http://cfcn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe..._hunter_080404

Angry fishermen chase seal hunt protesters

Canadians, sealers appeal to EU not to impose ban
Minister says seal hunt protesters to be charged
Bodies of sealers return home, joint funeral set

The Canadian Press

Fri. April. 4 2008 12:43 PM ET

ST-PIERRE — A militant environmental group opposed to the East Coast seal hunt was forced to flee the French islands of St-Pierre-Miquelon on Friday after angry fishermen cut the mooring lines of the group's flagship vessel.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sparked outrage earlier this week when the group's leader, Paul Watson, said the recent deaths of three seal hunters north of Cape Breton was a tragedy, but the continued slaughter of seal pups "is an even greater tragedy.''

On Friday, Watson's vessel, the Farley Mowat, was confronted at the wharf by two dozen residents of St-Pierre, the capital of the French territory south of Newfoundland.

Police said the ship left after its lines were cut with axes, following a confrontation between the activists and the fishermen.

Fisherman Carl Beaupertuis, 47, says when he heard Watson's comments about sealers he was deeply angered.

"We cut the ropes ... because the fishermen of St-Pierre don't accept what Paul Watson said,'' he said.

"He's not allowed to come in the harbour any more. It's finished for him.''

Watson later confirmed that he had left St-Pierre-Miquelon after the mooring lines were cut.

The vessel will return to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and intends to continue monitoring the seal hunt in that region and off the coast of Labrador, he said.

Watson said that a member of his crew filmed the incident on St. Pierre and he may bring a formal complaint before the French courts.

"That's a possibility. We'll have to look into that. We definitely have it documented,'' said Watson.

"I had the cameras rolling, so we did identify the individuals.''

Andre Varcin, a senior official with the French government, said it would be up to the local prosecutor's office to decide if any charges are warranted against the fishermen.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has said Watson's group will be charged with allegedly getting too close to the seal hunt last weekend.

Watson said he doesn't intend to dock his vessel at any Canadian harbours, adding that the Farley Mowat has enough fuel and food to last for months before returning to its home port in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, a patrol aircraft and two icebreakers searched north of Cape Breton on Friday for the body of a missing seal hunter.

The coast guard is also looking for a trawler from Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Que., that capsized and sank last weekend with the sealer and five other hunters aboard. Two men survived the capsizing.

The search was ordered by Hearn after complaints that the coast guard had given up its search for Carl Aucoin too soon.

As well, the Transportation Safety Board has said it needs to examine the 12-metre L'Acadien II, which struck a truck-size chunk of ice and capsized last Saturday while in tow behind the icebreaker Sir William Alexander.

Meanwhile, the coast guard's second-heaviest icebreaker, the Terry Fox, was expected to join the search Friday.

Once the trawler is found, Canadian Forces divers will help with the recovery, the Fisheries Department confirmed.

In Iles-de-la-Madeleine, a chain of islands north of P.E.I., many residents were expected take part in a public visitation for the three men whose bodies were recovered from L'Acadien II on the same day it overturned.

Funerals for captain Bruno Bourque and crew members Gilles Leblanc and Marc-Andre Deraspe are to be held Saturday on the chain of islands north of Prince Edward Island.

Two seal hunters -- Claude Deraspe and Bourque's son, Bruno-Pierre -- survived the sinking.