Group Chases Off Whalers

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a U.S.-based anti-whaling group, reported Saturday that it had successfully forced Japan’s whaling fleet out of waters near Antarctica claimed by Australia.

The organization posted the statement on its Web site www.seashepherd.org, saying its ship, the Steve Irwin, had achieved its goal of forcing the Japanese fleet, which was on annual hunt to kill 900 whales, into waters off the New Zealand owned Ross Dependency.

Australia has declared an "EEZ", or "economic exclusion zone", in waters off the coast of its Antarctic territories, and an Australian court order prohibits whaling there. Sea Shepherd says it was merely enforcing that order by pursuing Japan’s whaling fleet.

However, Japan does not formally recognize the zone and claims its whaling fleet was in international waters.  

Despite an international moratorium on whaling in place since 1986, Japan defends its whale hunts on the grounds of "scientific" purposes.  However, much of the meat ends up on store shelves. 

In the Sea Shepherd statement, founder Paul Watson pledged that his organization would persist in its pursuit of the Japanese fleet.

"The good news is that they are no longer whaling in Australian waters and they only managed to hunt in the waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory for about a week before being forced to flee the Australian EEZ," read the statement.

"They are now in the waters of the Ross dependency and the Steve Irwin is in pursuit," said Waton, adding that it was "bad news" for whales in New Zealand’s southern waters.

Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, which manages the hunt, has called the Sea Shepherd’s activities "eco-terrorism", and accused the group of smashing into its vessel, the Kaiko Maru, as part of a protest action last Friday.  However, Sea Shepherd blamed the collision on the Japanese.

In response, the Institute of Cetacean Research released a video of the incident on its Web site, www.icrwhale.org, which showed the Japanese crew warning Sea Shepherd in English that protesters would be treated as "illegal intruders under Japanese law" should they attempt to board the Japanese vessel.

Two Sea Shepherd activists were briefly detained on a Japanese ship they had attempted to board as a protest action during the last whaling season.