LEAD: Australian activists board Japanese whaling ship

Jan 8, 2012, 7:49 GMT

Sydney - The Australian government said Sunday it was more concerned about the welfare of three anti-whaling activists detained aboard a Japanese harpoon vesse than their return home.

The trio were ferried by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessels and clambered aboard the Shonan Maru 2.

The Japanese ship was 25 kilometres off Australia's west coast and shadowing the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin when the boarding took place.

'Our top priority is to make sure Australian citizens are safe and that they're being well cared for,' Attorney General Nicola Roxon said. 'We know there's a risk protest action will be taken and know there's a risk it might get out of hand in either direction.'

The activists belonged to the group Forest Rescue, which declared that the action was designed to pressure Australian officials.

'We are onboard this ship because our government has failed to uphold its pre-election promise to end whaling in the Southern Ocean,' it said in a posting on the Sea Shepherd website.

Roxon said the three might follow in the footsteps of former Sea Shepherd Conservation Society activist Peter Bethune, who last year was taken to Japan and prosecuted after boarding a Japanese vessel.

New Zealander Bethune was released after five months in jail.

Japan catches hundreds of whales each hunting season in defiance of a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. It does so on the pretext of conducting research.

Australia, supported by New Zealand, has begun legal action against Japan in the International Court of Justice in The Hague

Sea Shepherd claims to have prevented the death of 800 whales last hunting season in the Southern Ocean. The organisation could not be reached for comment Sunday.

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