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SYDNEY - A formidable battle is looming in the Antarctic seas between Japan's whaling fleet and a small but determined flotilla of eco-warriors.
A fleet of six Japanese whalers plans to kill nearly 1000 whales in the name of scientific research: 935 minke whales and 10 endangered fin whales. Next summer the Japanese will also kill 50 humpbacks.
Confronting them in freezing temperatures and dangerous conditions, starting this week, will be three vessels from the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace.
Greenpeace will harass the Japanese fleet with its fastest ship, the 240ft (73m) Esperanza, which is in port in Auckland and due to leave for the Southern Ocean on January 25.
The Esperanza has 36 crew from 14 nationalities, including Kiwi expedition leader Karli Thomas.
"The plan is to head down to the whaling grounds and to put ourselves between the whales and the harpoons to stop them killing as many animals as possible," said Sara Holden, communications co-ordinator on the boat.
The Esperanza will be away for up to seven weeks, shadowing the Japanese ships in the Southern Ocean.
One of Sea Shepherd's two ships is fitted with a solid steel ram with a bulldozer-type blade at deck level.
The group's president and founder, Paul Watson, said the "can opener" would be used to damage the hulls of whaling ships but not so seriously as to place them in danger of sinking. The aim was to force the ships to abort their mission and return to port.
Greenpeace said it disapproved of any form of violence in the fight against the whalers. "It's not the sort of tactic we would use," a spokeswoman in Sydney said.
Mr Watson has pledged to use his ships, the 180ft (55m) Farley Mowat and the newly commissioned Robert Hunter, to do all he can to stop the Japanese killing whales.
"We are quite prepared to risk our lives for the whales. The only thing these whale-killing thugs understand is enforcement," he has said.
The Farley Mowat was stripped of its Belizean registration hours after it left Hobart, Tasmania, on December 29. It has declared itself a pirate vessel and is flying a modified Jolly Roger flag.
Australia called on the Japanese ships to use restraint when facing the protesters. The ships' water cannons were so powerful that they could put lives at risk, Environment Minister Ian Campbell said.
"In the deep Southern Ocean, shooting a powerful water cannon at a human being puts them at risk of falling into the ocean," he said.
"Death through either propeller strike, hypothermia or being struck by a ship is a very high risk."
The whaling ships would be banned from docking in Australia, Mr Campbell added.
Ninety-five per cent of Japanese never or rarely eat whale meat and 69 per cent do not support whaling on the high seas, according to a survey commissioned by Greenpeace last year.
