MARINA DEL REY, California (AFP) ― Award-winning actor Martin Sheen teamed up with conservation group Sea Shepherd Saturday to launch a new ship, as its exiled founder said he hopes to return to the U.S. next year.

Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said via Skype that he hoped to return from France, where he said the government was being supportive despite two countries including Japan seeking his arrest.

“I’m in a sort of exile in Paris ... it’s not the worst exile in the world,” he joked.

“It’s great over here. Everybody’s been very friendly, the government’s been very supportive. Hopefully we’ll have all of this cleared up by next spring and I can return” to the U.S., he said.

Watson was arrested in May 2012 in Frankfurt on a warrant from Costa Rica, where he is wanted on charges stemming from a high-seas confrontation over shark finning in 2002.

He was released on bail, but fled the country on July 22, 2012 and was a fugitive on the high seas for 15 months.

He eventually entered the United States last October, and stayed here until a few months ago when he traveled to France, according to a Sea Shepherd spokeswoman, Lisa Agabian.

She told AFP there were still two “politically motivated” active Interpol Red Notices” from Japan and Costa Rica “which limit Capt. Watson’s travel, but we are continuing to work on getting them removed.”