Whaling Protesters Held

TWO anti-whaling protestors, one a Briton, were held on a Japanese whaling ship after boarding it in a protest yesterday.

The men, from the environmental group Sea Shepherd which has been tailing ships involved in Japan’s annual whale hunt, forced their way on to the Yushin Maru No. 2 and were being held in the ship’s office, said a statement from Japan’s Institute forCetacean Research, which runs the operation.

Institute chief Minoru Morimoto said the two boarded the Yushin Maru "illegally" after attempting to "entangle the crew of the vessel using ropes and throwing bottles of acid onto the decks."

Sea Shepherd claimed earlier the two men, Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35, were assaulted and tied to the railing of the whaler and later bound to the ship’s radar mast as they tried to deliver a letter to the captain of theJapanese ship "to inform them that they were illegally killing whales" in Antarctic waters.

The boarding was the latest in a string of disputes between antiwhaling activists and the Japanese fleet both on the high seas and in the courts.

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