KEY POINTS:
TOKYO - Greenpeace's anti-whaling ship Esperanza has been "effectively banned" from docking in Tokyo, a spokeswoman for the environmental group said today, less than a day before it hoped to bring its campaign to Japan.
Earlier, the head of Japan's latest whaling hunt called for legal action against anti-whaling activists who clashed with Japan's fleet during an Antarctic hunt cut short by a fatal fire.
Speaking by phone from aboard the Esperanza about 10 hours from Tokyo, Greenpeace International's Sara Holden said the All Japan's Seamen's Union (AJSU) had pressured the ship's agent to withdraw services, meaning it would be unable to put into port.
"The AJSU said that it considered Greenpeace to be a terrorist organisation, which is completely ridiculous. We can only conclude there was pressure on the agent to no longer work with us," she said.
"They are playing politics with this issue," she added. "We want to bring dialogue ship-to-shore and talk to Japanese politicians, whaling officials and the Japanese government, and we will make every effort to make that happen," she told Reuters.
Japan's main whaling ship, the 8000-tonne Nisshin Maru, limped into port last Friday with a haul of 508 whales after a fire last month that killed one crew member crippled the ship and raised fears that oil or chemicals could spill into the Southern Ocean near the world's biggest Adelie penguin colony.
The hunt was marked by clashes with anti-whaling groups, mainly the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, one of whose boats was damaged in an incident with a Japanese whaling vessel.
Sea Shepherd activists also poured acid on the decks of the Nisshin Maru to halt the crew's work of cutting up whales, slightly injuring two crew members.
The head of Japan's whale hunt on Tuesday called for legal action against anti-whaling activists including Greenpeace, but neither the Japanese government nor the institute that oversees its whaling programme said they were considering such a move.
"We'd like to take strong legal action and stamp out this sort of activity," Shigetoshi Nishiwaki, expedition leader and a staff member at the Institute for Cetacean Research, which oversees Japan's whaling programme, told a news conference.
"If we could we'd like to take action against all such groups, but for now, we'll consider Sea Shepherd and possibly Greenpeace," he said, adding that while Greenpeace did nothing violent during this year's hunt, it has done so in the past.
Greenpeace said the Esperanza had spent over a week on stand-by to assist the disabled whaling factory ship, then escorted the Japanese whaling fleet out of Antarctic waters.
"I find it amazing, personally, that the person we were offering assistance, for which he thanked us on numerous occasions, is now talking about suing us," Holden said.
"There is no cause. We went to their assistance in good faith," she added.
Nishiwaki cited a long history of clashes with Greenpeace, including in 1998 when its members boarded the Nisshin Maru in New Caledonia as it lay in port after another fire, to explain why Japan refused the group's offer of assistance.
"Who could trust a group like this?" he said.
Japan, which says whaling is a cultural tradition, began its scientific whaling programme a year after an international ban in 1986. The meat ends up on supermarket shelves and restaurant tables, but consumer's appetite for it is waning.
This year was the first time in 20 years that Japan was forced to shorten its whaling expedition, and its fleet took 505 minke whales and three fin whales instead of a planned 850 minke whales and 10 fin whales.
- REUTERS
