Screengrab from YouTube video The Icelandic Coast Guard and special police forces boarded and took control of the anti-whaling vessel Bandero after the ship allegedly ignored orders to leave Icelandic waters and stop during an operation linked to a confrontation with a commercial whaling vessel. Bandero, operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, was seized shortly before midnight on July 31 after entering Iceland’s 12-nautical-mile territorial waters while monitoring the whaling vessel Hvalur 9. The vessel was later escorted to Sundahöfn harbour in Reykjavík. Paul Watson was not aboard at the time of the operation. The Icelandic Coast Guard said it received a report at around 1800 on July 30 that the crew of Hvalur 9 believed their safety was under threat after Bandero approached the vessel. The Coast Guard said Bandero was ordered to leave Icelandic waters but did not follow the instructions. A Coast Guard helicopter, which was already on patrol, was sent to the area and repeated the order for Bandero to leave, but authorities said the vessel did not comply. The patrol vessel Freyja was then dispatched to intercept Bandero and instructed the captain to stop the ship’s engines. According to the Coast Guard, the captain did not follow those instructions either. Special police officers were flown by helicopter to Freyja, while the Coast Guard’s special operations unit moved towards Bandero in fast boats. The boarding operation was completed shortly before midnight, when officers arrested the captain and took control of the vessel. The Coast Guard said the operation was carried out in cooperation with Iceland’s National Commissioner of Police, with the Ministry of Justice informed throughout. “This is the biggest operation in decades, and it went exactly according to plan,” Icelandic Coast Guard communications manager Ásgeir Erlendsson said. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation confirmed that Bandero had been seized, saying the vessel had been following Hvalur 9 fo