Deported Canadian activist calls anti-whaling mission a success despite ship capture

Mann was a deckhand on the anti-whaling protest vessel Bandero, which was boarded on July 30 by Icelandic security forces wearing body armour and carrying guns.

The Icelandic Coast Guard said they boarded the ship after the crew of whaling ship Hvalur 9 requested assistance because they believed their safety was under threat by the vessel.

It said the Bandero ignored coast guards’ instructions to leave Icelandic waters, and later an order to stop its engines.

Twenty-one crew members were detained, according to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, which operates the ship. Most have now been deported.

Two crew members are expected to leave Iceland on Wednesday, leaving only the chief engineer on board from the original crew, the foundation confirmed on Tuesday.

The crew is facing a ban on returning to Iceland and many European countries, though they intend to contest it.

Both Mann and Canadian anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson say the dramatic boarding of the ship has made their mission a success.

“The intent of this was to focus international attention on Iceland’s continued illegal whaling operations,” Watson, 75, told The Canadian Press via video call from Boston.

“And that was very successful.”

He said the crew’s original intention was to interrupt whaling activities off Iceland’s coasts by blocking harpoons and documenting the process for a TV show.

When the Icelandic Coast Guard boarded the Bandero, the cameras were still running.

“The Coast Guard and the police were actually very helpful in that because when they boarded the ship it was a full SWAT attack. They were wearing body armour and guns and masks and helmets,” Watson said.

“We said, ‘That’s great images for the TV show.’”

Mann said their mission got support from people living in Iceland.

“I think the crew should be proud. It was stressful at times, but that’s nothing compared to what the fin whales endure on an almost daily basis (during whaling season),” she said.

The days that followed the boarding left the crew in limbo, as Icelandic authorities seized their phones and they were not allowed to get in touch with their lawyer, said Mann and Watson’s foundation.

Manolya Adan, another crew member, spoke to The Canadian Press on Aug. 4 about the stress and uncertainty of the detention.

“It felt like overkill for them to be escorting us in the way that they did, but we most certainly did not expect what happened next,” she said in a phone call from her cabin on board, shortly before the crew was allowed to leave the ship.

Adan was deported last week.

The Bandero’s mission was the latest action associated with Watson, a marine conservation activist known for using controversial direct-action tactics, such as ramming and scuttling vessels.

Iceland is one of the only countries still practising commercial whaling, along with Norway and Japan.

The hunt is increasingly contentious in Iceland, where whale meat is now rarely eaten.

Watson said his goal is to eradicate whaling worldwide and he isn’t afraid of using aggressive tactics when doing so, including sinking empty ships.

“I call it aggressive nonviolence — to aggressively intervene but without causing any injury,” said Watson.

Adan tied criticism of the movement with a culture of bias against animals.

“If someone had a gun to a pregnant woman, I would step in front of that gun. And I think that that was my intention here. I wanted to make sure that no harm came to these animals,” she said.

The Iceland prime minister’s office, the Office of the National Commissioner of Icelandic Police and the country’s industries ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Watson is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose high seas confrontations with whaling vessels have drawn support from celebrities, featured in the reality television series “Whale Wars” and regularly landed him in jail.

In 2012, Watson was made the subject of a “red notice” by the international police organization Interpol. He was removed from the most-wanted list in 2025.

His hard-line tactics have split the movement he started, and marine firms have accused the anti-whaling activists of endangering vessels and lives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2026.

— With files from Kathryn Mannie and The Associated Press.

Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman and Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Deported Canadian activist calls anti-whaling mission a success despite ship capture

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