Interpol takes whaling activist, Sea Shepherd founder off wanted list
Interpol had issued a 'red notice', at Japan's request, for the arrest of the Canadian-American Watson, 74, who is known for his daring tactics, including disrupting and confronting whaling ships on the high seas.
Interpol has now decided that the notice was 'disproportionate', Watson's Paris-based lawyer William Julie said on Tuesday.
An Interpol red notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending legal action, based on a warrant from the judicial authorities in the requesting country, in this case, Japan.
In a post on social media by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, the activist was quoted saying: 'Finally I am free.'
'The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012,' Watson said.
'It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources but finally I am free.'
🚨INTERPOL RED NOTICE CANCELLED!!
The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012.
It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources but finally I am free pic.twitter.com/XIBuMwksoe
— Captain Paul Watson Foundation 🐋🏴☠️ (@CaptPaulWatson) July 22, 2025
A spokesperson for Interpol confirmed to the AFP news agency that the organisation's Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF) had deleted the arrest notice for Watson.
'The CCF decision was made in light of new facts, including the refusal by the Kingdom of Denmark to extradite Mr Watson. This is in line with normal procedures,' the spokesperson said.
Watson was arrested and detained in Greenland in July 2024, on a more than decade-old Japanese arrest warrant, which accused him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler. He was released in December after Denmark refused the Japanese extradition request over the 2010 incident.
Watson left Denmark on December 20, and returned to France, where his children attend school.
In a statement, Watson's lawyer said that the CCF considered that Interpol's red notice 'did not meet Interpol's standards, citing the disproportionate nature of the charges… the considerable passage of time since the alleged facts, Denmark's refusal to extradite him, and the fact that several other countries declined to act on Japan's arrest or extradition requests'.
Lamya Essemlali, the president of Sea Shepherd France, hailed the 'good news that this notice was finally cancelled', but noted that Watson could still be arrested and sent to Japan for prosecution.
'It does not give Paul Watson his freedom of movement because the Japanese arrest warrant is sufficient for a country to order his arrest,' she said.
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DPA Paris Well-known anti-whaling activist Paul Watson is no longer wanted by the international police organization Interpol, after the 'red notice' against him was deleted. The notice issued at Japan's request has been deleted, according to a spokesman for the France-based organisation on Wednesday. An internal control commission made the decision in light of Denmark's decision not to extradite Watson to Japan. A red notice allows a country to request that a person be located and provisionally arrested. It is not the same as an international arrest warrant. Interpol coordinates cross-border cooperations, but each country decides for itself how to handle a case. According to Watson's lawyer, William Julié, the commission considered the manhunt for the conservationist to be disproportionate, partly because the case was so old and no serious crime had been alleged. Following an incident with a whaling ship in the Antarctic in 2010, the Japanese authorities had Watson searched and accused him of damaging the ship and preventing the whalers from doing their work. Watson denied any wrongdoing. In July last year, the Canadian-American citizen was detained in Greenland. However, Denmark eventually released him and decided not to extradite him to Japan.
