Canada to deport 2 seal hunt protesters

SYDNEY, Nova Scotia, April 16 (UPI) -- Two European seal hunt protesters arrested last week for being too close to a Canadian ship off Nova Scotia are being deported, one of them said Wednesday.

In Sydney, Peter Hammarstedt, 23, the first officer of the anti-sealing vessel, the Farley Mowat, told the Canwest News Service he will be sent back to his native Sweden on Friday. He said co-accused Alexander Cornelissen of Amsterdam and the ship's captain would also be flown back to the Netherlands.

"Once again the thing we're being accused of doing is allegedly being within a half a nautical mile of someone skinning a seal alive, and for that Canada deports us," Hammarstedt said.

The men appeared in court Monday and were freed on $10,000 bail and ordered to stay away from the seal hunt.

They and 15 other members of the Washington-based Sea Shepherd Society were aboard the Dutch-registered ship when police and federal officials boarded and arrested them.

The ship is moored in Sydney, temporarily impounded by the Canadian government, the report said.