The eco-ship which left Bermuda?s waters three months ago to thwart seal hunters off Prince Edward Island, will return to the Island this week after suffering alleged assaults on its crew and arrests on the ice.

The is owned by Sea Shepherd ? an environmental organisation viewed in some circles as an eco-terrorist group.

?We are on our way back to Bermuda,? Captain Paul Watson said by e-mail. ?We have a berth at Dockyard and should be arriving Thursday evening or Friday morning. We are stopping on the Tail of the Grand Banks tomorrow to deploy some experimental net rippers.? Net rippers are designed to lie on the bottom in wait of a drag trawl, the Sea Shepherd web-site (www.seashepherd.org) said.

?Once the trawl passes over the device, it is designed to dig into the bottom and at the same time the outer arms will rip open the net,? it said.

The will drop the net rippers to assess their effectiveness.

?Despite the crash of the cod fishery, the banks continue to be plundered,? the website said. ?There needs to be a programme to drop thousands of net rippers on the nose and the tail of the Banks and the Flemish Cap, those areas outside of Canadian territorial waters.?

The left Bermuda in December, 2004, with Bermuda resident Laura Dakin on board to film a documentary about the seal cull.

Ms Dakin is a Cecile?s employee and niece of English Sports Shop managing director David Hamshere.On March 31, Ms Dakin and other crew members were arrested following an angry and allegedly violent confrontation on the ice with seal hunters.

Charges are being pursued against the sealers who allegedly assaulted the crew. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman said the RCMP had not arrested any crew, although another agency might have.