Sharing a passion not dissimilar to Che Guevara, two men have been detained aboard a Japanese whaling vessel. The Japanese claim they had tied themselves to a mast. The eco terrorist friendly media report it differently, and claim they are being held hostage. Will Rudd declare war on Japan?
Whale protesters taken hostage
ReplyDeleteBy Jamie Duncan and Paul Carter
TWO anti-whaling activists from a protest ship, an Australian and a Briton, are being held hostage aboard a Japanese whaling vessel in an escalation of the whaling wars in the Southern Ocean.
Benjamin Potts, 28, of Sydney, and Giles Lane, 35, from Britain, crew members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Steve Irwin, boarded the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No 2 about 5pm (AEDT) yesterday to deliver a plea to stop killing whales.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society international director Jonny Vasic said the two men were tied to a radar mast in freezing conditions for up to three hours after their capture, a claim denied by Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which is running the whale hunt.
The Japanese catcher ship was one of a fleet of five the Steve Irwin had tracked since January 1 but located in the Southern Ocean yesterday, Mr Vasic said.
The men boarded the vessel from a Zodiac boat to hand its captain a letter informing him that the vessel's crew was “illegally killing whales” in the Southern Whale Sanctuary.
The letter was drafted by Steve Irwin captain Paul Watson after he tried unsuccessfully to hail the Japanese ship for more than an hour, Mr Vasic said.
“When they got on board and delivered the letter they were not allowed to leave,” Mr Vasic said.
“The letter basically stated that they (the Japanese crew) were breaking the international conservation law against whaling in the Antarctic sanctuary.”
Mr Vasic said the men were tied to a radar mast for up to three hours in icy conditions before they were taken below.
“We have a photo that shows that when they were held they were basically strapped by the arms with zip ties and tied with rope around their chests, and then they were held there for several hours in the cold, and then about two-and-a-half to three hours after that they were taken below,” he said.
Mr Lane is an engineer aboard the Steve Irwin and Mr Potts is a cook.
Mr Vasic said Sea Shepherd had contacted the British High Commission in Australia and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
“We're hoping that the Federal Government and the British Government will step up and do the right thing, which is demand the release of their citizens,” Mr Vasic said.
The Japanese ship was still moving and the Steve Irwin was in pursuit, Mr Vasic said.
An AFP spokeswoman said a Sea Shepherd spokesman reported the incident about 6pm (AEDT) and it was evaluating the situation.
There was no evidence at this stage that the pair had been tied to a radar mast on board that vessel, she said.
ICR director-general Minoru Morimoto said the men had not been tied up and were taken to a secure room.
“Any accusations that we have tied them up or assaulted them are completely untrue,” Mr Morimoto said.
“It is illegal to board another country's vessels on the high seas. As a result, at this stage, they are being held in custody while decisions are made on their future.
“The two boarded the Yushin Maru No 2 after they made attempts to entangle the screw (propeller) of the vessel using ropes and throwing bottles of acid onto the decks.”
The incident occurred just inside the Australian Antarctic Sanctuary near the intersection of the coordinates 60 degrees south and 77 degrees east, a week's sail southwest of the Australian coast, Mr Vasic said.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said the Federal Government was “investigating the report (of the incident) as a matter of urgency”.
Further statements would follow this morning, he said.
The encounter came after the Australian Federal Court today outlawed whaling in Australian Antarctic waters in a ruling the government said it would not try to enforce.
While i do agree the protest is definitely for a good cause, one should not believe everything they are spoon fed by the media. So you have seen the video? Did you actually see the two crew members get physically tied to the boat? Its quite strange that part was conveniently edited out from the video... probably because it never happened. That would be the very first thing they would release because it confirms their statements against the whalers. They have not shown any proof except for a few photos and some video that only *suggests* they were forcibly tied against their will. These people are activists, there is a very high probability that they in fact tied themselves to the ship. Never loose proper perspective.
ReplyDeleteThanks Piers, but to be straight with you, I don't think this is about whaling. I think protesters use this as a wedge issue to attract funds to prosecute their other hair brained schemes. I don't think it matters to them if two of their number are arrested, or if they sink a ship or endanger lives. I think they view it as publicity.
ReplyDeleteI know of one activist who takes the view that 'nobody listens, ever' and that is is acceptable to 'do anything to get someone's attention for a few moments.'
