Sea Shepherd protesters board Japanese whaling boat: claim they are being “held hostage”
Well it didn’t take too long since the Japanese whaling fleet arrived in its hunting waters for trouble to brew. A few days ago an Australian Federal court said that Japan’s activities in the waters are illegal,a dnt that they should withdraw immediately. The problem with that is that Japan (and indeed the vast majority) of countries do not recognize Australia’s claim to those waters, and see them as being international waters. In addition, it is difficult to prove that the whaling fleet have been conducting operations within that area. But news has come through over the past 24 hours that 2 protesters from the rather more militant environmentalist group, Sea Sheperd, had boarded one of the whaling ships. This followed a stand-off where water cannons were fired at the protesters as they approached the fleet. The protesters responded by firing an obnoxious smelling, but harmless substance onto the deck of one of the boats, and throwing ropes at the boat’s propellor. The story below from Reuters has more details:
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean will release two anti-whaling activists held onboard their vessel only if their protest ship agrees to stop harassing them, Japanese fishing officials said on Wednesday.
“We are happy to hand the two men back in exchange for a couple of agreements — that they remain 10 nautical miles away from the vessel,” Glenn Inwood, spokesman for Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, told Australian media.
Hideki Moronuki, of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, told Australian media that as soon as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society accepted the conditions regarding the safety of the Japanese vessel “they will release the two illegal intruders.”
But Paul Watson, captain of the militant anti-whaling group’s ship, rejected the condition. “When you are holding hostages and you make demands, that is the definition of terrorism,” Watson said from his ship, the Steve Irwin.
The Institute of Cetacean Research has in turn called the anti-whaling activists “terrorist,” for illegally boarding a ship on the high seas.
Australian Benjamin Potts and Briton Giles Lane boarded the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru No. 2 late on Tuesday. Sea Shepherd said they were delivering a letter advising the crew they were “illegally killing whales.”
Japanese fishing authorities said the pair boarded the whaler after making attempts to entangle the screw of the vessel using ropes and throwing bottles of acid onto the decks. Sea Shepherd said the pair only threw stink bombs of rancid butter.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australian diplomats in Tokyo received guarantees from Japan’s government that the two men would be released immediately after accusations by Watson that they were “roughed up” by the Japanese crew.
“The Japanese government wanted the two men transferred back to the Steve Irwin and were proceeding to instruct the whaling vessel to secure that transfer,” Smith told journalists in Perth.
But the whaling ship’s skipper had been unable to contact Watson on the Steve Irwin to negotiate their return, said Takahide Naruko, from the fisheries agency Far Seas division.
The pair could also be handed to an Australian government fisheries patrol ship en route to the area if Sea Shepherd could not be contacted to arrange a transfer, he said.
COURT CHALLENGE
The Australian fisheries ship is attempting to gather evidence for an international court challenge against Tokyo’s annual “scientific” whaling program.
The two protesters were detained inside Australia’s declared Antarctic waters and a southern whale sanctuary declared by Canberra but not recognized by Japan.
Sea Shepherd’s Watson said the men were tied to a radar mast and dunked in icy water before being taken below decks. Japanese fishing authorities rejected the charges.
Australian police were investigating claims of illegal action on both sides, said Smith, whose new Labor government has pledged a tougher line with Japan on whaling.
“From the very first day I urged all parties in this matter to exercise restraint. It is quite clearly the case that restraint hasn’t occurred here,” he said.
Japan plans to hunt almost 1,000 minke and fin whales for research over the Antarctic summer, but has abandoned the cull of 50 humpback whales after international condemnation and a formal diplomatic protest by 31 nations.
Watson, who last year threatened to ram the Japanese flagship and collided with a whale hunter, defended the tactics used by the men as straw polls in Australia showed many people thought the activist group had gone too far.
Donald Rothwell, an Australian international law expert, said boarding another vessel on the high seas could be seen by a court as an act of piracy or worse. “It could also be seen possibly as an act of terrorism,” Rothwell said.
In a purely symbolic act, but one that may inflame bilateral ties, an Australian court ruled on Tuesday that a Japanese whaling company broke environment laws by killing whales in Australia’s Antarctic waters.
Japan has long resisted pressure to stop scientific whaling, insisting whaling is a cherished cultural tradition. Its fleet has killed 7,000 Antarctic minkes over the past 20 years.
(Editing by Michael Perry and Alex Richardson)
Source: Reuters News
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I don’t think anyone that has been keeping up with the fleet and Sea Shepherd’s activities is hugely surprised that this has happened. The Japanese fishing & agricultural agency says that they want to release the men so that their “research” activities can continue, but if they have stopped now it is likely that the Sea Sheperd will try to put off collecting these men for as long as possible. If the incident is in Australian waters as the Australian government seems to be claiming, then should the Australian navy come and pick these men up who, according to some reports, may have committed piracy by boarding the Yushin Maru No. 2? Or if both of those refuse, would Greenpeace take these protesters, who they have already distanced themselves from before? We’ll soon see how this pans out over the next few days.
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