Thursday, 25 September 2014 

Sea Shepherd crew of the Spitfire: Celine Le Diouron and Marion Selighini, both from France, and
Jessie Treverton of the UK
Photo: Sea Shepherd / Barbara VeigaEleven Operation GrindStop 2014 volunteers will have their day in court this week. The three-woman crew of Sea Shepherd UK’s boat, the Spitfire, was due in court Wednesday, but the hearing has been postponed to Friday, September 26th.

The Spitfire crew helped divert a large pod of hundreds of Atlantic white-sided dolphins away from the dangerous killing beaches of the Faroe Islands September 17th. Faroese officials did not call a grind, but Danish Police charged the Spitfire crew with failure to report the dolphin sightings to the grind master and police and, ironically, with “harassing dolphins.” The Spitfire and the crew's passports were seized.

Eight Operation GrindStop boat crewmembers, who were arrested in connection with the grind August 30th, will be in a Torshavn courtroom tomorrow, September 25th.  They were arrested on the Faroese island of Sandoy for attempting to protect 33 pilot whales, who were killed in a brutal, mass slaughter.  Police also seized three Sea Shepherd small boats.

Six Operation GrindStop land crewmembers were also arrested during the August 30th grind, and were all found guilty of disturbing public order and hindering the hunt of pilot whales. Three were found guilty of ignoring police orders. All six were ordered deported. Four of the six had previously been scheduled to leave the Faroes shortly after the incident and have since done so. The remaining two, Maggie and Sergio, were escorted by police to the airport and deported out of the Faroe Islands on Tuesday, September 23.

Check back for updates on both court hearings later this week.