Sea Shepherd flagship released

THE FLAGSHIP of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is to sail from Lerwick on Wednesday morning after the radical environmentalists deposited a bond of £520,000, ordered by the Court of Session on Tuesday.

The Steve Irwin, was preparing to launch the organisation’s campaign against the annual pilot whale cull in the Faroe Islands, but was detained more than two weeks ago, after the Maltese fishing company Fish and Fish raised an action for damages against the Sea Shepherd.

The 40 campaigners on board the Steve Irwin, currently moored at Hoegan, in Bressay, will join the group’s other vessel Brigitte Bardot, which has been in Faroese waters for the last two weeks.

Speaking from Sydney, Australia, Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson said he was confident that the group would get their bond back.

There were speculations last week that Sea Shepherd might lose their vessel should they have been unable to raise the bond.

Fish and Fish had originally sought a security of 760,000 euros, significantly more than the £520,000 ordered by the court.

“The bond has been paid, so the ship will seek port clearance in the morning and sail for the Faroe Islands,” he said.

Mr Watson is currently in Australia on a lecture tour and will fly into Shetland on Friday to join the Steve Irwin via helicopter.

He added that he was encouraged by the responses the protesters had received from islanders in the Faroe Islands during the last weeks.

“The Faroese have not been killing any whales while the Brigitte Bardot has been there. We are making quite a bit of progress by talking to people. I find there is quite a lot of support for our position in Faroe.

“We find it encouraging that quite a lot of people in the Faroe Islands are not happy with the killing of the pilot whales,” he said.