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Anti-whaling activists clash with Japanese whaler in Southern Ocean Sea Shepherd activists clash with Japanese whaler in Southern Ocean
(about 3 hours later)
Anti-whaling activists have urged Australia to send a naval vessel to the Southern Ocean after a confrontation in which they said a Japanese whaling ship had collided with two of their protest vessels, damaging their flagship. Anti-whaling activists say a Japanese whaling ship has rammed two of their vessels, marking the first clash of this winter's "whale wars" in the freezing Antarctic seas.
"The Nisshin Maru has rammed the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker, but both vessels continue to hold their positions," Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which runs the protest boats, said in a statement. The marine conservation group Sea Shepherd called on Australia to send a naval vessel to the area after claims that the whaling fleet's factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, had collided with two of its vessels including its flagship, the Steve Irwin.
Watson also accused Japanese coastguard personnel of throwing stun grenades at the protest ships during a confrontation in the freezing waters near Antarctica and said the Bob Barker was taking on water in its engine room. "The Nisshin Maru has rammed the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker but both vessels continue to hold their positions," Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd's founder, said in a statement.
Australia confirmed the report of the incident. Neither the Japanese government nor its whaling authority immediately responded to the Sea Shepherd's account of the clash. Watson, who is on an Interpol wanted list for allegedly endangering a fishing vessel crew in 2002, accused the Japanese coastguard personnel accompanying the whalers of throwing stun grenades at activists.
The Sea Shepherd group has clashed with the Japanese fleet for nine whaling seasons in the southern hemisphere summer, and has lot one of its ships, the high-speed trimaran Ady Gil, which sank after a collision with a whaler in January 2010. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but a clause in the moratorium allows Japan to catch just fewer than 1,000 whales in the Antarctic every winter for "scientific research". The meat from the hunts is sold legally, on the open market, although Japan's appetite for it has declined dramatically since the 1960s.
In the latest incident, the activists had been attempting to stop an 8,000-tonne Japanese factory ship refuelling from a tanker when the collision occurred, the Sea Shepherd's director, Bob Brown, told journalists in Melbourne. In recent years, Sea Shepherd has prevented the fleet from reaching its quota, of about 950 minke whales and about 50 fin whales. However, Professor Masayuki Komatsu, a former agriculture ministry official, told the Guardian recently the whalers had left port later than usual at the end of last year, and were expected to catch only about 300 whales.
Brown, a former Australian Green party leader, said the two Sea Shepherd ships had been rammed repeatedly. He called on Australia's government to send a naval ship to the area to calm the tension. Sea Shepherd said the 8,000-tonne Nisshin Maru, which processes slaughtered whales, had also collided with the Bob Barker, causing the latter temporarily to take on water in its engine room. No one was reported injured in the collision.
"It is illegal to be ramming ships in any seas anywhere on the planet," he said. "It is illegal for a tanker to be carrying heavy fuel oil into Antarctic waters under international law." The clashes, near the Australian Davis research base, on the Antarctic coast, came after activists had spent two days trying to prevent the Nisshin Maru from reaching the whaling fleet's tanker, Sun Laurel, to refuel.
Australia sent an armed customs patrol ship to the Southern Ocean in 2008 to gather evidence of Japanese whaling methods for a legal challenge. Sea Shepherd said three of its boats, including the two that were damaged, had been positioned near the Japanese factory ship and tanker when the incident occurred.
Australia has filed a complaint against Japan at the international court of justice, in The Hague, to stop scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. A decision could come this year. The Cetacean Research Institute, a quasi-governmental body that oversees the hunts, said it was investigating the incident.
"The government condemns so-called scientific whaling in all waters, and we urge everyone in the ocean to observe safety at sea," Australia's environment minister, Tony Burke, said in a statement. Japan's consul general in Melbourne, Hidenobu Sobashima, called on Sea Shepherd to end its confrontations with the fleet. "All obstructive activities of Sea Shepherd that endanger life of the crew and property, and safe navigation at sea, should be stopped," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying.
Japan introduced scientific whaling after the moratorium on commercial whaling ban in 1986. It argues it has a right to monitor the whales' impact on its fishing industry. The latest incident is one of many clashes between Sea Shepherd and the whaling fleet over the past nine years. The most serious came in 2010, when the group's hi-tech trimaran, the Ady Gil, sank after colliding with a whaling ship.
A US appeals court in December issued an injunction forbidding Sea Shepherd and Paul Watson from physically attacking or endangering the Japanese whaling fleet, which comprises five ships. Last December, a US court granted a temporary injunction to the Japanese whalers forbidding Sea Shepherd from sailing within 500 yards of the whaling vessels.
On Monday, Watson wrote in the Guardian that Japan's whalers had "never before been more recklessly aggressive".
Sea Shepherd's director, Bob Brown, said the group's two vessels had been repeatedly rammed, and called on the Australian government to send a naval ship to the area.
"It is illegal to be ramming ships in any seas, anywhere on the planet," the former Australian Greens party leader told reporters in Melbourne. "It is illegal for a tanker to be carrying heavy fuel oil into Antarctic waters under international law."
The Australian government, a vocal critic of whaling, has taken its campaign to end the annual hunts in the Southern Ocean to the international court of justice, in the Hague; a ruling could come later this year.
Australia's environment minister, Tony Burke, said in a statement: "The government condemns so-called scientific whaling in all waters, and we urge everyone in the ocean to observe safety at sea."