Activists target Japan's whalers

January 14, 2007

Andrew Darby in Hobart

Sydney Morning Herald

January 10, 2007

ANTI-WHALING forces closing in on the Antarctic are setting up the most

determined attempt yet to halt the Japanese fleet.

The activists from the group Sea Shepherd said their two ship navy, which aims

to disable the whaling vessels, would reach Antarctic waters and begin to hunt

for the fleet in about a week.

Engineers have fitted a solid steel hydraulic ram with a bulldozer-strength

blade to the Sea Shepherd's flagship, Farley Mowat, which has been stripped of

its registration in Belize and could now be considered a pirate vessel under

international law.

Sea Shepherd's president, Paul Watson, said the " can opener " was operational and

far more serious than a version used last year to scrape the side of the

Japanese resupply ship, Oriental Bluebird. He said its placement at deck level

meant it could damage, but not endanger, the hull of another ship.

He said Sea Shepherd had never caused human injury in its direct actions, and he

hoped to inflict just enough damage to a whaling vessel to force it to return to

port.

Mr Watson said he also had a small squadron of " Japanese Zeros " -

radio-controlled aircraft with two metre wingspans - to repel boarders.

" We will then deploy our pie cannons to slime any boarding party with chocolate

or cream pie filling. It sounds harmless and it is, but it is remarkable how

being slimed with forty gallons [150 litres] of pie filling can deter a

boarding. "

Today Sea Shepherd unveils its new 1000 tonne ship Robert Hunter, which Mr

Watson said was on course from South America and would be quick enough to match

the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru.

Greenpeace is also preparing its eighth campaign voyage south, later in the

whaling season than ever before.

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Photo: Paul Watson and the Farley Mowat. (Angela Wylie)

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