Captain of seal hunt protest ship charged

The captain and first officer of a ship used by a conservation group to protest against Canada’s annual seal hunt have been charged with getting too close to hunters.

Canada’s fisheries department said Captain Alexander Cornelissen and First Officer Peter Hammarstedt of the Farley Mowat, a vessel used by the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, broke a law prohibiting anyone without a valid seal-hunt observation licence from coming within a half nautical mile of a seal hunt.

Cornelissen was also charged in connection with obstruction or hindrance of a Fishery Officer or inspector.

The charges could result in fines of up to 100,000 Canadian dollars (€63,000) or up to one year in prison, or both.

But Paul Watson, president of the conservation society, dismissed the charges and said his vessel was Dutch-registered and did not have to submit to Canadian regulations.

“We have the right of free passage... we aren’t subject to fisheries regulations. We aren’t engaged in economic activity and the vessel is registered as a yacht,” Mr Watson said, speaking from his home town of St Andrews, New Brunswick.

The incident last weekend leading up to the charges began when a handful of sealers claimed the Farley Mowat came too close to them on the ice north of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, even after being warned away by the coastguard.

Following those complaints, there was a confrontation between the Farley Mowat and the Canadian Coastguard icebreaker Des Groseilliers, with the vessels scraping sides against each other.

Canada’s fisheries minister Loyola Hearn said the government was “committed to protecting the safety and security of sealers”.

Cornelissen said he and the crew intended to return to document the hunt in the Gulf of St Lawrence and off the Labrador coast later this month.

The charges come on the same day hundreds of people gathered in a church in Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, to pay their last respects to three seal hunters who were killed when their small boat slammed into a piece of ice and capsized last weekend. A fourth hunter who was on board is still missing.

The seal hunting industry is under pressure from animals rights activists who believe the largest marine mammal hunt in the world is cruel and poorly monitored.

But sealers and the fisheries department say it is sustainable, humane and provides income for isolated fishing communities.