JAPAN:A sea battle between environmentalists and the Japanese whaling fleet was being played out among the ice floes of Antarctica yesterday, with accusations of ships being rammed and attacks on crew members, and the issuing of a maritime distress call by one of the whalers.
Amid the most violent scenes so far in the battle between pro- and anti-whalers, the environmentalist ship belonging to the Sea Shepherd conservation group received two extensive gashes to its hull in what it called a "deliberate ramming". The group claimed it had spotted the Japanese vessel Kaiko Maru as it pursued a pod of minke whales and moved its vessels to intercept the hunt. The events that followed are a matter of dispute.
The Institute for Cetacean Research in Tokyo, which is funding the Japanese fleet's hunt for 850 whales, said the Kaiko Maru, a "research" vessel, had been attacked by the two Sea Shepherd boats. However, Capt Paul Watson, aboard one of the group's ships, said the Kaiko Maru sideswiped the Robert Hunter.