Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

Every year, Japan submits a list of Sea Shepherd officers and crew to the country hosting the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meetings.

They did so in Santiago, Chile and I was able to get through without incident because the computer system had failed the morning I flew in. We found out about it the next day when Dr. Paul Spong flying in from Canada was stopped and questioned because his name is Paul and he was from Canada and he was shown my name on the list and asked if he knew me.

The next year in Madeira, Portugal, I was stopped and held for six hours and questioned before being allowed into Madeira.

This year, because of Operation Blue Rage, I did not attend the IWC meeting. Laurens De Groot from the Netherlands is attending as our official representative and he reports that there is a list and leading the list of unwelcome visitors is the name “Steve Irwin.”

I’m sure Steve would be amused and flattered that he is posthumously banned from entering Morocco because of pressure from Japanese whalers.