Japanese whaling fleet loses in court, at sea

[Annces]

JAPAN'S whaling has suffered a double blow — being found illegal by an Australian court and with its fleet in turmoil under environmentalist attack. The Federal Court decision raised pressure for the Rudd Government to act against the whalers if they continue to hunt in an Australian Whale Sanctuary in the Antarctic. The fleet's chaser boats were on the run last night after Sea Shepherd broke up their attempt to resupply in the Southern Ocean, far south-west of Australia.

In the action, the Japanese detained two Sea Shepherd activists, one of them Australian, who in an unprecedented act, boarded a moving whaling catcher boat in the icy Antarctic. The two activists were being held under guard in a locked room aboard the whale catcher boat Yushin Maru No. 2 last night, according to Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research. "This is clearly an act of piracy," Mr Inwood said. "You can't just go and board vessels that are acting legally."

Sea Shepherd said the men were being held hostage and the Australian Federal Police had been notified. Meanwhile, Greenpeace continued to chase the factory ship Nisshin Maru away from the whaling grounds, some days' sailing from the rest of the fleet. The persistence of the direct actions, combined with the political weight of the court decision and the imminent arrival of Oceanic Viking, the Customs patrol ship sent south to watch the whalers, calls into question future whaling by Japan this summer.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland, last night ruled out the use of Oceanic Viking to stop the hunt, because it would put lives at risk. "More than that, to ultimately end whaling … is to win the co-operation of the Japanese," he said. "I think that strategy would result in the boomerang effect, that is actually entrench stronger opposition rather than induce a change of approach."

The Japanese Government has already ordered the whalers to shelve their plans to take humpbacks, in a deal reached with the US under Australian pressure. The Federal Opposition called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to become personally involved. Environment Minister Peter Garrett declined to comment. Before the election, Mr Garrett had said Labor would enforce the law banning whale slaughter in the Australian Whale Sanctuary.

Animal welfare group Humane Society International said Oceanic Viking should be used to stop whaling. But Don Rothwell, professor of international law at Australian National University, said such action would be "foolish and counterproductive". "It would be seen as very provocative, not just by Japan but by the rest of the Antarctic Treaty parties," he said.

The court's decision to rule the whaling illegal under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act follows a long struggle by Humane Society International. The group pushed on with the cause when the Howard government rejected it as politically damaging and futile because Japan did not recognise Australian jurisdiction in the case. Japan does not recognise Australia's territorial claim in the Antarctic, and nor did its whaling company acknowledge the legal action. Despite this, Justice James Allsop ordered that whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha be restrained from killing, injuring, taking or interfering with any minke, fin, or humpback whale in the sanctuary.


http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/japanese-whaling-fleet-loses-in-court-at-sea/2008/01/15/1200159449793.html

[Massacure]

1. The Australian navy should just turn those ships into new homes for coral reefs. n/t

[papau]

2. that was also my first thought n/t

[Thothmes]

4. The Australian Navy

would not kill sailors to save whales.

[143tbone]

3. Where did the Greenpeace ship take off to?

Haven't heard anything about them since the Steve Irwin showed up in the neighborhood.

[InvisibleTouch]

5. Go Sea Shepherd & Greenpeace! :) n/t