The ship Farley Mowat was seized by Canadian government last spring for interfering with the seal hunt. Now they want the Sea Sheperd Society to pay for berthing expenses.
"The federal government has filed a $487,000 statement of claim against the seal hunt protest vessel Farley Mowat, owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, to recover the costs it has incurred for maintaining the ship since it was seized last April during the annual hunt.
"The Government of Canada filed that statement of claim against the Farley Mowat (Thursday)," said Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Phil Jenkins on Friday.
The ship has been in the custody of the government and docked at Sydney, N. S., since it was raided on April 12, 2008 for allegedly encroaching on seal hunters near Cape Breton 12 days earlier."
"On top of the$487,000, the government also paid for air surveillance to track the Farley Mowat, travel and overtime for fishery officers and coast guard surveil-lance, according to documents obtained under access to information laws by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and given to Canwest News Service.
The costs attached to air surveillance and expenses for fishery officers were not detailed in the documents, but logs show icebreaker George R.Pearkes spent nearly 12 full days between March 29 and April 14 supporting the RCMP in tracking and seizing the Farley Mowat.
Government officials refused to provide the cost to operate the icebreaker for a day, arguing it is not related to the Farley Mowat case because the icebreaker is owned by the government and the crews are on salary. The department has in the past said it costs $40,000 per day to operate a larger icebreaker, the Amundsen, an Arctic research ship."
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=77615545-22c1-4cc9-bf13-c4587ef74144
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