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HALIFAX - The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vowed Tuesday to bill Canada $1,000 for every day it holds the seized anti-sealing ship, the Farley Mowat.

The ship was boarded by RCMP officers on April 12 off Cape Breton during the annual East Coast seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The ship's 17-person crew was also taken into custody. The Dutch-registered ship is being held in Sydney, N.S.

"At no time did my ship ever enter the 12-mile limit," Alex Cornelissen, the ship's skipper, said in a release. "They had no right to board us and these charges are ridiculous.

"All we did was take pictures of seals being slaughtered on the ice."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it will send an invoice to the federal Fisheries Department on the 12th of each month, asking for $30,000 for the time the ship is held.

"This will be $365,000 every year," the society said in a statement.

Paul Watson, head of the society, said his group will not have Canada "trample on our rights."

"We will not have the government setting a precedent of boarding non-Canadian vessels in international waters with armed boarding parties," he said.