Saboteurs and whalers in high seas ramming

[Guest guest]

Whalers and militant environmentalists collided during violent skirmishes in the Antarctic yesterday as pro-whaling governments gathered in Tokyo to press for the resumption of commercial hunting. A Japanese whaling ship and a protest vessel owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society suffered damage when they struck each another in a field of icebergs in the Ross Sea. Each side blamed the other for the collision, which tore a hole in the Sea Shepherd vessel Robert Hunter and damaged the propeller of the Kaiko Maru. The Japanese accused the environmentalists, whose two ships have been tracking them since Friday, of deliberately damaging their propeller. But Sea Shepherd insisted that the Kaiko Marubarged into the Robert Hunteras it was chasing the hunters away from a pod of whales. “We caught the Kaiko Maru tracking some whales and we moved in,” Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepherd, said. “They backed

into us. [The Robert Hunter] got a gash in the hull. The damage isn’t going to affect the seaworthiness of the ship. Most importantly, the pod of whales got away.” On Friday the Japanese whalers helped in the search for two Sea Shepherd activists lost in icy waters in a dinghy for seven hours, after drifting off in fog while trying to sabotage the whaling operation. “Even though the Japanese crew members helped them, as soon as they were rescued they resumed attacking our ships,” said Hideki Moronuki, the head of the Japanese Fisheries Agency whaling division in Tokyo. “They threw flares and knotted ropes at our ship in a bid to damage the propeller, at which they succeeded. It is not a conservation group. It is a terrorist group.” The struggle in the Antarctic comes as supporters of whaling gather in Tokyo for a meeting organised by the Japanese Government as part of

its campaign to end the moratorium on commercial whaling. It was introduced by the International Whaling Commission in 1986 after evidence that the world’s largest mammals were being driven to extinction. Every year Japan has sought to overturn the moratorium; in the past few IWC meetings it has edged closer to the required three-quarters majority. Opponents of whaling accuse Japan of using overseas aid to buy the votes of small countries that have no interest in whaling but much to gain from winning the favour of Japan. Among the pro-whaling faction expected to be in Tokyo are tiny island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, and Mon-golia, which has no coastline. At the IWC meeting last year in St Kitts and Nevis, the pro-whaling lobby achieved a simple majority, an important step towards lifting the ban that allows it to make procedu-ral amendments. The two-day meeting this week is presented as an opportunity to discuss

the “normalisa-tion” of the IWC as an organisation that regulates whaling — rather than, as Tokyo sees it, a forum that has been hijacked by the opponents of whaling, chief among them Australia, New Zealand and Britain. Chasing giants - Whaling dates back to the 9th century when the first recorded large-scale hunting took place in the Bay of Biscay. Commercial whaling began only in the late 19th century - An early technique, still used by Philippines’ Pamalican islanders, relied on “hook jumping”. Men leapt from small boats and tried to push a grappling hook into the whale’s mouth - The commonest killing method in commercial whaling is the penthrite grenade harpoon, designed to detonate inside the whale's body. - Under the authority of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a moratorium on commercial whaling was agreed in 1982 and took effect in 1986 - Two million whales were killed in

the 20th century, approximately 25,000 of them after the 1986 ban came into force - Norway still hunts commercially. Iceland and Japan kill whales for scientific purposes and the USA, Greenland, Russia and St Vincent and the Grenadines allow aboriginal subsistence whaling Source: Whalewatch.org; In Search of Moby Dick, Tim Severin Have your say Why, Richard, do you use the word "hunters" for the japanese whalers who are killing whales in an international sanctuary? Poachers seems more appropiate to me. And what about this negative word, "saboteurs", for people trying to save lifes of beautiful and intelligent creatures whose meat nobody needs. If it wasn't for them, the japanese whalers could do their ugly business without nobody knowing it. I'm not myself courageous enough to go sailing on the antartic sea, but I'm very glad some people do and, in my

eyes, they are at the exact opposite of terrorists (a rather overused word, theses days) . A little word for Pete, Cov.: go spent your next holidays in a slaughterhouse or a factory farm, maybe you could change your mind about people you call terrorists. Pascale C., Paris, France Sadly Simon, rapists only live for the satisfaction of the moment; the satisfaction in this instance being money and the moment being the comfort the money buys at the time. Consequence is not considered to be material. As for the Japanese, their lives are most certainly not dependent on the whale. Let them eat something else and if that something else has to be fish, let it be a species that can be easily and economically farmed. I'm sure that in time they will get used to the taste. Richard Crow, Warsaw, Poland People need to keep a sense of perspective on this one. Is whaling really evail personified or is the debate clouded with emotion? No question these are magnificent creatures and most people (me included) would like to see it end permenantely but if regulated and controlled who is to say that the Japanesse people do not have a right to harvest their seas? Same for the people of Iceland for whom whaling is an integeral part of their national idenity. Is it not ironic that the environmentalists put their own and the whalers lives at risk, are rescued by their "enemies" qnd then go on to do it again? Whales are the golden calf of the green movement less histeria and more rationality is whats needed here and across much of the envirionmental debate. jason, Cork,

Peter H

 

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