KEY POINTS:
A fire on a Japanese whaling ship is said to be coming under control, but plans are being made in case a rescue mission has to be mounted and to mitigate any oil spills from the stricken ship into pristine Antarctic waters.
A crewman is missing after an explosion caused a fire on the factory floor on board the Nisshin Maru, the "mothership" of a Japanese fleet hunting whales in the Southern Ocean.
The Nisshin Maru sent out a distress call which was picked up by Maritime New Zealand at 5.15am today.
Early suggestions were that the ship would be abandoned but Conservation Minister Chris Carter told reporters that 126 of the 148 crew had been taken aboard three small support vessels that made up the rest of the whaling fleet.
Up to 20 crew had been left on board the Nisshin Maru fighting the fire.
Maritime New Zealand director Catherine Taylor said the Japanese had told the rescue co-ordination centre the fire was "coming under control".
Mr Carter said New Zealand would do everything it could to protect "the lives of the sailors".
"Primary responsibility for the distressed ship resides with the Japanese but the event has taken place inside an area for which New Zealand is responsible for search and rescue. It is located 100 nautical miles from the Antarctic Coast."
If the fire could be contained, the Nisshin Maru might be able to sail off under its own steam, he said.
But inquiries were underway over what could be done if this was not possible. It would take six and a half days to get a tug there from New Zealand, Mr Carter said.
The smaller Japanese vessels had "limited capacity" to tow the bigger factory ship -- which is full of whale meat -- out of the region.
Mr Carter said the Government would be "reluctant" to tow the ship to a New Zealand port given its role in whaling and because it was carrying "nasty" chemicals used for processing the whale meat on board.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza, which had been searching for the whaling fleet, answered the mayday call but was stood down as it was 2-1/2 days sailing time from the Nisshin Maru and the three Japanese support vessels had been close by.
Of concern to New Zealand is the environmental risk if the ship begins leaking oil or other chemicals.
"We don't need to stress that this is an extremely pristine environment with high biodiversity values," Mr Carter said.
"We think there is up to 1000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on board the vessel as well as many other chemicals of course.... From an environmental point of view we are very concerned should there be any leakage of this material into the Ross Sea."
Ms Taylor said she understood that because of the density of the HFO fuel oil and the cold water of Antarctica, if there was a spill the oil would clump and could be picked up relatively easily using nets.
The owner of the 6000-tonne plus vessel would have to pay for any clean-up in the event of a spill but any search and rescue mission would be paid for by the New Zealand Government.
Mr Carter said he had spoken to officials from various agencies in New Zealand, to ministers in Australia and the United Kingdom, the Japanese ambassador and the United States embassy about the ship which was currently lying in international waters.
The Japanese fleet has recently been shadowed by the Sea Shepherd ships Robert Hunter and Farley Mowat but both ships have headed for Australia to refuel.
The Japanese whale-spotting ship Kaiko Maru this week called for help, saying it had been in a collision with the Robert Hunter. The Kaiko Maru is one of the ships now helping the stricken Nisshin Maru.
- NZPA
