Japan Embroiled in Whaling Wars at New Level of Hostility

Posted by Raymond on December 18, 2009

From The Times:

Japanese sailors in the Antarctic Southern Ocean fired water cannons at self-styled environmental “pirates”, in the annual high-risk struggle over Tokyo’s controversial whale hunt.

Sea Shepherd, the radical environment group which in the past has engaged in violent clashes with the whaling fleet, reported that it was fired upon with water cannons mounted on the Shonan Maru No 2, a ship which is part of the Japanese whaling fleet. The group’s founder, Paul Watson, said that his ship was then pursued for two hours on Monday by the Shonan Maru, apparently in effort to keep the environmentalists away from the main whaling vessels.

“As long as they’re following us, they can relay our position to the whaling fleet so they can move if we’re approaching them,” Captain Watson said, from the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Steve Irwin, named after the late Australian environmentalist. “We’re going to try and lose them in the ice pack down here off the coast. We had our water cannons at ready but we never opened up on them.” He said that the Steve Irwin had been tracked by a spotter plane, as well as the Shonan Maru, turning the tables on the environmentalists. In the past, Sea Shepherd has been the one in pursuit and has attempted to foil the whalers by sailing small open dinghies between whales and the harpoon boats that are launched form the larger ships.

[Read more at The Times]