrupt krill fishing in Antarctica.