I note that Keith Suter, when asked about the act, said "there is truth on both sides" which is usually code for him, meaning that the activists don't have a leg to stand on, but that is too hard to admit.
Angry protesters muddy the waters
ReplyDeletePiers Akerman
NO MATTER how you slice, dice or sashimi it, Australia looks as lonely as Captain Ahab in its bid to halt Japanese whaling - and as hypocritical as a dish of vegetarian dolphin sushi.
Sure, a Federal Court judge has found for the Humane Society International (HSI) and has ordered a Japanese whaling company not to take minke, fin or humpback whales in an area of the Southern Ocean which Australia calls a “whale sanctuary” - but Justice James Allsop’s decision stands on very thin ice.
The “whale sanctuary” has next to zero standing in international law and is located in “an exclusive economic zone” which, while claimed by Australia, is recognised by just four other nations, New Zealand, Britain, Norway and France, each more anxious to justify their own claims on chunks of the Antarctic continent than for any humane whale rescue mission.
Indeed, the precedent set by HSI’s case will open the way for greater international pressure to be applied on the culling of Australian native species like kangaroos and emus, and could tie up the embattled pastoral industry in expensive litigation for years.
The Japanese whalers who held two illegal boarders have, under international law, a far better and more serious case to make against the law-breaking Sea Shepherd organisation than did the HSI.
Fortunately, Labor’s Attorney-General Robert McClelland appears better briefed on this than does the Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who apparently has permission to speak on this issue.
While HSI will go through the motions of asking the Australian Government to now deliver a copy of the judgment banning the Japanese whaling company from taking specific species in a particular part of the ocean, the Australian Government has shown no desire to do much more than arrange a series of photo opportunities.
There have been pictures of the aircraft which will routinely supply scientific supplies to one of Australia’s Antarctic bases (Garrett expanded his personal carbon footprint by freeloading on the first flight), and which will also, incidentally, if time and fuel permit, give a little time as it flies back and forth to Hobart to keeping a good lookout for any ship that looks like a Japanese whaler.
There have been pictures of an expensively chartered P&O ship, the Oceanic Viking, which has now left Fremantle to trail the Japanese whaling fleet but which, more prudently than the vessels operated by the Sea Shepherd organisation, will not attempt to stop the hunt - because such an operation might endanger lives.
The reckless Sea Shepherd crew have no such qualms, having in the past boasted of ramming whaling ships with a specially designed ram capable of ripping into steel plate, and made clear they would attempt to disable vessels by streaming ropes into their propellers.
Such practices offend every legitimate seafarer and are at odds with all civilian use of the oceans.
As it stands now, Japanese whaling meets the criteria laid out by the International Whaling Commission, of which Australia is a member, just as the killing of dugongs by Australian Aborigines can be carried out under the umbrella of the IWC’s laws.
Those protesting Japanese whaling haven’t lifted their voices against indigenous whaling here, or against those who take whales in the US, Norway or Iceland.
Yet the Japanese claim to be pursing their traditional custom of whaling, just as Aborigines and Inuits using .303-calibre rifles say they’re entitled to hunt traditional foods.
If Australians can accept that an 18-foot runabout with a Yamaha outboard is a traditional indigenous hunting craft, why can’t we accept that catching minke whales in Antarctica is a form of traditional Japanese whaling?
The last Inuit to paddle a walrus-hide kayak in pursuit of a bowhead whale was probably employed by National Geographic magazine - nowadays the Inuit also use Yamaha-powered speed boats, demonstrating the ubiquity of traditional Japanese motors if nothing else.
Fooling around in rubber duckies in the Southern Ocean is stupid. Just as stupid as the whole approach to Japanese whaling.
The issue needs to be addressed transparently, with acknowledgements that some species of whale can probably be harvested without endangering their viability.
Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has repeatedly said there’s nothing unsustainable about the Japanese cull of up to 1000 of the common minke whale, but he did last month acknowledge he was pleased Japan had dumped plans to take humpbacks. (And for that we can thank the US Government, not any Australian initiative.)
Some of us eat kangaroo, some Japanese eat whale. We would object to Japanese tourists trying to jump between a roo shooter and his quarry and we should understand why Japanese view those who boarded their ship as pirates.
This thing has to be worked out by sensible people - not protest groups interested in funding their organisations. One thing is for certain, the answer is not tofu.