The Captain of eco-ship the has returned to Bermuda from the Canadian icecaps with tales of allegedly viscious and unprovoked attacks on his crew by incensed seal hunters.

Speaking to yesterday, Captain Paul Watson ? co-founder of Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ? said the protestors had been filming "at some distance" from where the controversial seal culls were taking place when they were aggressively approached and attacked by seal hunters wielding clubs and ice-picks.

The ship left Bermuda in December with Bermudian Laura Dakin aboard to film a documentary about the sea culls on Prince Edward Island.

Seven of the crew have filed assault charges with Canadian authorities after reportedly being repeatedly punched, kicked and struck with clubs ? resulting in a number of busted lips and black eyes.

15 seal hunters now face charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

However, Captain Watson also revealed that 11 crew members, including Ms Dakin, have also been criminally charged with passing within half a nautical mile of a seal hunter without the permission of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans ? an offence which carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 or one year in prison.

The renowned eco-warrior is unrepentant, however, insisting all the relevant paperwork had been properly filled in, but the ability to pick up permits was deliberately undermined by the Canadian government.

"We filled out the forms in Halifax [Nova Scotia but were told we could only pick them up in the Magdalen Islands," Captain Watson explained.

"They did that because it was the one place they knew I could not go and it was the one place I would not take my crew. Back in 1995, I was in the Magdalen Islands with the actor Martin Sheen and I was badly beaten in my hotel by seal hunters while the Police stood and watched. This is all on record because Martin Sheen had to call his agent to get in touch with the American consul in Montreal to get a SWAT team out there to protect us. So I was not willing to risk by crew's safety by docking in the Magdalen Islands."

Captain Watson ? a self-styled "bucanneer" who was reportedly ousted from Greenpeace in the late 1970s for violating the organisation's policy of non-violence ? said he would be using the upcoming court case on June 9 to challenge the constitutionality of the northern region's permitting regulations, arguing that, as a Canadian citizen, he should be free to move around the country without restriction.

The will remain docked in Bermuda for another month or so, Captain Watson revealed, with attempts to locate an available dry-dock in the United States still ongoing.

Meanwhile, Ms Dakin called the Canadian seal cull "a disgusting bloody slaughter" and vowed to continue the fight against the policy of the Canadian Government which has polarised global opinion.

Daughter of a Bermudian, Ms Dakin has lived and worked on the Island intermittently over the last two years, having spent most of her life in Australia ? but it was not until she met the crew of the at a dinner party last year that her passion for global conservation issues really began.

"After the dinner party I did a lot of research on the Internet about the Canadian government's seal cull policy," she said.

"And I really couldn't find any sustainable argument for what they were doing. So when the opportunity came up to accompany the crew on an expedition, I jumped at it."

Ms Dakin confirmed she was one of the 11 crew members arrested on the ice, but insisted she had done nothing wrong.

"It was beautiful day and we went out on the ice to peacefully oppose the activities of the seal hunters," she said.

"When we got out there they weren't actually doing any sealing so we decided to approach them just to talk with them and try to understand their point of view. But when we got close to them they became aggressive and started swearing at us and then assaulted a number of the crew. They then radioed the Canadian coast guard to say we were obstructing them and a coast guard boat then came ploughing through the ice towards us, blocking our access to the and killing all the seals in its path."

Ms Dakin described how she and the other crew members were arrested and placed in a holding cell for the nine-hour journey back to Charlottetown on the Magdalen Islands, where they were lowered off the boat in a steel cage.

"We are going to plead not guilty to the charge because the law is we are not allowed to go within half a nautical mile of sealers when they are actually sealing," she said.

"But when we were on the ice they were not working so I don't think we were in the wrong. Overall though the expedition was a success. We got a lot of very positive media coverage which clearly showed we were acting in a non-violent way and our big focus now is to carry on the campaign to try and persuade people to boycott Canadian fish products. A lot of people think we're just a bunch of hippies going around causing trouble. But this is our planet we're talking about and what is going on is too serious to just sweep under the carpet and forget about."

Ms Dakin, who said she will be volunteering for future expeditions, is to travel to the Redwood Forests of Oregon in the next few weeks to protest against a huge commercial logging operation taking place there.