Tens of thousands of people have signed online petitions calling for the release of controversial environmentalist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland following an extradition request from the Japanese government.

Watson’s latest legal journey began on July 21 in Nuuk, Greenland, when he was arrested aboard his foundation’s ship, the John Paul DeJoria.

His arrest and extradition are apparently related to alleged actions against the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 in 2010.

Over the past few decades, Watson has famously taken tough measures to stop commercial whaling, including ramming and disabling whaling ships, many of which were Japanese. He also gained further notoriety as the host of the reality TV series “Whale Wars.”

The captain of the John Paul DeJoria, Lockhart MacLean, said the ship was making a regular stop for supplies when the Danish National Police came on board after a friendly visit from the Greenland Police. Greenland is a territory of Denmark.

“So these were police officers who had been flown in from Copenhagen and came on board, and they had a very different attitude,” MacLean said. “They were much more aggressive and decisive, and obviously within a matter of minutes they had Paul Watson handcuffed into a van and off the ship.”

MacLean said the ship would continue its journey through the Panama Canal toward the Pacific to stop Japanese whaling.

Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian-American, has been arrested several times.

He was one of the founding members of Greenpeace, which was founded in Vancouver in 1972. Five years later, he split from this organization and founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. In this organization, he made headlines around the world for ramming whaling ships on the high seas. In 2022, he founded the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.

Rex Weyler was director of the original Greenpeace organization and co-founded Greenpeace International in 1979.

He says Watson’s arrests usually bolster his cause.

“Arresting Paul Watson is one of his tactics, and it was also one of our tactics at Greenpeace, which was to denounce the behavior of whalers, sealers or other ecological resource hogs,” Weyler said. “And if they wanted to arrest us, that would be fine, because if they arrest us, it just makes things more exciting. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”

Watson’s arrest came as a surprise to Teale Phelps Bondaroff, OceansAsia’s research director. Bondaroff, who has worked for Sea Shepherd in the past, said the arrest shows that commercial whaling still exists.

“Anything like this draws attention to the problem. I find it interesting that when you talk about whaling, many people think of it as something from the past and don’t realize that there are still countries today where whaling is practiced,” Bondaroff said.

MacLean said that a 15-year prison sentence in Japan would be equivalent to a life sentence due to Watson’s age. He hopes that if Watson is released, he will be able to rejoin them in their fight against Japanese whaling.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry was contacted through the Japanese Embassy in Ottawa for comment on this article but did not respond.