Whalers free to kill as Greenpeace withdraws

JOHANNESBURG - Greenpeace said on Friday that its two vessels shadowing the Japanese whaling fleet in the icy Southern Ocean were ending their protests because their fuel and food were running short.

"The bottom line is food, fuel and they're knackered. They are expected back in Cape Town around February 4," said Mike Townsley, communications director for the environmental group.

Expedition leader Shane Rattenbury said in an interview on Thursday by satellite phone that the ships would soon be forced to quit their confrontations with the whalers even though the hunting season does not end until the middle of March.

Greenpeace said while it had managed to disrupt the hunt by putting its inflatable boats between the Japanese harpooners and individual whales off the Antarctic coast, it had still counted at least 123 slain minke whales.

Japan plans to kill more than 900 minkes using a loophole in international regulations which permits a country to declare that it is whaling for scientific research. The whale meat is sold in Japan for human consumption.

Despite international disapproval, Japan announced plans last June to double its annual catch of minke whales. It also plans to kill 10 fin whales, the second biggest member of the family after the blue whale.

Last weekend, a Greenpeace activist was flung into the freezing sea when the line attached to the harpoon fell across his inflatable boat. He was picked up unharmed.

Greenpeace said it would now target companies with links to the Japanese whaling industry and urge consumers to boycott their products.

Four days ago, the direct-action Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was forced to leave the Southern Ocean when it had only enough fuel left for its ship Farley Mowat to reach Cape Town.

The six whaling ships have refuelled at sea from their own tanker, something environmentalists say violates the Antarctic Treaty.

- REUTERS