RNW, 3 January 2011, by Iede de Vries
 |
| (Photo: Gary Stokes/SeaShephard.org) |
The whaling season has seen its first skirmishes between Japanese whalers and Sea Shepherd anti-whaling activists. One of the campaign ships has a Dutch captain.
Japan has called on the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and the United States to take measures against anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd. The four countries have called for restraint on both sides. In a joint statement they expressed regret that the Japanese fleet continues to kill whales.
Water cannon
The Japanese whalers and the conservationists clashed last weekend in the Pacific Ocean, close to Antarctica. The Japanese crew managed to hold off Sea Shepherd’s speedboats using water cannon as they tried to snare the Japanese vessel’s propellers with floating cables. No one was injured.
Dutch flag
The skirmishes were the first of this whaling season, which runs from December to February. The Japanese whalers say Australia and the Netherlands should take action against Sea Shepherd – two of the organisation’s vessels sail under a Dutch flag, while one is registered in Australia.
Research
The captain of one of the ships, Dutchman Alex Cornelissen, says that up to now no whales have been killed. Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, and whales can only be killed for scientific purposes. Japan claims it only kills whales for research purposes, but Sea Shepherd says the whale meat ends up on sale for consumption.
Related Article:
