Iceland seizes Paul Watson-linked protest ship Bandero after whalers' complaint

London,UPDATED: Aug 2, 2026 01:46 IST

Icelandic coast guards and police special forces have seized the protest vessel Bandero, which is operated by a group founded by anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, and detained its crew. Officials said the action followed a complaint from the crew of the whaling ship Hvalur 9, who sought help after saying they believed their safety was under threat.

The Icelandic Coast Guard said Bandero ignored instructions to leave Icelandic waters and later failed to comply with an order to stop its engines. The vessel arrived in Reykjavik on Friday, and police have taken over the investigation. Watson was not on board.

According to the coast guard, the crew of Hvalur 9 requested assistance on Thursday evening. Coast guards and the police special forces unit, the Viking Squad, boarded Bandero around midnight on Thursday and detained those on board.

The Captain Paul Watson Foundation confirmed in a statement that the ship had been seized. It said the vessel's 21 crew members were being detained on board without their phones. Icelandic national broadcaster RUV reported that police will seek to deport the crew and ban them from returning to Iceland.

Along with Norway and Japan, Iceland is one of the few countries that still practise commercial whaling. It sets annual quotas for fin whales and minke whales that can be hunted in its waters. Most of the whale meat is exported to Japan, but demand there has fallen since Japan left the Whaling Commission and resumed commercial whaling in 2019. The hunt has become increasingly contentious in Iceland, where whale meat is now rarely eaten.

Watson, 75, who was born in Canada, is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. His confrontations with whaling vessels at sea drew celebrity support, featured in the reality television series "Whale Wars", and regularly led to jail time. He left Sea Shepherd in 2022 to start his foundation.

In 2024, Watson was jailed in Greenland for five months after being arrested on a Japanese warrant over charges of obstructing a whaling ship in 2010. After his release in December 2024, he said, "I have to make sure that I don't land in Iceland or another country where Interpol might try to have me arrested again." Interpol had issued a red notice against him in 2012, and he was removed from its most-wanted list in 2025.

Watson's hard-line tactics have divided the movement he helped build, while marine companies have accused anti-whaling activists of putting vessels and lives at risk. Earlier this year, Bandero collided with an industrial krill trawler in Antarctica in what the ship's Norwegian owner described as a deliberate attack that endangered its crew and could have caused an environmental disaster. The latest seizure in Iceland now places the vessel and its crew at the centre of a police investigation.

With PTI Inputs

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