Paul Watson jailed, Hvaldimir dead, Japan & Norway go on whaling

Japanese & Norwegian whalers enjoy activist & media distraction

         COPENHAGEN, OSLO––The Japanese and Norwegian whaling industries appear to be winning the 2024 “whale wars” by keeping low profiles while the marine mammal advocacy spotlight glares on Paul Watson,  73,  jailed in Nuuk,  Greenland since July 21,  2024,  and Hvaldimir,  the friendly wild beluga who was found dead on August 31,  2024 in Ryfylkefjorden,  Norway.

  (See Hvaldimir the Russian beluga “spy whale” dies in Norwegian fjord.) 

The Nuuk district court on September 4,  2024 “ruled that Canadian-American Paul Watson must remain in detention until October 2,  2024,”  reported Jan M. Olsen for Associated Press,  while the Danish justice ministry “considers the request.  Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark,”  Olsen explained,  “which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Japan,”  but Denmark does.

Judge Nuuks the whales

The Nuuk ruling ensures that Watson will remain in custody until after the newly built Japanese whaling factory ship Kangei Maru returns from an expedition to hunt fin whales in the North Pacific that Watson had hoped to intercept.

         (See “Hurry up & wait,” courts tell Paul Watson & San Diego cat advocates and Paul Watson arrested in Greenland; may be extradited to Japan.)

         The first Kangei Maru whaling voyage killed 15 Bryde’s whales between May 25 and June 12,  2024.  The second Kangei Maru whaling expedition was to begin,  reported the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun,  on June 18,  2024.

The Kangei Maru has a range of 7,000 miles,  or 60 days at sea,  according to BairdMaritime.com.

Smoke screen for the Kangei Maru

This would bring the Kangei Maru back to port not later than September 18,  2024,  with time enough to refuel,  resupply,  and complete the 2024 Japanese whaling season before Watson and his Captain Paul Watson Foundation vessel the John Paul DeJoria could reach the North Pacific,  even if Watson is released on October 2,  2024.

Watson was arrested by Danish police flown from Denmark specifically to detain him on a Japanese warrant dating to 2010,  just moments after his vessel,  the John Paul DeJoria,  landed at Nuuk,  Greenland to refuel.

The John Paul DeJoria was en route to the North Pacific via the Northwest Passage,  between northern Canada and the Arctic ice field.

Ice would keep Watson away even if courts don’t

Leaving Watson behind in Greenland,  the John Paul DeJoria anchored at Halifax,  Nova Scotia on August 8,  2024,  and has remained there.

As the Northwest Passage freezes over and closes each September,  the John Paul DeJoria would have to sail south and pass through the Panama Canal to reach the Pacific Ocean before the Northwest Passage reopens in July 2025.

Attorney Julie Stage,  representing Watson,  has appealed the Nuuk district court decision to the High Court of Greenland,  but no hearing date has been set for the appeal.

“We thought they would finally let him go”

“The news about Paul Watson is just devastating,”  Danish journalist and marine mammal activist Helene Hesselager O’Barry told ANIMALS 24-7 after the September 4,  2024 Nuuk ruling.

“We thought they would finally let him go,”  said Helene O’Barry,  wife of Dolphin Project founder Ric O’Barry,  “but they won’t even let him show video evidence in court that he is innocent.

“What I don´t understand,”  Helene O’Barry said,  “is why the Danish media does not write about the huge human rights implications of extraditing Paul to Japan.  I sent several letters to the Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelggaard and received no response.

Nightmares

“I know from Ric,”  who was jailed in Japan in January 2016,  “how inhumane the living conditions in Japanese prisons are.  He still has nightmares about that time,  and he only did 19 days.  Paul is looking at up to 15 years!”

Arriving in Japan on August 31,  2015 to maintain an annual vigil against dolphin hunting in Taiji,  the subject of the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove,  Ric O’Barry,  then 74,  was almost immediately arrested in the town of Nachikatsuura,  near Taiji,  for allegedly violating the Immigration Control Law for not carrying his passport.

(See Dolphin defender Ric O’Barry, cleared by Tokyo court, plans return to Japan.)

The Norwegian minke whaling season is also underway.  Norwegian whalers killed 580 minke whales in 2022,  507 in 2023,  and have a 2024 quota,  set by the Norwegian government,  of up to 1,157 whales,  should they choose to kill that many.

Was Hvaldimir shot?

International news services broadcast word of the Nuuk court decision to continue holding Paul Watson just as Helene and Ric O’Barry called ANIMALS 24-7 in response to a September 4,  2024 media release about Hvaldimir,  distributed by film maker Regina Crosby Haug of OneWhale and Siri Martinsen of the Norwegian animal advocacy organization NOAH.

