Anti-sealers out on bail; crew protests high seas arrests at gunpoint

By Erin Pottie

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

SYDNEY, N.S. — The anti-sealing vessel Farley Mowat’s captain and chief officer stood quietly in court as they received the conditions of their release, while another remains in custody and the rest of the crew is staging a hunger strike.

Captain Alexander Cornelissen of the Netherlands and First Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden were taken into a Sydney courtroom, Sunday, April 13, and have been furthered remanded pending bail. They briefly addressed the court saying they understand the conditions of their release.

Nine fellow crewmembers, dressed in Sea Shepherd t-shirts and living without food or much sleep, sat in the courtroom flipping through newspaper articles about what they call their illegal arrest in the waters off Cape Breton.

Cornelissen and Hammarstedt will be released pending a bail of $5,000 each and conditions to appear in court when required, be of good behaviour and not enter within five nautical miles of a Canadian seal hunt. If convicted of the charges they could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Six of 17 crewmembers of the Farley Mowat were taken into custody after refusing Canadian immigration and customs checks. Five have since been released without their personal effects and one American, Greg Hager, remains in custody while only the captain and first officer are facing criminal charges.

The arrests were made aboard the Farley Mowat, Saturday, April 12, by an armed RCMP tactical squad, which seized the vessel while it sailed the Cabot Strait.

Paul Watson, who heads the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was in Sydney to post the $10,000 bond to allow senior crew to be released.

The remaining crew members of the Dutch-registered ship have spent two nights in a Sydney hotel, not eating any food, and say they plan to demonstrate at the correctional centre until their comrades are released.

“They were forced into Canada at gunpoint and that’s why the six of them who were detained by customs say they objected to being brought forcefully into Canada. They had no intention of coming into Canada,” said Watson. “You can’t board a foreign-registered vessel on the high seas, it’s an act of piracy.”

Charges against the sealing demonstrators stem from a high-seas confrontation off Cape Breton between Farley Mowat and a coast guard icebreaker.

According to The Canadian Press, the Fisheries department have charged the two men with violating Canada’s marine mammal regulations and the Fisheries Act, alleging they broke rules that prohibit anyone without a valid observation licence from coming within 900 metres of the hunt.

Late last month, some Cape Breton seal hunters called for the coast guard’s assistance, complaining the group were getting too close to them on the ice floes. The Fisheries Department say their icebreaker the Des Groseilliers responded to the scene and was grazed twice by the vessel. The Sea Shepherd members disagree, saying instead that their ship was rammed twice by the coast guard.

Sydney-based lawyer Guy LaFosse, who is representing the anti-sealers, said he is unsure whether the men will stay in the area pending a May 1 court date.

“That’s something I think they are going to determine themselves. I can’t imagine they would stay in the country, they live in various places throughout the world,” LaFosse said.

Dave Nickarz, a crew member from Winnipeg, sat in the courtroom while their ship was being towed into the opposite side of the harbour by the Canadian Coast Guard.

Nickarz said members still have items onboard the ship and haven’t heard the vessel’s fate.

“We may not be able to be allowed to be on it just yet. It was a pretty quick disembarkment, so there’s still stuff we need to get. We also want to see if our ship’s okay. We just don’t know anything about that now,” he said. “There’s no plans for any of us to go anywhere until our crew members are released.”

The Farley Mowat, a black vessel with a skull insignia, was towed into Sydport Sunday morning by coast guard icebreaker the George R. Pearkes amid dozens of parked vehicles and onlookers.

(Erin Pottie is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Cape Breton Post newspaper and a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)