CANBERRA — Anti-whaling activists hunted a Japanese whaling
fleet in the Southern Ocean on Tuesday, intent on ramming its flagship, as
pro-whaling nations met in Tokyo to push for a return to commercial fishing of
the giant creatures.
A Japanese fisheries spokesman dubbed anti-whaling protesters
as terrorists after one of their vessels collided with a whaling boat in the
Southern Ocean late on Monday, while Australia called on the activists to back
off before someone was killed.
The two sides blamed each other for the clash at sea, which
holed a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship, the Robert Hunter, but not badly
enough for it to abandon the chase.
The activists next planned to ram a vessel into the back of a
Japanese factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru, to stop whales being hauled on board
for processing, said Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd founder and the captain of the
group’s flagship, Farley Mowat.
"We’re not going to sink their ship, we’re just going to
obstruct their activities. We’ll probably have the Farley Mowat permanently
stuck up their rear-end," he said.
Previous clashes saw some activists swept into the sea and
almost lost in the fog and Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said
the protesters should halt their harassment of the Japanese fleet.
"This is not about whaling. It is simply unacceptable for any
vessel to threaten or to use violence against other ships at sea. These are
dangerous and irresponsible actions," said Turnbull.
In Tokyo, a special meeting of the International Whaling
Commission began on Tuesday, with host Japan and like-minded countries trying to
build momentum to resume commercial hunting.
Japanese officials say the meeting is a final attempt to save
the commission but prospects for dialogue in the polarized organization appear
slim.
Only 36 of the International Whaling Commission’s 72 members
are expected to attend the three-day meeting, with some 26 anti-whaling nations
— including Australia, New Zealand and the United States — refusing to attend.
"One of our goals is to improve the atmosphere of the IWC,
which has become one of confrontation, and to improve dialogue," Minoru
Morimoto, the commissioner for Japan, told the meeting.
"It’s a shame that most anti-whaling nations chose
confrontation," he said, adding he hoped the commission would at its annual
meeting in May seriously consider normalization, as Japanese term commercial
whaling.
Outside the meeting, three anti-whaling protesters, including
a man wearing a mask of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s face, carried a sign reading
"Welcome to the commercialization meeting". One activist was dressed as a
weeping whale.
Pasted to the sign were 10,000 yen ($82) notes and names of
several countries, an allusion to charges by anti-whalers that Japan had bought
pro-whaling votes at the IWC with foreign aid. Japan has repeatedly denied the
allegations.
Anti-whaling nation Britain has set out to recruit more
like-minded nations to join the commission and block Japan’s drive to end a 1986
ban on commercial whaling.
In the Southern Ocean, the whalers and the protesters blamed
each other for the continued clashes.
The Kaiko Maru was rammed from both sides by the Robert
Hunter and the Farley Mowat, leaving it temporarily disabled with a damaged
propeller, Japanese fisheries spokesman Hideki Moronuki said.
"They are terrorists and their activities are piracy,"
Moronuki told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
But Watson said the Robert Hunter had been deliberately
side-swiped by the Kaiko Maru, leaving gashes in the hull in two places and
damaging the ship beneath the water line.
The gashes had been welded shut and the chase, using
helicopters, had resumed, the activists said.
Japan, which says whaling is a cherished cultural tradition, began scientific
research whaling in 1987. The meat, which under whaling commission rules must be
sold for consumption, ends up in supermarkets and pricey restaurants.
