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Anti-whaling protesters in the Southern Ocean have laughed off reports a Japanese shipping company is preparing to sue them.
The reported threat to sue follows a clash on Monday between the Sea Shepherd conservation group and a Japanese ship in Antarctic waters, during which activists threw stink bombs and "slippery" powder at the whaling vessel.
Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and captain of its ship Steve Irwin, said the group was unconcerned by legal threats.
Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd, which has a contract with the Japanese government to conduct the whaling, is studying video footage of the activists to identify them with the intention of suing them.
The company has refused to comment on the report, aired by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK).
Speaking from a satellite phone in the Southern Ocean, Watson said his ship, the Steve Irwin, was registered under the Native American Mohawk's flag of the five nations.
"Where are they going to sue us? ... The Mohawks would just laugh at them," he said.
"Unless they sue us in Japan I don't see where they can sue us," Watson said, adding his group had no assets in the country.
"I don't understand what grounds they would have as a lawsuit," he said.
"Disrupting their illegal whaling activities in an area where they are prohibited from whaling by a Federal Australian court order? I don't see anything suable there."
Watson said because his group operated in international waters where laws were not enforced he could continue to undertake his activities.
He said his ship was continuing to follow the Japanese factory ship today, and from one quarter of a mile away he could still smell the stink bombs of butyric acid his group had thrown at the ship on Monday.
Japan is seeking to kill 935 minke and 50 fin whales in the Southern Ocean before this year's season ends, when ice closes in about the end of this month.
The country uses a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on whale hunting to kill the whales by claiming the work is needed for scientific research.
- AAP
