Anti-whaling activist laughs off Japan charges: ‘they can’t extradite me’

“If they think it prevents our opposition, I’ve just changed ship. My ship right now is Prison Nuuk,” the 73-year-old US-Canadian campaigner said, a mischievous smile crossing his face in the visitors’ room of Greenland’s Nuuk Prison.

Watson, who featured in the reality TV series Whale Wars and founded Sea Shepherd as well as the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.

Watson is being held behind bars pending the government’s decision, to make sure he does not flee.

This time, Watson and his legal team insist Tokyo has a vendetta against him.

“They want to set an example that you don’t mess around with their whaling,” said Watson, clad in a thick grey jumper.

The Nuuk court is to decide on September 4 whether to prolong his custody. “The lawyers tell me they’re going to extend my detention.”

From his cell in the modern grey prison building overlooking the sea, Watson can watch as whales and icebergs pass by his window.

“It’s almost like I’m on the deck of my ship,” he said, calling it “the best prison I’ve ever been in”.

He said he does not mind his detention so much, except that he misses his children, aged three and seven.

He spends his time watching detective shows and reading a lot – he has just devoured an anthology on popes – but mostly he has been writing, he said.

He gives his texts to Lamya Essemlali, the head of Sea Shepherd France, who has visited him almost daily since his arrest.

More than 100,000 people across the world have signed a petition calling for his release.

His co-detainees in the prison “are all big fans”, he said, despite his opposition to Greenland’s traditional seal hunt. “I signed autographs when I arrived.”

He also receives a lot of