YaY! Whalers attack activists at sea

Subject: YaY! Whalers attack activists at sea Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:41 pm

JAPAN'S whaling fleet is said to have mounted a co-ordinated attack on Sea Shepherd anti-whaling activists, threatening to disable their ship in Antarctica's Ross Sea.

Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said the 8000-tonne factory ship Nisshin Maru repeatedly tried to ram his vessel Steve Irwin, and three harpoon boats trailed ropes to entangle its propeller.

In the five-hour conflict, Captain Watson said sonic devices were used against a Sea Shepherd helicopter, forcing it to retreat, and resulting in the injury of another activist. The fleet's response came as the Japanese entered a fifth day under an increasingly tense pursuit by the Steve Irwin that was still under way last night.

The whalers strengthened their defences this season, beefing up an array of water cannon on Nisshin Maru, and employing a long-range acoustic device to blast concentrated sound bursts.

Hironori Masuyama, Japan's Fisheries Agency whaling section chief, told The Japan Times they were now able to protect themselves from interference by using equipment put on to the fleet on the advice of the Japan Coast Guard.

On Monday, Sea Shepherd was forced to back off from an action in the face of the defences, and the activists failed in an attempt to entangle the propeller of the harpoon boat, Yushin Maru No. 3.

Captain Watson said that when two fast inflatable boats were launched yesterday, the whaling ships turned on a full attack. "It was very ugly," he said. "They became extremely aggressive."

He said the harpoon ships almost immediately attacked the Steve Irwin in dangerous passes meant to foul the propeller. Designed to turn nimbly in pursuit of whales, these ships came in from three sides at once, he said.

"The attacks by the three ships became so aggressive we had to fire flares and speed lines over their head to force them to back off," he said.

Captain Watson received rope burns when he fired a line in front of the Yushin Maru No. 1 to force it to retreat from an attempt to cross his bow with a fouling line.

The chaser boats were also said to have turned their acoustic devices onto the Sea Shepherd inflatables, and the Nisshin Maru aimed an acoustic device at the Sea Shepherd helicopter carrying U-pilot Chris Aultman and cameraman Ashley Dunn, from Tasmania. "At first it was just a loud noise," Mr Aultman said. "Then they turned up the volume and we could feel it in our legs and chest."

A British activist, Steve Roest, became disoriented from the sonic blast when in an inflatable, fell and cut his head, needing five stitches.

Captain Watson said this was followed by Nisshin Maru turning and trying to ram the Sea Shepherd vessel at speed.

LNK

Subject: Re: YaY! Whalers attack activists at sea Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:10 pm

YaY! Whalers attack activists at sea

YaY! Whalers attack activists at sea

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