Haug and Martinsen said they had submitted a criminal complaint to the Sandnes Police District and the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic & Environmental Crime (Økokrim).

Haug and Martinsen said they had “taken this action based on compelling evidence suggesting that Hvaldimir’s death was caused by intentional human-inflicted injury.  Although the official autopsy report is still pending,”  Haug and Martinsen acknowledged,  “preliminary findings indicate that the whale was killed by gunshot wounds.”

Haug & Hvaldimir

Haug and Martinsen,  opposed by Ric and Helene O’Barry,  and about 70 others of marine mammal expertise,  claimed to have permission from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries to relocate Hvaldimir from Ryfylkefjorden,  in southwestern Norway,  back to Finnmark,  in the extreme north.

Haug,  working on a film about Hvaldimir since 2020,  was several times videotaped swimming with him.

(See Why is Norway giving beluga Hvaldimir to “Teenage Dirtbag” film maker?)

Hvaldimir was first seen in April 2019 near Inga,  a fishing village of only a few dozen people on the island of Ingøya in Finnmark,  wearing a collar with Russian words on it that were initially believed to mean that he had escaped from Russian military use.

Hvaldimir settled at Ryfylkefjorden

Named Hvaldimir as a pun on the Norwegian word for whale and the name of Russian president Vladimir Putin,  the beluga was later identified as having probably been Semyon,  a beluga formerly kept as a therapy animal by a program for disabled children at the Arctic Circle Padi Dive Centre & Lodge, near the Russian–Norwegian border.

From Finnmark,  Hvaldimir swam 1,400 miles south to Oslo,  entered Swedish waters,  and “nearly visited us in Denmark,”  Ric and Helene O’Barry remembered.

Hvaldimir then settled at Ryfylkefjorden,  at about the same north latitude as the southern beluga whale colonies in the Sea of Okhotsk,  Russia;  the junction of the Saguenay and St. Lawrence Rivers in Quebec;  and the Cook Inlet in Alaska.

These southern beluga whale populations appear to have had little or no contact in tens of thousands of years with the northern beluga whales residing in the Arctic Ocean.

Necropsy ongoing

After Haug and Martinsen filed their police complaint,  “The sudden death of the beloved whale and alleged Russian spy took an unexpected turn toward a possible murder mystery,”  reported Yuliya Talmazan and Mithil Aggarwal for NBC News.

The Sør-West police,  Talmazan and Aggarwal said,  merely confirmed having received the complaint.

“The Norwegian Veterinary Institute told NBC News in an emailed statement that Hvaldimir’s autopsy was still ongoing and they could not comment on results until there was enough information to reach a conclusion,”  Talmazan and Aggarwal added.

“We have together with the Directorate of Fisheries of Norway been in contact with the police ahead of the autopsy,  and will of course involve them if we uncover anything indicating anything suspicious,”  the veterinary institute statement concluded.

Witnesses did not report gunshots

Marine biologist Sebastian Strand,  leading efforts to protect Hvaldimir since 2019,  was first on the scene after Hvaldimir was separately reported to have died by two men who were fishing nearby and a man who was observing Hvaldimir from nearby cliffs.

None of the three reported hearing gunshots.

The only injuries visible to Hvaldimir’s carcass,  Strand said in confirming his death,  were “external damage from birds and such.  He was apparently in good condition as of yesterday,”  Strand added.  “So we just have to figure out what might have happened here.”

Strand initially worked with the film maker Regina Haug and OneWhale,  but later broke off the association in disagreement over how Hvaldimir should be treated,  and formed a separate umbrella organization for his work called Marine Mind.

“It could very well be”

Asked by ANIMALS 24-7 if he believed Hvaldimir was shot,  Strand said “It could very well be,  but since I have not been able to examine his insides,  nor have anyone else outside of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute,  I have not wanted to speculate.  I did contact police day one , airing my thoughts,  but I did not want to theorize publicly based just on outside observation.  Which has been misinterpreted as me not wanting to speak on what happened.”

Photographs of Hvaldimir floating dead,  and after he was hoisted out of the water and laid on wooden pallets before being loaded into a refrigerated truck,  appeared to show three possible bullet wounds.

But marine mammal carcasses often bear old bullet wounds,  from conflicts with fishers,  fish farmers,  and vandals shooting at the animals just for the hell of it.  Knowing whether the apparent injuries were bullet wounds,  were fresh,  and were fatal will take a complete necropsy.

Regina Crosby Haug

Upstaging the investigation itself were a series of flamboyant remarks to mass media and posted to social media by Regina Crosby Haug,  who argued that relocating Hvalidmir back to Finnmark might have saved his life.

“There were many obstacles that prevented his move from happening sooner, including bureaucratic processes,  poorly defined laws,  misinformation,  and sadly, attempts by other organizations to block his move,”  Haug and Martinsen charged in their September 4,  2024 media release.

