A Japanese whaler has rammed a boat belonging to Sea Shepherd, an anti-whaling protest group, in Antarctic waters. No-one was injured.
In a statement posted on its website, Sea Shepherd said the harpoon ship Yushin Maru 3 intentionally rammed the protesters' boat, the Bob Barker, off Cape Darnley in Australia's Antarctic territory. Sea Shepherd said the whaler tore a one-metre long gash above the waterline in the Bob Barker's hull.
Despite the incident, the Bob Barker is continuing its efforts to block the slipway of the Nisshin Maru, the whaling fleet's factory ship. It hopes, Sea Shepherd said, to prevent the transfer of slaughtered whales and effectively shut down the fleet's operations.
Escalation
Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd mission, said the ramming demonstrated a "continued escalation of violence" by the Japanese. On 6 January another Japanese whaler, the Shonan Maru No.2, collided with the Ady Gil, a high-tech catamaran powered by biodiesel fuel and used in Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling protests. After the collision the catamaran, worth close to one million euros, broke in two and sank.
Speaking after Saturday's incident, Paul Watson said, "Because the whalers got away basically scot-free with the outrageous sinking of the Ady Gil, they now apparently think they can do whatever they want and they appear to have no qualms about endangering Sea Shepherd crew."
He added, "What we really need is for the governments of Australia and New Zealand to step up and start enforcing maritime laws in these waters, or who knows what the whalers will do next."
Australian concerns
Canberra has expressed "very strong" diplomatic concerns about the collision and claims the Japanese fleet chartered spying flights out of Australia. Tokyo, in turn, has lodged a complaint with New Zealand's government. Both the whalers and the protesters blame each other for the crash.
Despite an international moratorium on whaling, Japan continues to hunt whales using a loophole in the 1986 agreement that permits "lethal research." In recent years, skirmishes with anti-whaling activists have grown increasingly sophisticated and intense.
Another view of the Ady Gil collision, filmed from the Bob Barker.
Sea Shepherd - Flickr/Wietse
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