Port connects Bandero to shore power as group paints slogans

The vessel Bandero has been connected to shore power in Reykjavik, while members of the Paul Watson organisation aboard have painted slogans on it, mbl.is reports. The ship’s generator has been switched off, ending the noise it had been making around Reykjavik Harbour.

Faxafloahafnir, the harbour authority, decided to connect the vessel to electricity, but its owner has refused to pay the bill. One slogan painted in large letters on the ship reads: “Loftsson kills whales.”

Bandero arrived in Iceland this summer to protest and try to stop whaling. In late July, the Icelandic Coast Guard and a special unit of the National Commissioner of Police took control of the vessel after it sailed towards the whaling ship Hval 9 and its captain failed to follow Coast Guard orders. The captain was arrested and Bandero was taken to Reykjavik Harbour.

The ship was later moved to Akranes to make room in Reykjavik for warships arriving for the Northern Viking defence exercise. In mid-October, as severe weather was forecast for southwest Iceland, the tugboat Magni moved Bandero back to Reykjavik. There was no captain aboard.

Hvalur hf. had Bandero detained in August, claiming it was owed damages from the vessel’s owner because of actions by its crew. The ship is now at Grófarbryggja in Reykjavik’s Old Harbour and is expected to remain there until next spring unless the detention is lifted sooner, harbour master Gísli Jóhann Hallsson told mbl.is.

Hallsson said representatives of the ship’s operator had refused to pay bills for harbour services, most recently the electricity charge, because the vessel was being held there against their wishes.