Charges laid against Sea Shepherd vessel

The captain and first officer of a ship being used to protest the annual seal hunt off Canada's east coast are facing charges following a confrontation with a coast guard vessel earlier this week, the federal government announced on Saturday.

The Farley Mowat is owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-sealing group fronted by controversial environmentalist Paul Watson.

The Canadian Coast Guard claims the Farley Mowat deliberately tried to run into one of its vessels off the coast of Cape Breton.

The Sea Shepherd Society is claiming the exact opposite.

The two men, captain Alexander Cornelissen and first officer Peter Hammarstedt, have been charged with approaching within one half nautical mile of the seal hunt.

Cornelissen is also facing a charge of obstructing a fisheries officer.

Canada's fisheries minister, Loyola Hearn, said he expects the men to be prosecuted to the fullest extent.

Hearn said it's government's job to protect the sealers and to make sure those who try to interfere with the hunt are impeded.

If convicted, Cornelissen and Hammarstedt could face up to $100,000 in fines and a year in prison.

In what has been a tempestuous week for the Sea Shepherd Society and its vessel, the Farley Mowat also ran into trouble on Friday in the French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, near Newfoundland.

Fishermen on Saint-Pierre cut the vessel's mooring lines and ran it out of port in response to disparaging comments Watson made about several seal hunters who died last weekend when their boat capsized as it was being towed off the coast of Cape Breton.