Japanese whaling ship and protest boat collide
Print Edition
A JAPANESE whaling ship and an anti-whaling protest boat collided in the remote, icy seas off Antarctica, with both sides yesterday blaming each other for the crash.
No one was injured, though both vessels received minor damage in Sunday’s collision — the latest drama in an annual battle between conservationists and whalers.
Sea Shepherd, which each year tries to harass the whaling fleet into ending its hunt, said they were the victims of a lengthy attack by the whalers. The protest group said the whaling vessels spent hours dragging steel cables across the bows of the Sea Shepherd’s ships in a bid to damage the rudders and propellers. Japan’s Yushin Maru No. 3 then struck Sea Shepherd’s Bob Barker when it crossed too closely in front of the protest ship, damaging its bow and anchor, said Peter Hammarstedt, captain of the Bob Barker.
“It was an unprovoked attack and they did so ruthlessly,” Hammarstedt said by satellite phone from the Bob Barker, named after host of the US game show “The Price is Right,” who donated millions of dollars to the group.
Japan, meanwhile, says Sea Shepherd is to blame. The Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, which sponsors the hunt, said protesters on board two inflatable boats from the Bob Barker dropped ropes in front of the bow of the Yushin Maru, which became entangled in its propeller. The Bob Barker then drew too close to the Yushin Maru No. 3, colliding with its stern and damaging the whaler’s hull and railing, the institute said.
Japan, which plans to kill about 1,000 whales this year, is allowed to hunt the animals for scientific purposes under an exception to a 1986 ban.
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