SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Radical environmentalists were found in contempt of court Friday for failing to heed an order to halt their relentless campaign to disrupt the annual whale hunt off the waters of Antarctica.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a commissioner to determine how much Paul Watson and members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society he founded owe Japanese whalers for lawyer fees, damage to their ships and for violating the court order to stop their dangerous protests.
The Japanese whalers are demanding $2 million in addition to their lawyer fees and damage and cost to their ships for warding off the protests.
Calls and emails to the Sea Shepherd U.S. office and its lawyer were not returned Friday.
In 2012, the court ordered Sea Shepherd to stay at least 500 feet from Japanese whalers and to halt dangerous activities like attempting to ram the whaler and also throwing smoke bombs and bottles of acid at the Japanese ships. The crews of Sea Shepherd ships also drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders, launch flares with hooks and point high-powered lasers at the Japanese whalers to annoy crew members.