But that claim was immediately challenged by many,  including marine mammal archivist Haze Sommer of Poulsbo,  Washington,  who collected screenshots,  chiefly from OneWhale,  and posted them to Facebook in refutation of the Haug and Martinsen claims.

“OneWhale did not have the permit or the funds”

“OneWhale did not have the permit from Mattilsynet [the relevant Norwegian government agency] that they needed to move him,”  Sommer began.

“OneWhale did not have the funds needed to move Hvaldimir in the event they were given the permit.

“The Directorate of Fisheries had yet to make any decision whatsoever regarding the letter of appeal [from 73 marine mammal experts opposing moving Hvaldimir],  so it blocked nothing.

“OneWhale’s own [frequently asked questions on the OneWhale website] from last November [2023] advised against the move,”  Sommer said.  “In 10 short months following the exodus of 22 professionals and volunteers who couldn’t stand to work with [Regina Haug] and resigned,  she completely flip flopped on her own advice.

“Seen all over the internet”

“OneWhale/Regina Crosby Haug is seen all over the internet in video/photos,”  Sommer charged,  “swimming with,  riding on Hvaldi,  introducing him to her dog,  lying on rafts/floatie boats next to Hvaldi, petting him,  taking all kinds of pretty selfie and Hvaldi shots for her movie,  thereby reinforcing his habituation to humans, boats,  and especially herself.”

Sommer particularly objected that “OneWhale/Regina Crosby Haug have fomented their followers to commence cyber bullying on Marine Mind,  [marine mammologist Ingrid] Visser,  Dolphin Project,  and others.

“OneWhale’s followers have swarmed Sebastian Strand’s posts in a very dark and ugly manner,”  Sommer alleged,  “even posts that are months/weeks old.”

Audun Rikardsen

University of Tromsø professor of Arctic and marine biology Audun Rikardsen had a bit more to say than that.

“There are many of us who have been fascinated by and fond of Hvaldimir over the years,  myself included,”  Rikardsen began  “He toured almost the entire Norwegian coast and spread a lot of joy to those who met him on his way.

“I was the first professional to be contacted and also one of the first to meet him back in 2019,”  Rikardsen recalled.  “Since then,  I had the pleasure of meeting him several times over the years.

“The saddest thing about it all”

“Unfortunately,  Hvaldimir’s freedom ended tragically.  Regardless of whether this was a criminal act,  an accident,  or a natural death, I think the saddest thing about it all,”  Rikardsen said,  “is that the most competent person who has followed Hvaldimir on a more or less daily basis for the last couple of years,  Sebastian Strand of Marine Mind,  is now being accused of having caused Hvaldimir’s death,  when he himself is grieving.”

Rikardsen acknowledged that he had also “received threats and had lies spread about me,  both from the OneWhale manager (Haug),  her lackeys, and others in various contexts,”  but had refrained from responding,  “as I have not wanted to lower myself to the same low level.

“But the limit of what I keep silent about is broken ,”  Rikardsen emphasized,  “when Sebastian,  who has dedicated the last few years to looking after Hvaldimir,  is being harassed by a film producer who pretends to have been ‘Hvaldimir’s protector’.

“This is unacceptable”

“According to this film producer and OneWhale manager,  it is Sebastian and I who are to blame for the fact that Hvaldimir is now dead.  This is unacceptable.

“Sebastian is the person who has been with Hvaldimir the most.  During this time,  I have gotten to know Sebastian as a very dedicated,  friendly,  down-to-earth and professionally skilled person,”  Rikardsen testified,  “who listens to other opinions and wants to cooperate.

“This is why most of the professionals who were previously associated with OneWhale now support him.

“Since Sebastian was with Hvaldimir every day,”  Rikardsen continued,  “he was also the first to find him dead.  This was,  of course,  a big shock for him,  but the first thing he did then was to contact responsible authorities for advice,  organize the logistics so that the dead whale was taken in and stored in a cold room,  and contacted researchers for advice,  including me,  the Norwegian Forestry Directorate,  the veterinary institute,  the police,  etc.

Who shot Hvaldimir,  if anyone?

“He was also the one who arranged everything so that the autopsy could start as quickly as possible in the hope of finding answers to why Hvaldimir died, without going out into the media speculating to get attention like OneWhale immediately did,”  Rikardsen said.

Who shot Hvaldimir,  when,  if anyone?

We may or may not find out from the necropsy.

Despite conspiracy theories involving whalers and the Norwegian government,  it is clear that as with the freed former performing orca whale Keiko,  who died in December 2003 after 15 months in Norwegian waters,  there was no better distraction from Norwegian whaling and no better advertisement for Norway than the frequently visible presence of a happy,  friendly whale who had become a global celebrity.

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