Environment

Battle in high seas over Japanese whaling

by Ahmar Mustikhan | January 7, 2010 at 01:41 am

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Whales need protection from human greed, but Tokyo still thinks otherwise.

SYDNEY – Radical conservationists launched a helicopter Thursday to search for a key Japanese whaling ship and renew hostilities a day after one of their boats was wrecked in a collision that each side blamed on the other.

The helicopter from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's main ship was trying to find the Japanese fleet's whale processing ship and resume attempts to harass the whalers into giving up their hunt, the group's founder and ship captain Paul Watson said.

Officials from New Zealand later met their Japanese counterparts to arrive at a ceasefire.

Government officials from Japan and New Zealand have met in Wellington to discuss who was responsible for a collision between two vessels in the waters off Antarctica yesterday.

Sea Shepherd's carbon-fibre speedboat the Ady Gil was sheared in two in a clash with Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2.

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J2B (not verified)

at 02:18 on January 7th, 2010

Since 2003, the Japanese stock pile of whale meat has been increasing and currently is more than 4,500 tonnes. The general public, or at least a majority don't want whale meat. The farcical truth of Japan's whaling industry was exposed yesterday by Japanese media reports that the Institute for Cetacean Research is struggling to repay $37 million in government subsidies. The stock pile of whale meat will end up in cat food. So it begs the question, "Why kill whales to feed the cat?"