Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has testified in a contempt of court hearing in Seattle. Source: AAP
PAUL Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has testified in a contempt of court hearing in Seattle.
The fugitive activist known for confronting Japanese whaling vessels off Antarctica took the witness stand in a US appeals court on Wednesday in hope of persuading a commissioner that neither he nor the organisation he founded violated an order requiring them to leave the whalers alone.
The white-goateed, 62-year-old described his history of environmental activism and accolades, and said he'd spent the past year at sea.
He fled Germany in 2012 after being arrested at the behest of the Costa Rican government, and Japan continues to seek his arrest related to his interference with a whaling vessel in 2010.
"Over the last year, there's been a lot of negotiation on different levels that allowed me to come ashore," he said.
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The case is part of a long-running fight between the protesters and Japan's whaling fleet, which kills up to 1000 whales a year, as allowed by the International Whaling Commission.
Japan is permitted to hunt the animals as long as they are killed for research and not commercial purposes, but whale meat not used for study is sold as food in Japan. Critics say that's the real reason for the hunts.
For several years, Sea Shepherd operated anti-whaling campaigns in the Southern Ocean. Activists aboard its vessels would hurl acid and smoke bombs at the whalers and drag ropes in the water to damage their propellers. They claim they have saved thousands of whales.
Last December, just before the whaling season was to begin, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Watson and anyone acting "in concert" with them to keep 500 yards (457.2 metres) away from the whaling vessels.
The Japanese whalers argue that the organisation violated that order 10 times early this year, with incidents that included the deliberate ramming of a fuel ship by a protest vessel. They asked the court to impose fines of $US100,000 ($A104,975) for each violation, though they suggested the court waive those fines as long as the protesters stop confronting their ships.
In response to the injunction, Sea Shepherd says it withdrew from any participation in the anti-whaling campaign and Watson stepped down from the organisation.
Instead, Watson and Sea Shepherd said, its cousin, Sea Shepherd of Australia Limited, took over - and that organisation insists it wasn't subject to the court's order.
The hearing in Seattle, which began last week, is aimed in part at determining whether the Australian organisation carried out the protest in concert with Sea Shepherd.
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