Greenpeace press releases cannot be used as evidence owing to the fact that they contain in part inaccurate and unfortunate wording, and that they boasted about encumbering the Senet’s catch to a greater extent than there were actually grounds for, claimed Greenpeace’s lawyer in Dalane stipendiary magistrates court during the Enghaugen vs. Greenpeace damages suit. This is reported in the grounds for judgement. (See main article on this page).

In his litigation, Greenpeace’s lawyer claimed that the purpose of the operations had been solely to demonstrate , and that they had not caused any hindrance to the hunt. In the wealth of press releases from Greenpeace published during the campaign it says, amongst other things, The activists tried to remove the harpoon onboard the Senet ... This is the last whale the Senet will kill if we have anything to do with it, said Greenpeace campaigner, Stephan Flothman ... The MV Solo intercepted and halted a Norwegian whaler from killing two whales ... We are arrested today for saving two whales, said Greenpeace campaigner Geert Drieman. Greenpeace has been obstructing Norwegian whaling efforts in the North Sea for the past three weeks... The whaling vessel Senet tried to resume hunting this morning but was prevented from killing a minke whale by the MV Solo ...

Die in Peace
In their litigation, Greenpeace acknowledge having cut the harpoon line between a harpooned whale and the whaler. But this is said to have been an individual action by one of the demonstrators , and not in accordance with the principles by which Greenpeace carry out their demonstrations. Furthermore, they write that the whale swam away and was probably not seriously wounded. A Greenpeace press release dated July 7th, however, states that , When the Greenpeace activists approached the whaler, they saw the dying minke whale with a harpoon in its side. A whaler was shooting at the stricken whale with a rifle to finish the kill ... The whale was close to death by the time Greenpeace arrived, and was cut free by the activists to die in peace. The activists were determined that the whalers should not profit from this whale’s death. This version is corroborated by what Eva Egeberg, the inspector on board the Senet, has written in her report to the Norwegian authorities. She declares that the whale was mortally wounded and would not survive long.

New Versions
The Norwegian media launched strong criticism of the fact that Greenpeace had prolonged the whale’s suffering by their actions. But, on second thoughts, the Greenpeace activists realised that their account of the incident in their press release was not correct. A new version of the story emerged in several interviews. Campaign leader Paul Horsman told the Norwegian daily, the VG, (The whale) was only slightly wounded. It had been harpooned in one of its fins. Norwegian Greenpeace spokeswoman, Karin Glatz Brubakk told TV2 Norway, ... the whale was OK. It wasn’t too good because it had been shot at, but it was far from mortally wounded. Finally, at a press conference in Hamburg, summing up the events in the North Sea the German campaign leader, Stephan Flothman, stated that the whale had been wounded, but that they did not know how seriously.