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THE fishing conservation group Sea Shepherd was preparing to puts its protest ship, the Steve Irwin, to sea today after a Scottish Court lowered its detention bond.
The ship, which was heading for the Faroe Islands to disrupt a whale hunt, was detained in Lerwick, Shetland, just over two weeks ago after the Maltese aquaculture company Fish & Fish filed a civil suit alleging that Sea Shepherd activists allegedly damaged its property when they freed 800 bluefin tuna from their nets off the Libyan coast in June last year.
The court imposed a bond of US $1,440,000 and the conservation organisation immediately put out an international appeal, warning that the ship could be lost and sold unless the money was raised. The Steve Irwin is named after the late Australian TV conservationist who was also known as "The Crocodile Hunter".
But the case has since come back to court and the bond has now been reduced to £520,000 ( about US$ 850,000) and the ship's captain Paul Watson said last night that the security money has now been paid. He expected the Steve Irwin to leave Lerwick later today, but it is not yet known if it will continue to proceed to the Faroes Islands, assuming the whale hunt is still on, or move elsewhere.
The detention brought a cross section of protests, and not just from 'green' or left wing groups. Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith, a noted conservationist urged residents in his constituency of Richmond Park, near South London (Sea Shepherd has its UK base in the town) to help raise funds to pay for its release.
Mr Goldsmith, said: “Sea Shepherd is a brave and brilliant organisation and I sincerely hope people will rally to the cause and support them. We are ravaging the oceans, and in the absence of any real global leadership, we need organisations like Sea Shepherd.”
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