‘Whale Wars’ star skips bail, on the lam

Paul Watson, the founder of environmental group Sea Shepherd and star of Animal Planet’s popular reality show “Whale Wars,” is on the lam.

Watson was on $320,000 bail in Germany pending an extradition request from Costa Rica when he skipped the country, according to authorities.

The Japanese government, as well, was asking the Germans to hold Watson, whom they accuse of interfering with their fishing fleets

Watson and his group have repeatedly clashed with fishing fleets they accuse of illegally hunting whales, sharks and other endangered sea animals.

The anti-whaling group said yesterday that Watson, 61, had left Germany and was now “in an undisclosed location.”

Watson was arrested May 13 at Frankfurt Airport on a warrant from Costa Rica, which claimed he had endangered the crew of a fishing vessel a decade ago.

Sea Shepherd says Watson was filming a documentary at the time of the alleged incident, which took place in Guatemalan waters in 2002.

The US-based group said it encountered an illegal shark-finning operation run by a Costa Rican ship, the Varadero, and told the crew to stop and head to port to be prosecuted.

The crew accused Sea Shepherd of trying to kill them by ramming their ship.