Iceland seizes protest ship amid tensions over dwindling commercial whaling trade
Icelandic authorities have detained 21 anti-whaling activists, highlighting the growing maritime risks surrounding a commercial whale meat trade that has lost its primary market in Japan.
Icelandic Coast Guard and police special forces seized the protest vessel Bandero on Thursday night and took its 21 crew members into custody. The operation followed a distress call from the commercial whaling ship Hvalur 9, whose crew reported feeling threatened. Before the boarding, the Bandero reportedly ignored direct orders to leave Icelandic waters and stop its engines.
The ship arrived in Reykjavik on Friday, where local police have assumed control of the investigation. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation confirmed the crew is being held on board without phone access. Icelandic national broadcaster RUV reported that authorities intend to seek the deportation of the detainees and a ban on their re-entry. Paul Watson, the 75-year-old Canadian activist who founded the group, was not on the vessel.
A shrinking industry under pressure
Iceland is one of only three nations, alongside Norway and Japan, that still permits commercial whaling. However, the industry's economic viability has deteriorated significantly since Japan left the International Whaling Commission and resumed its own whaling in 2019. Iceland exports the majority of its fin and minke whale meat to Japan, but demand there has steadily dwindled. Domestically, the practice is increasingly contentious, as Icelanders rarely consume whale meat.
The seizure underscores the mounting operational risks for maritime firms operating in contested waters. Marine companies have increasingly accused anti-whaling activists of endangering vessels and lives. Earlier this year, the Bandero collided with a Norwegian-owned industrial krill trawler in Antarctica. The trawler's owner characterized the incident as a deliberate attack that nearly caused an environmental disaster.
Watson, a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has a long history of high-seas confrontations that have fractured the marine conservation movement. He was imprisoned in Greenland for five months in 2024 on a Japanese warrant related to a 2010 incident. After his release in December 2024, Watson acknowledged the legal peril he faces. “I have to make sure that I don’t land in Iceland or another country where Interpol might try to have me arrested again,” he said. Interpol removed him from its most-wanted list in 2025 after placing a red notice on him in 2012.
