Protestors file attempted murder complaint against Japanese

Sea Shepherd supporters protest outside the Japanese Consulate in central Auckland yesterday. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society today filed with New Zealand police a complaint of attempted murder against the captain of a Japanese whaling vessel.

The high-tech speedboat Ady Gil, which had been part of efforts to harass Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, sunk following a collision with the Shonan Maru 2 last Wednesday.

"The crew of the Shonan Maru 2 assaulted the crew of the Ady Gil with the use of military grade LRAD (long range acoustic device) systems and high-pressure hoses.

"Further to this, the deliberate ramming of the Ady Gil, we believe to be attempted murder," Bill Watson, head of Sea Shepherd New Zealand, told 3News.

The society has voiced concern that a New Zealand-registered vessel was sunk without reaction from the Government.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully today said this was not accurate.

"We are doing something about it, we're investigating the incident. It's not for ministers to go scratching around trying to investigate something of this sort.

"There's two appropriate authorities, one's Maritime New Zealand (who are investigating) and the other is the Transport Accident Investigation Commission."

Sea Shepherd's Amsterdam-based Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told NZPA she had filed papers with Dutch authorities on Friday asking them to investigate possible piracy charges against the whalers, but had not yet received a response.

Ady Gil skipper Pete Bethune today brought further accusations against the whalers, claiming they dumped fuel into the sea to make it look like contamination from the damaged vessel.

He said the Ady Gil held only 200 litres of fuel when it was rammed and crew members risked their lives to go back on board the badly damaged boat and remove all contaminants before it sank.

"We had cleaned every drop of oil out of that vessel before it was cast adrift when it was sinking."

- NZPA