Japan whaling group, protestors trade blame after collision (Roundup)

Jan 7, 2010, 6:22 GMT

Wellington - Whaling protestors and a Japanese whaling ship blamed one another after their vessels collided in Antarctic waters.

Pete Bethune, skipper of the protestors' trimaran that lost its bow in Wednesday's collision, dubbed the Japanese 'thugs' and said it was lucky nobody on his boat had died in the incident.

Dutch crew member Laurens de Groot said, 'They were trying to kill us, ramming us like that in one of the most hostile environments in the world. The only way to describe it is attempted murder.'

The Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, which operates the Japanese whaling fleet, claimed the power trimaran belonging to the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was responsible for the collision.

Spokesman Glenn Inwood said the Shonan Maru Number 2 was trying to prevent the New Zealand-registered Ady Gil from getting close enough to foul the Japanese whaler's propellers with ropes when the trimaran turned into its path.

The protestors were attempting Thursday to save their damaged craft by towing it 300 kilometres to a French research base.

The Sea Shepherd Society's Paul Watson told Radio New Zealand that the front section of the boat had sunk after the collision and the other half had to be constantly bailed out as it took on water.

He said the sea was currently calm but a storm would sink the vessel, which circumnavigated the globe under the name Earthrace before being bought by US billionaire Ady Gil, who gave it to Sea Shepherd for the protest voyage.

Six crew members of the trimaran were rescued by another Sea Shepherd boat after the collision with the Shonan Maru Number 2, which was acting as the security boat for the Japanese fleet on its annual whaling expedition to the Southern Ocean.

As New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully appealed for restraint on both sides, Inwood said, 'Japan will continue to use its vessels to protect its crew and the people in the Antarctic in whatever way it can.'

'This almost realizes our worst fears about what might happen down there during the whaling season this year,' McCully said. While no one had been killed, 'combat' that has put life in danger has occurred, he said.

Japan's government-backed six-ship whaling fleet aims to harpoon up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, which are classed as endangered, in the Southern Ocean this season. It claims the annual hunt is for scientific research.

The New Zealand and Australian governments back environmental organizations like Sea Shepherd that consider such 'research' to be commercial whaling and in defiance of a 1986 international whaling moratorium.

New Zealand officials were due to investigate the collision because it involved a New Zealand-registered boat.