GREENPEACE STOPS JAPANESS WHALING SHIPS

[Anonymous]

Greenpeace ‘heads off whale ship’
Greenpeace
conservation activists say they have disrupted the Japanese whale hunt
near Antarctica’s coast by chasing a factory ship out of the whaling
zone.
Crew from
protest ship Esperanza said they were maintaining the chase as the
whalers cannot hunt at the same time.A spokesman for Japan’s whale hunt
said Greenpeace’s actions were illegal and people should not treat them
as heroes.Japan’s whaling fleet plans to kill about 900 minke whales
and 50 fin whales by mid-April.The hunt is part of what it calls a
scientific research programme, permitted under a clause in
International Whaling Commission rules.But Australia and other nations
say the same research goals could be achieved using non-lethal methods,
and call the research programme a front for commercial whaling.The hunt
has suspended plans to kill 50 humpback whales, amid a storm of
international criticism.

Hunting the hunters
A number of
ships are in southern waters on the trail of the hunters, including an
Australian patrol ship that plans to video the whalers for a possible
legal challenge, and the Steve Irwin, belonging to the radical Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society.A schism has emerged between the protest
groups as Greenpeace has pledged to take non-violent action to prevent
the hunt, while Sea Shepherd has suggested more direct action to “shut
the criminals down”.”I have no doubt about who they are running from,”
said Capt Paul Watson, of the Steve Irwin. “They know we’re not trying
to catch them to take their picture.”The Greenpeace vessel was the
first to catch up with the processing ship Nisshin Maru on Saturday,
causing the six-vessel whaling fleet to “scatter and run”, say the
protesters.The whalers’ hunting vessels cannot operate when the Nisshin
Maru is not in a position to process the kill.

The Japan Whaling
Association called on Greenpeace to keep clear of the fleet.”Past
activities of Greenpeace have been responsible for vessel collisions
that risk the lives and safety of our researchers and crew and are
illegal under international maritime law,” said association president
Keiichi Nakajima in a statement.”I urge Greenpeace to desist from any
harassment of the research vessels and to keep a safe distance.”The
BBC’s Jonah Fisher, who is on the Esperanza, says the Japanese may be
playing a long-term tactical game as they know that Greenpeace has
limited fuel.A week in the open sea exhausting the environmentalists
would only be a brief interlude in the whaling season and would also
deny Greenpeace the chance to film the whalers at work, he said. 

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January 15, 2008 at 11:29 AM