drama on the high seas

[Guest guest]

Protesters converge on Japan's whaling fleet; Aussie court rules Japan hunt

illegal

 

It's been high drama on the high seas the past few days as the unpopular

Japanese whaling fleet has been at the heart of legal action and a target of

direct-action protest. Earlier this week, Greenpeace successfully tracked down

Japan's whaling fleet in Antarctic waters and has been chasing them around,

disrupting the hunt. Today, a federal court in Australia ruled that Japan's

whaling was illegal and ordered the fleet not to hunt anywhere near its waters

nor in its Antarctic territory. Just hours after the ruling, two protesters from

the militant anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boarded one of

the whaling vessels to deliver a letter of protest; the two were then taken into

custody by the crew. Sea Shepherd has accused the crew of kidnapping and abuse

of the activists. And just when you thought it couldn't get any more

interesting, a ship that Australia sent to monitor the whaling fleet is set to

arrive in the area soon to gather evidence against the whalers to present to an

international court. Japan has said it aims to land up to 900 whales this

season; no word yet on its captured-activist quota.

 

sources: BBC News, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News, Agence France-Presse,

The Age

 

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Confucius