Sea Shepherd keeps up protest pressure

Chris Carter has criticised Murray McCully over his response to the incident. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has been involved in conflicts with the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctica, plans to keep up the pressure with a protest in Auckland today.

The organisation said yesterday that the protest, outside the Japanese Consulate, would be against the illegal slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary and the inaction of Japanese, Australian and New Zealand Governments to intervene and shut down the massacre.

Sea Shepherd also filed a piracy complaint in the Netherlands on Saturday against the captain and crew of a whaling vessel involved in a collision with one of its boats, Sea Shepherd Deputy CEO Chuck Swift said.

The complaint comes after the bow of the Sea Shepherd's trimaran, Ady Gil, was sheared off after it and the larger Japanese ship collided last week.

The whaler, Shonan Maru No 2, suffered no apparent damage. Both sides blame the other for the crash, which occurred as the Ady Gil harassed the Japanese fleet.

The complaint argues the whalers are guilty of piracy because they served on a vessel that was used to commit an act of violence and it urges Dutch authorities to take action within two weeks.

The group chose to file the complaint in the Netherlands because one of the Ady Gil crew members is Dutch and the Sea Shepherd's main ship, the Steve Irwin, is registered there, according to the complaint.

Sea Shepherd is also considering filing charges of attempted murder in New Zealand, where the Ady Gil was registered, Swift said.

Glenn Inwood, the New Zealand-based spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, which oversees the whaling fleet, dismissed the complaint as a publicity stunt.

"They have no real basis here for filing any claims at all, especially of piracy," Inwood said.

Meanwhile Labour's Foreign Affairs spokesman, Chris Carter, has criticised Foreign Minister Murray McCully's continued silence and lack of action over the sinking of the New Zealand-registered vessel.

"Mr McCully cannot seem to grasp that the real issues are continued Japanese whaling activities in the Southern Ocean, and the safety of Kiwis who feel strongly enough to protest legitimately against a Japanese whaling programme that is at best based on extremely dubious scientific grounds," Mr Carter said.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AP