By Captain Paul Watson
On July 22nd, 2025, Interpol informed me that the Red Notice against me was cancelled.
I suppose I should have felt relieved, but in truth, I was simply tired.
I had been on the run for thirteen years as a fugitive from Interpol, from Japan and Costa Rica.
Being a fugitive came with some predictable titles. The labels were classic. Pirate, eco-terrorist, extremist, criminal fugitive, and in Japan, I was humorously called the “enemy of mankind.”
I managed to get myself on Interpol’s most wanted list without killing or injuring a single person, without stealing anything, and without damaging any property.
In 2014, Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals officially labeled me a pirate.
I must confess, I was flattered.
He did not charge me with any crime, just a judgment based on his opinion but as a U.S. Federal Judge that carried weight and credibility.
Japan had charged me with obstructing business and conspiracy to trespass. Costa Rica at Japan’s urging, charged me with something strange called shipwreck endangerment.
Costa Rica dropped the charges in 2017 and withdrew their Red Notice after a change of government in Costa Rica, leaving Japan as my sole pursuer and inquisitor.
Japan was determined; they wanted their retribution. They wanted their revenge for a television show that humiliated the Japanese whaling industry and government.
The Animal Planet show Whale Wars had exposed illegal Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to the entire world and was instrumental in persuading the International Court of Justice to make the judgment that Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean was not for research but instead was an illegal commercial enterprise.
It all began in February of 2010 when the Japanese whaling vessel Shonan Maru #2 deliberately rammed and destroyed the conservation vessel Earthrace. Six of the crew were violently thrown into the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean, and a cameraman had two broken ribs. The $2,000,000 trimaran was cut in half and destroyed.
Captain Peter Bethune had boarded the Shonan Maru #2 to confront the Japanese captain to demand compensation for the destruction of his vessel. He did not harm anybody, he did not threaten anybody, he simply knocked on the door of the wheelhouse of the whaling ship and handed the Japanese captain a letter requesting that he be compensated for the loss.
Bethune was then taken prisoner and taken back to Japan on board the Shonan Maru #2. There he was charged with obstructing business and trespassing on a whaling ship.
There were no legal consequences to the Japanese captain. He had destroyed an expensive ship, injuring the crew without any repercussions. Yet Captain Bethune, the victim, was charged with crimes and interrogated for two months to force him to confess.
Captain Bethune was not one of my crew members. He was not under my command; the Earthrace was his ship. I did not give him orders.
The Japanese prosecutor offered Bethune a deal. All he had to do was to state that I ordered him to board the whaling vessel, and if he did so, they would give him a suspended sentence and would allow him to return home.
Facing five years in a Japanese prison, Bethune took the deal. He was released, and I was charged with obstruction and conspiracy.
After his release, Bethune signed an affidavit testifying that he lied to the prosecutor in exchange for the suspended sentence. Japan refused to acknowledge that confession, and the charges against me remained.
I discovered that Japan was pursuing me in May of 2012 after landing at Frankfurt Airport in Germany, where I was detained and held for 9 days in a German prison and then released under house arrest pending an extradition hearing in the German courts.
I was held for two months until I was tipped off by a supporter in the German Ministry of Justice the day before Germany had decided to extradite me to Japan. I jumped bail and made my way to the coast of the Netherlands, where Sea Shepherd France had arranged for a sailboat to pick me up. From the coast of the Netherlands, I crossed the North Atlantic and went ashore at night to a deserted beach in Nova Scotia.
It was not easy. Germany had confiscated my Canadian and US passports. I had no identification. I crossed the Saint Croix River in New Brunswick to the shore of the state of Maine and then drove across the country to California, where I had arranged for my vessel, the Bridget Bardot, to pick me up just off Catalina Island near Los Angeles.
From there, across the North and South Pacific to the waters of American Samoa, where I rejoined my flagship, the Steve Irwin, and prepared to return to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with four ships to once again confront the Japanese whaling fleet.
It was our best campaign ever. We prevented the Japanese whalers from taking 90% of their kill quota and thoroughly embarrassed them before the eyes of the world.
