(Reuters) — Japan condemned animal conservationist group Sea Shepherd on Monday (February 3), after the group said one of its vessels was rammed by Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.
Footage released by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) showed a collision between activists and whalers on Sunday (February 2).
ICR, the public face of Japan’s whaling program, said another video showed an inflatable boat deployed by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society dropping a rope across the bow of another of its three whaling vessels.
“They have carried out acts of sabotage on three of our research vessels, led by the Yushin Maru, including harassing them with ropes and approaching abnormally close. As a result of this, the Yushin Maru had its propeller entangled in a rope and the Yushin Maru No.3 suffered damage to its hull,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s top government spokesman, told reporters in Tokyo.
Sea Shepherd said its vessel, “The Bob Barker”, was hit as part of a coordinated “attack” by three Japanese harpoon vessels.
Australia and New Zealand have challenged the legality of Japan’s annual whale hunt in theSouthern Ocean Whale Sanctuary at the International Court of Justice in the Hague last year and are awaiting judgment on the case.
“These acts of sabotage are extremely dangerous and we believe they are completely unacceptable. The Sea Shepherd vessels are sailing under the flag of the Netherlands, andJapan is in the process of applying to the Dutch government to take concrete measures to stop them,” Suga added.
Australia says more than 10,000 whales have been killed since the start of the international moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, which was introduced to allow depleted whale stocks to recover after years of overfishing.
