NZ, AUS urged to close ports to Sea Shepherd (The Age)‏
Sent: January 5, 2009 5:23:31 PM
NOTE: Sea Shepherd has had vessel registrations revoked by
Britain,
Belize, Liberia and Canada. Last year it claimed its vessel were
registered by the Mohawk Nation in upstate New York. The Japanese are
objecting to The Netherlands' current registration of the vessel
'Steve Irwin', formerly called the 'Robert Hunter'. The Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society is a tax-exempt corporation in the State of
Oregon.
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The Age (AUS)
Close ports to terror ship: whaling body
January 4, 2009 - 8:32AM
http://news.theage.com.au/world/close-ports-to-terror-ship-whaling-body-20090104-79kr.htmlThe Australian and New Zealand governments should close their ports to
an anti-whaling vessel committing "criminal acts" in the Southern
Ocean, says the Japan Whaling Association (JWA).
JWA president Keiichi Nakajima said the Dutch-registered vessel Steve
Irwin, which was committing "terror" on the Antarctic high seas, was
running low on fuel and apparently heading to either New Zealand or
Australia to refuel.
"The request for port entry from the Sea Shepherd-Animal Planet crew
on board the Dutch vessel must be rejected," he said on Sunday.
"Otherwise these countries will be complicit in any further attacks."
The Steve Irwin has stopped its pursuit of the Japanese whaling fleet
in the Southern Ocean to return to port for refuelling.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel's captain, Paul Watson,
said efforts so far had been successful in stopping the Japanese whale
hunt.
"We have engaged them, we have stopped their whaling activities for
two weeks and we have successfully chased them out of the Australian
Antarctic Territorial waters," he said in a statement.
"We now have to return to land to refuel.
"We don't have the luxury of refuelling at sea like the Japanese fleet
has," Capt Watson said.
Nakajima said the JWA knew there were different views on whaling
around the world.
"But the actions of the Sea Shepherd crew committing violence under
the Dutch flag are no longer a whaling issue, but an issue of human
life and safety at sea.
"We can never accept people resorting to violence and intimidation to
get across their point," Nakajima said.
He said the crew of the Steve Irwin had no qualms about using the
Dutch registry to "facilitate their eco-terrorism at sea".
"The Dutch maritime and legal authorities must live up to their
international obligations to maintain safety at sea.
"The Sea Shepherd terror acts are far beyond mere protest."
Nakajima urged the Australian and New Zealand governments to reject
Sea Shepherd's request to berth in their countries.
The Steve Irwin had chased the Japanese fleet for two weeks and for
more than 3,000km from the extreme Western end of their hunting
territory near Commonwealth Bay in the Australian Antarctic Territory,
to the Eastern side of the Ross Sea, Capt Watson said.
The vessel would now return to the nearest available port to refuel
before heading back out in pursuit of the fleet again as quickly as
possible, he said.
The Japanese whaling fleet plans to kill about 1,000 whales this
summer, using a loophole in a 1986 global whaling moratorium that
allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants.
The Australian government has appealed for calm on the high seas.
(c) 2009 NZPA