Dream On (land of the rising) Sunshine

Japan calls on Australia to stop Sea Shepherd


Japan has told the ambassadors of Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands to take action against anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, whose harassment cut short its Antarctic hunt this season.

On Friday Japan announced it was bringing home its harpoon ships a month early, citing a need to guarantee the safety of the whalers.

"It is extremely regrettable that the obstructionist activities by Sea Shepherd were not prevented," Japan's foreign minister Seiji Maehara said in remarks directed to the three countries that allow Sea Shepherd to fly their flag or use their ports.

Mr Maehara said the foreign ministry had invited in the three envoys and "conveyed a sense of regret and reiterated a strong request to take effective measures to avoid the recurrence of Sea Shepherd's obstructionist activities".

The US-based environmental group, which has pursued Japan's harpoon ships for months, operates Dutch- and Australian-registered ships and uses ports in anti-whaling nations Australia and New Zealand for its campaigns.

Japan's top government spokesman, chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano, called the actions by Sea Shepherd "extremely deplorable".

"We can't help but feel outrage because the lives of the crew were endangered," he said.

"We will work out definite measures to ensure we can continue research whaling without giving in to sabotage."

Earlier, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson hailed Japan's decision and pledged to stop any future hunts.

"It's great news. We will, however, stay with the Japanese ships until they return north and make sure they're out of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary," he said.

"Personally I don't trust them, but I will take their word on this and we will follow them out. We're just not going to leave them until we know for sure they're out of the Southern Ocean."

New levels

Sea Shepherd's boat, the Bob Barker, is currently more than 1,000 kilometres off the South American coast tailing Japanese harpoon ship, the Nisshin Maru.

The environmental group has pushed environmental militancy to new levels in its fight against the whalers.

In recent years its tactics have included moving their ships and inflatable boats between the whaling ships and the whales, as well as throwing stink and paint bombs at their crews.

But captain Alex Cornelissen believes his crew's tactics are now vindicated. He says this season alone, hundreds of whales have been saved.

"We think they've only managed to kill between 30 and 100 whales, so out of a quota of 985, I think we've saved about 90 per cent of the whales or even more and that's pretty good," he said.

Japan introduced so-called scientific whaling to get around an international ban on commercial hunting. It argues it has a right to watch the whales' impact on its fishing industry.

At this stage though it is unclear what will happen next season, but Mr Cornelissen says Sea Shepherd will remain vigilant.

"We do hope the political pressure will also increase and there's also some new International Maritime Organisation regulations that's going to make it harder for the Japanese whaling fleet to come down here next season," he said.

"But should they decide to come down here, we'll be here and likely even stronger than we were this year."

Greenpeace whales campaigner Reece Turner (Piss-ant useless wankers) says the Japanese have buckled to international pressure, but he also says changing opinions within Japan have played a role.

"I think there's three factors at play really," he said.

"There's the tactics of the Sea Shepherd organisation in the Southern Ocean, there's a change in the public opinion at home and increasing revelations of corruption, and of course the diplomatic pressure from Australian and New Zealand governments has taken its toll as well." ABC Au