Garpal Gumnut
Ross Island Hotel
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I think these people have crossed the line as to what is legitimate protest into what is dangerous testosterone driven aggression. Following is from ABC Australia
Garpal
Environment group labelled terrorists following collision
The Japanese whaling fleet has labelled environmental protesters as "terrorists" and "pirates" after a collision in the Southern Ocean.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship, the Robert Hunter, collided with the Japanese spotting ship, Kaiko Maru, near the Ross Sea earlier today.
The Japanese ship is stranded with a damaged propeller, while the Robert Hunter reportedly received a gash in its hull. Both crew are blaming each other for the crash.
Hideki Moronuki from the Japan Fisheries Agency says they are concerned for the safety of crew and scientists after Sea Shepherd reportedly threw smoke pots and nets onto the Kaiko Maru - damaging its propeller.
He says the group must take responsibility for the crash.
"Sea Shepherd should immediately stop their pirate and terrorist activities," he said.
"Every time they distribute this false and misleading information, and this time again it is the Robert Hunter that collided with one of our research vessels."
Mr Moronuki says the Kaiko Maru is not involved in killing any whales as part of Japan's whaling research program.
"Everybody should be aware that the Kaiko Maru is the research vessel only for conducting sighting survey," he said.
"[There is] no lethal research activity, [we are] dedicated for non-lethal sighting survey. So there is no reason to be attacked by Sea Shepherd."
But Sea Shepherd says it is now considering using another ship, the Farley Mowat, to ram the slipway of a whaler.
Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson says they are prepared to ram one of the Japanese ships in the next 24 hours if the Australian and New Zealand governments do not agree to do more to protect whales in the Southern Ocean.
"If they can come down here and arrest poachers who are going after toothfish, they can certainly come down here and stop whalers who are illegally killing whales," he said.
"If we obstruct their slipway, just ram our slip into their slipway, then they're not going to be loading any whales."
Violence condemned
But the violence has been condemned by the Australian Government and Greenpeace.
Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull is urging the group to avoid dangerous confrontations with the Japanese fleet, saying it is unacceptable for any vessel to threaten or use violence against other ships at sea.
Greenpeace Oceans spokesman John Bowler says the organisation will not support violent attempts to stop whaling near Antarctica.
"We have heard conflicting reports of course, Sea Shepherd is saying they were rammed by the whalers, the whalers saying that it was Sea Shepherd's fault," he said.
"It 's always hard to know in these instances, but we would say and we do call on all parties there to be careful - it's a dangerous environment that we are in and nobody is there to create martyrs."
Mr Bowler says Greenpeace has called for the protesters to focus on slaughter ships - not research ships.
He says it is important the actual whaling fleet is tracked down, not just sighting ships, like the Kaiko Maru.
"It is not one of the ship's that actually uses a harpoon to kill them, so that could be happening somewhere over the horizon while this ship is down in the ice with Sea Shepherd," he said.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is yet to locate the whaling fleet.
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Garpal
Environment group labelled terrorists following collision
The Japanese whaling fleet has labelled environmental protesters as "terrorists" and "pirates" after a collision in the Southern Ocean.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship, the Robert Hunter, collided with the Japanese spotting ship, Kaiko Maru, near the Ross Sea earlier today.
The Japanese ship is stranded with a damaged propeller, while the Robert Hunter reportedly received a gash in its hull. Both crew are blaming each other for the crash.
Hideki Moronuki from the Japan Fisheries Agency says they are concerned for the safety of crew and scientists after Sea Shepherd reportedly threw smoke pots and nets onto the Kaiko Maru - damaging its propeller.
He says the group must take responsibility for the crash.
"Sea Shepherd should immediately stop their pirate and terrorist activities," he said.
"Every time they distribute this false and misleading information, and this time again it is the Robert Hunter that collided with one of our research vessels."
Mr Moronuki says the Kaiko Maru is not involved in killing any whales as part of Japan's whaling research program.
"Everybody should be aware that the Kaiko Maru is the research vessel only for conducting sighting survey," he said.
"[There is] no lethal research activity, [we are] dedicated for non-lethal sighting survey. So there is no reason to be attacked by Sea Shepherd."
But Sea Shepherd says it is now considering using another ship, the Farley Mowat, to ram the slipway of a whaler.
Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson says they are prepared to ram one of the Japanese ships in the next 24 hours if the Australian and New Zealand governments do not agree to do more to protect whales in the Southern Ocean.
"If they can come down here and arrest poachers who are going after toothfish, they can certainly come down here and stop whalers who are illegally killing whales," he said.
"If we obstruct their slipway, just ram our slip into their slipway, then they're not going to be loading any whales."
Violence condemned
But the violence has been condemned by the Australian Government and Greenpeace.
Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull is urging the group to avoid dangerous confrontations with the Japanese fleet, saying it is unacceptable for any vessel to threaten or use violence against other ships at sea.
Greenpeace Oceans spokesman John Bowler says the organisation will not support violent attempts to stop whaling near Antarctica.
"We have heard conflicting reports of course, Sea Shepherd is saying they were rammed by the whalers, the whalers saying that it was Sea Shepherd's fault," he said.
"It 's always hard to know in these instances, but we would say and we do call on all parties there to be careful - it's a dangerous environment that we are in and nobody is there to create martyrs."
Mr Bowler says Greenpeace has called for the protesters to focus on slaughter ships - not research ships.
He says it is important the actual whaling fleet is tracked down, not just sighting ships, like the Kaiko Maru.
"It is not one of the ship's that actually uses a harpoon to kill them, so that could be happening somewhere over the horizon while this ship is down in the ice with Sea Shepherd," he said.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is yet to locate the whaling fleet.
Print-friendy versionPrint Send to a friendEmail