Environment

Activist Defends Fight against Whaling at Paris Rally

REUTERS/Johanna Geron
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson and Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, talk to journalists during a press conference as part of a gathering by Sea Shepherd France and Vakita to welcome Watson after he was released from prison in Greenland’s capital Nuuk after five months in detention, at the Place de la Republique in Paris, France, December 21, 2024.

Jiji Press

16:29 JST, December 22, 2024

Paris (Jiji Press)—Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson on Saturday defended his fight against whale hunting, saying that his environmental protection activities are nonviolent movements.

It is wrong for Japan to regard him as an armed and dangerous terrorist, said the 74-year-old founder of the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd.

The real terrorists are the people who destroy the planet, Watson said at a rally in Paris where hundreds of his supporters gathered to greet him days after he was released from detention in Denmark.

Watson was released on Tuesday after five months of detention in the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland and arrived in Paris, where his family lives, on Friday.

He has been wanted internationally by Japan for obstructing the country’s whaling for research purposes. Denmark released him after rejecting Japan’s extradition request.