SHELBURNE, N.S. -- A Nova Scotia judge has granted yet another extension to the salvage company removing the rusted remains of the MV Farley Mowat from a wharf in Shelburne.
Dylan Heide, the town's chief administrative officer, says the former flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was supposed to be removed by last Friday, but owner Tracy Dodds received approval for a delay.
Heide says Dodds complained that bad weather had slowed his progress, and the Federal Court of Canada agreed Monday to push the deadline to April 22.
As the ship was being dismantled Monday, it caught fire -- but the flames were quickly extinguished and the marine terminal was not damaged.
The court says if Dodds misses the April 22 deadline, he face a $5,000 fine and a maximum 20-day jail sentence -- though the deadline has already been pushed back a few times.
The flat-black, 54-metre ship was seized at gunpoint by the RCMP in April 2008, after its crew sailed it too close to the seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Watson's group has long used high-profile, vigilante tactics to stop hunters from killing seals, whales and other marine wildlife around the globe.
In June 2015, the group replaced the MV Farley Mowat with another, smaller ship of the same name.
