Greenpeace battles whalers

Japanese whalers fire water cannons at protesters in an inflatable boat. Picture / Greenpeace

Boats capsized and water cannons were used as Greenpeace ships interfered with Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean yesterday.

Speaking from Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise off the Antarctic coast yesterday afternoon, expedition leader Shane Rattenbury said two of his organisation's ships had tracked down the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru in the morning.

The second Greenpeace ship, Esperanza, has two New Zealand crew aboard.

"This morning we witnessed a whale being harpooned ... we positioned our two ships to the stern of the Japanese mother ship in order to prevent the whale being transferred on to the ship and we were successful in stopping that process for about 45-minutes," said Mr Rattenbury.

He said the Japanese boat fought back with water cannons and one of several Greenpeace inflatables capsized in the wash.

"We retrieved all the crew ... these things happen with the little boats.

"Everyone's fine, we've got everyone back on board and there's no damage done, but it has certainly been a hectic morning," Mr Rattenbury said.

He said one of the smaller Japanese capture boats later rammed one of the Greenpeace ships to try to push it clear.

With the capability to stay out at sea for months on end, the Greenpeace ships would continue to track the Japanese whaling team and disrupt them at any opportunity, Mr Rattenbury said.

"Our small boats will follow their hunter boats and when the hunters spot a whale we'll put ourselves between the hunter and the harpoon," Mr Rattenbury said.

The leader of another anti-whaling expedition is currently steering his ship towards the area where the Japanese whalers were spotted, vowing to take direct action to stop them.

Paul Watson and his crew of about 45 volunteers aboard the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society flagship Farley Mowat were last reported about 240 miles away.

Watson, who has rammed or scuttled several pirate whaling ships, said he expected to reach the area early Friday morning.

"Greenpeace has been unable to stop the Japanese after a decade of campaigns where they have chased the Japanese ships displaying their protest banners," said Watson, who was a founder of Greenpeace but now heads his own organisation.

"You would think that after a decade of expensive campaigns that Greenpeace would have realised that the Japanese fleet does not give a damn about protests. Sea Shepherd is not down here to protest, we are down here to enforce international conservation law and to stop the illegal whaling operations of Japan."

Japan plans to kill 900 minke whales this season as part of what it calls scientific research. But much of the whale meat ends up on store shelves or in up-scale restaurants, rather than in laboratories. Japan maintains that killing whales helps them study what they eat, among other things.

- NZPA, HERALD STAFF