The ship was in the Gulf of St. Lawrence well beyond the Canadian twelve mile territorial limit.
Captain
Paul Watson was speaking by phone with Farley Mowat communications
officer Shannon Mann when he heard the voices of men screaming for the
crew to fall to the floor. The men carried guns according to Mann and
could be heard by Captain Watson threatening the Farley Mowat’s crew.
As Captain Watson was speaking with Shannon Mann, the Satellite phone
went dead and nothing more has been heard from the Sea Shepherd crew.
The
Farley Mowat was documenting violations of the humane regulations and
gathering proof that the seals were being killed in an inhumane manner.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is assuming that the video tapes
will be seized by the Canadian authorities.
There are 17
crewmembers onboard the Dutch registered Farley Mowat from the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, South Africa, Canada
and the United States.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
has been cut off from communication with the crew and has no
information on where the vessel will be taken. Sea Shepherd has no
information on the condition of the crew and the Society is deeply
concerned for their crew.
- “This is an act of war,†said
Captain Paul Watson. “The Canadian government has just sent an armed
boarding party onto a Dutch registered yacht in international waters
and has seized the ship. Considering that the mission of the Farley
Mowat was to document evidence of cruelty by sealers to support a
European initiative to ban seal products, I can predict that the
Europeans will not be very pleased with this move and most likely this
move by Loyola Hearn will guarantee that this bill is passed. In other
words the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has just handed us the
victory that we were looking for.â€
P.O. Box 2616, Friday Harbor, WA 98250 (USA) Tel: 360-370-5650 Fax: 360-370-5651
Copyright © 2008 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. All rights reserved.
At 0700 Hours (PST) and 1100 Hours Atlantic time the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat was attacked by officers from two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers the Des Groseilliers and the Sir Wifred Grenfell.
