July 25, 2025 — International police organization Interpol has removed Sea Shepherd founder and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from its “red notice” list, which signifies its highest priority targets for capture.
“The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012,” Watson said in a social media post. “It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources, but finally I am free.”
August 30, 2017 — The environmentalist group Sea Shepherd has called off its annual pursuit of Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean, according to the group’s founder, who said it cannot keep up with Japan’s surveillance technology.
“What we discovered is that Japan is now employing military surveillance to watch Sea Shepherd ship movements in real time by satellite,” the group’s founder, Paul Watson, said in a statement. “If they know where our ships are at any given moment, they can easily avoid us.”
Sea Shepherd, a self described “eco-vigilante” group founded in 1977, has spent years patrolling the remote Southern Ocean, investigating and documenting illegal fishing and whaling operations, putting it directly at odds with Japanese vessels. In addition to filming the operations, the group uses confrontational tactics that include shooting water cannon and stink bombs at the Japanese vessels.
Mr. Watson maintains that his group acts within the law. “We never caused a single injury to any person in all of these years,” he said in an interview. “The criminals are quite plain to see.”
Since 2005, Sea Shepherd has patrolled the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, a protected area where whaling is prohibited. A few nations, including Japan, have special research permits that allow for some whaling.