Enter Your Information & Send

E-mail -
Full Name -

Country -

Additional Background

UPDATE! May 18, 2012 – Protest email in German – an English version to know what you are sending is below.

This week Mr. Watson – the leader of reknowned Sea Shepherd – was held in Frankfurt, Germany’s airport, and Costa Rica requested extradition. In April 2002, Sea Shepherd’s then ship, Farley Mowat, and the Costa Rican shark fishing boat illegally harvesting shark fins collided, though no one was injured and neither boat was damaged. Outrageous claims by a fisherman that Mr. Watson was trying to kill him resulted in a warrant for Mr. Watson on the matter. Previously this warrant had lapsed, yet last year it was reissued, though even Interpol considers it politically motivated. Our best chance of saving Captain Watson from extradition is to convince German officials at the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to step in and overturn their decision – and we may only have one day to do so.

If Captain Watson is extradited to Costa Rica, he will certainly not receive a fair trial and his safety from the shark finning mafia cannot be guaranteed. Mr. Watson and Sea Shepherd’s efforts to defend the lives of whales, dolphins, seals, sharks, and fish have made some powerful enemies, most notably the government of Japan. It is no coincidence that the extradition request by Costa Rica was issued the same month (October 2011) as the Japanese whaling lawsuit against Sea Shepherd. The warrant for Captain Watson’s arrest is politically motivated and thus should be ignored by the German government. He is no danger to anyone except those profiting from the death of our planet. With international support we can set Captain Watson free, and keep him from the possibility of facing an unfair trial in Costa Rica.

Protest Email in English

Copy to right pane if you wish to send this one rather than the German protest email:
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger Federal Minister of Justice sabine.leutheusser-schnarrenberger@bundestag.de

Dr. Guido Westerwelle Minister of Foreign Affairs guido.westerwelle@bundestag.de

Dear Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and Dr. Guido Westerwelle,

I was very concerned to hear that Germany has detained Sea Shepherd’s Captain Paul Watson for possible extradition to Costa Rica. I understand that the warrant for Captain Watson’s arrest is politically motivated and possibly due to an incident in which Sea Shepherd uncovered an illegal shark finning operation.

I support Sea Shepherd’s efforts to monitor and publicise illegal fishing and whaling around the world and recognize that some illegal fishing operations try to use international law to shut down the Sea Shepherd operations. I urge you to consider the valuable work Captain Watson and Sea Shepherd are undertaking globally to highlight the dangers to our oceans in considering this extradition request.

Sincerely,
Remember my information for 3 months to make future sending easier (privacy)

I do not wish to receive occasional short notifications of new action alerts (~3 a month)

In addition to new action alerts, inform me of major forest and climate policy developments (~2/month), and provide original environmental analysis (~2/month) (more information)
Your message is going to 41 Recipients. You may receive out of office or other emailed replies from protest email recipients.