Marine defence group Sea Shepherd has won a lawsuit filed against it by a Maltese fisheries company for releasing hundreds of bluefin tuna from pens off the coast of Libya in June 2010.
The ruling, given on Monday, June 25, at the Admiralty Court in London, was that the UK Court was not the proper place to file the suit. Mr Justice Hamblin ordered the case against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Sea Shepherd UK, and Captain Paul Watson dismissed.
Sea Shepherd admit to freeing 800 large bluefin tuna, saying the fish were caught after the fishing season had ended.
“What we did in 2010 we have no apologies for,” Watson said in a press release. “We freed 800 large endangered bluefin tuna illegally caught by poachers off the coast of Libya. We cut the nets and when the Maltese company that claimed ownership of these liberated fish sued us, we stood our ground in court and we won, the tuna won, and the poachers lost.”