Unable to return to shore with my ships, I spent the next six months in exile on deserted South Pacific islands. It was not unpleasant.
Finally, in October of 2013, United States Secretary of State John Kerry, having reviewed Bethune’s affidavit, made the political decision to allow me to return to the United States.
In 2014, I moved to France, where I also had the protection of the French government.
I returned to the United States in 2016 to make the documentary film Watson and to continue to organize campaigns to protect whales and dolphins, and seals.
Although free to travel in France and the United States, the Interpol Red Notice made it very difficult for me to organize and lead campaigns at sea.
The Interpol Red Notice was also used as an excuse by opportunistic individuals to remove me from the board of directors of Sea Shepherd USA and Sea Shepherd Global, with both claiming that I had become too controversial and that I was a threat to their decision to make Sea Shepherd more mainstream and less confrontational.
Sea Shepherd France, Sea Shepherd Brazil, and Sea Shepherd UK continued to support me, and outside of those three countries, I established the Captain Paul Watson Foundation to carry on the movement that I had created 50 years before.
I secured a ship with the help of John Paul DeJoria and put it to sea in June of 2023, bound for Iceland to oppose their illegal whaling operations.
On the day we arrived, Iceland canceled its operations for the summer. Iceland also canceled whaling operations for the summer of 2024, so I decided to transit the Northwest Passage to Japan to interfere with the new Japanese whale factory ship, the Kangei Maru.
My lawyers had assured me that the Red Notice was no more, that it was no longer on Interpol’s computers, and I was able to enter Ireland without being flagged. It was, however, a trick. Japan secretly contacted Denmark directly, knowing that I would be refueling in Nuuk, Greenland.
Upon arrival in Greenland, I was arrested by Danish police who showed me the Red Notice stating that I was an armed and extremely dangerous eco terrorist. As a result, I spent five months in prison in Greenland
However, it was an excellent opportunity to use my detention to focus international attention on Japan’s continued illegal whaling operations. Neither Japan nor Denmark was prepared for the backlash that followed my imprisonment.
The support from around the world was tremendous, including calls for my release from President Emmanuel Macron of France, the President of French Polynesia, Moetai Charles Brotherson, President Lula de Silva of Brazil, and Pope Francis in the Vatican. Calls came from celebrities including Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Sylvia Earle, and notable people like James Cameron, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Sheen, and Bridget Bardot. Huge banners with my picture were hung in front of city halls across France, including Paris, Lyon, and Marseille, and over 1,000,000 signatures were gathered demanding my release.
On December 17th, 2024, the Greenland court decided to extradite me to Japan. The next day, the attorney general of Denmark made the political decision to release me.
I returned to France under the protection of the French government, where I was awarded honorary citizenship to the city of Paris and the medal of the National Assembly.
All this publicity and support were very helpful in petitioning Interpol to have the Red Notice removed. In May of 2025, the Red Notice was temporarily removed, awaiting the decision on June 24th to see if that removal would be permanent.
On June 24th, 2025, Interpol decided to remove the red notice permanently.
Japan was furious, and they have vowed to continue to seek my extradition despite the further embarrassment of having Interpol reject their demand that I be extradited and that the Red Notice be extended.
Japan has spent millions of euros pursuing me, lobbying France, Denmark, and Interpol, and they have lost. They are angry, and this is not a very secure situation for me, but it is a situation that I have chosen, and I have no regrets.
We forced the Japanese whaling fleet permanently out of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and we saved 6500 whales. We shut down Icelandic whaling for three years in a row, and we have exposed numerous crimes on the high seas like the killing of dolphins by the French fishing industry and the slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins in the Danish Faroe Islands. This summer, we forced Iceland to cancel the third season of whaling.
Japan has made it very clear that, in their eyes, I am Public Enemy #1. However, in light of what has been achieved, I have no problem with that.
Finally, The Red Notice is No More
The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years, ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany, in May 2012.
It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources, but finally, I am free of their vendetta and their relentless persecution.
Interpol has officially and permanently dismissed the Red Notice against me.
The charges against me were politically motivated. This Interpol case is dismissed.
