Sea Shepherd to Bill $1000.00 a Day for the Farley Mowat

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The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be billing the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans $1,000.00 per day for every day that the Farley Mowat is unlawfully held by the department.

The ship was taken by armed government thugs in international waters on April 12th, 2008. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society considers this to be an act of high seas piracy and is confident that the case against the Captain and the First Officer of the Farley Mowat will result in a victory for the defense.

"At no time did my ship ever enter the 12 mile limit," said Captain Alex Cornelissen. "They had no right to board us and these charges are ridiculous. All we did was take pictures of seals being slaughtered on the ice."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will send an invoice on the 12th of each month asking for $30,000 for the time the ship is held from the Society. This will be $365,000 every year.

The last time that the Department and Fisheries and Oceans held a Sea Shepherd ship was for 22 months between March 1983 and June 1985. The Society successfully sued the DFO for damages to the Sea Shepherd II in that case.

"And we will sue again," said Captain Paul Watson. "We will not have the government of Canada trample on our rights as citizens and we will not have the government setting a precedent of boarding non-Canadian vessels in international waters with armed boarding parties. We intend to fight this battle in the courts and we intend to win based on the evidence that the government of Canada acted unlawfully for political reasons to further the selfish ambitions of Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn."

Even the people of Newfoundland believe that the Farley Mowat should be returned to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. A week-end poll by the Newfoundland newspaper the Western Star had 75% voting to return the ship. (Poll results below)

Western Star Poll

What do you think should become of the 52-year-old anti-sealing vessel the Farley Mowat?
(May 3, 2008 to May 4, 2008)

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