Sea Shepherd withdraws

The organisation announced yesterday that it was withdrawing its ship, the Steve Irwin, from the Ross Sea following a week of escalated confrontation in which very close manoeuvres ended in two collisions between the Steve Irwin and Japanese whalers, causing slight damage to all vessels involved.

Confrontation also saw the whalers use high-powered water cannon and long-range acoustical devices (LRADs) against crew aboard Steve Irwin and its RIBs, and attempts by the Sea Shepherd activists to foul whalers' props with lines.

When at close quarters, crews also exchanged canisters of rotten butter, from the Steve Irwin; and, according to Sea Shepherd, golf balls and "metal objects" from the whalers.

Three Sea Shepherd crew sustained minor injuries during the confrontations, including one man who needed five stitches above his eye after being knocked over by LRAD blasting.

Captain Paul Watson of the Steve Irwin said that he was withdrawing from the fray because, with just four days of fuel left before departure, it would in any case be necessary. He did not want to risk "some serious injuries and possibly fatalities if this confrontation continues to escalate".

He also wished to avoid being boarded by a security vessel which, he had been told by "a source in Fiji", was dispatched on 31 January and was due in the area soon, with orders to "seize the ship and all video evidence".

More than 1000 hours of footage documenting the current whale hunt has been recorded, says Sea Shepherd, by its videographers and the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet for the television programme Whale Wars.

Captain Watson claimed that the latest Sea Shepherd on-water campaign, which began on 18 December with one return to Australia for supplies, had been a success, even though the Japanese had succeeded in landing whales.

"We have shut down their illegal operations for over a month in total," he said. "We have cost them money and we have saved the lives of a good many whales."

Captain Watson also indicated that the Steve Irwin's time as an activist vessel was probably up. Japan's harpoon ships had proved faster and more manoeuverable.

"We need to block those deadly harpoons and we need to outrun these hunter-killer ships, and to do that I need a ship that is as fast as they are," he said. "I intend to get one and I intend to return next year."

He added: "We will never stop intervening against their illegal whaling operations and we will never stop harassing them, blockading them and costing them money.

"I intend to be their ongoing nightmare every year until they stop their horrific and unlawful slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary."

Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research has called Sea Shepherd's actions "high-seas terror acts and breaches of international maritime law". Captain Watson, it said, was "completely ignoring the safety of crews... and engaging in extremely dangerous behaviour".

It added that the governments of Australia, which had "harboured and allowed the Steve Irwin to refuel and reprovision its supplies", and the Netherlands, which had "registered and flagged" the ship, should be "held accountable for allowing this vessel to commit serious criminal acts at sea".

Captain Paul Watson is scheduled to appear at the London International Dive Show at ExCeL on 28/29 March.