Fugitive Watson vows to prevent Japan killing a single whale

SYDNEY — Fugitive Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson vowed Friday to spearhead his group’s next campaign against Japan’s annual whale hunt, pledging to prevent a single whale being killed.

The Japanese whaling fleet usually sets off around December, with Sea Shepherd ships departing Australia to harass them soon after.

“Our goal this year is to achieve zero kills and we will do all within our power to make that goal a reality,” Watson said.

“It is expected that the Japanese will do whatever they can to stop us and one of their tactics is to eliminate me as the leader of this campaign. They may or may not do so, but either way they cannot stop the passion of my officers and crew, who will stand with me or who will stand, if need be, without me.”

Watson said that if he was “captured and politically crucified” before the next whale hunt, the Japanese “will find that I am not meek and unprepared.”

“The loss of my personal freedom or even my life will be a fair price for achieving the objective of realizing the security of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” he said.

Commercial whaling is banned under an international treaty but Japan has since 1987 used a loophole to carry out “lethal research” in the name of science—a practice condemned by environmentalists and anti-whaling nations.

Watson, who for years has harassed Japan’s whale hunt off Antarctica, was arrested in Germany in May for extradition to Costa Rica over the shark finning incident in 2002.

Japan has confirmed it asked Berlin to extradite Watson a few days before the marine conservationist skipped bail.