Daryl Hannah Joins Conservationist Pirates, Prepares For Battle With Japanese
CANBERRA, Australia — A radical conservationist said Wednesday he will not shy away from violent confrontation with Japanese whalers, even though his group will be alone in tracking this season's hunt in the remote, ice-strewn Antarctic Ocean.
Environmentalists Greenpeace and the Australian government have ruled out sending ships to shadow the whaling fleet again, and renegade activist Paul Watson said his Sea Shepherd Conservation Society stands alone in defense of the whales.
"Japan's been putting a terrific amount of pressure on everyone. We just haven't buckled," the Canadian told The Associated Press by telephone from the Australian east coast city of Brisbane.
Watson, a Canadian who has boasted about ramming whaling ships to save the marine mammals, said his crew would not use tactics that endanger life in the remote and treacherous southern seas, but that he expected the whalers to be on the offensive. Sea Shepherd activists have disrupted the annual hunt for the past three years, causing economic losses for the fleet, he said.
"They'll most likely be more aggressive toward us this year than last year," Watson said.
Greenpeace, which has criticized Sea Shepherd for its violent confrontations with the whalers in previous years, has said it will focus on lobbying Tokyo rather than sending a ship to document the slaughter and to protect the whales as it did a year ago.
The Australian government sent a ship to monitor the fleet during the last southern summer and to record forensic evidence for potential court action against Japan, but has decided against that tactic this year.
The whaling fleet is expected to center its hunt in the Ross Sea, where New Zealand is responsible for search-and-rescue missions under international law. The New Zealand government has also said it will not track the hunt and warned it would not be able to quickly help any whalers or activists hurt or lost in confrontations at sea.
The Sea Shepherd's ship, the Steve Irwin, and 45-member crew members including Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah, heads from Brisbane toward the Antarctic Ocean on Thursday. The whaling fleet left Japan in secret last month, and Watson said they expect to intercept the hunt in mid-December.
Hannah, whose movies include "Splash" and "Blade Runner," said the whaling industry could be shut down if conservationists worked together and governments enforced anti-whaling laws.
"These guys are the only guys out there actually fighting against illegal hunting," Hannah told reporters at a press conference in Brisbane.
The Japanese are allowed to harvest a quota of whales under a ruling by the International Whaling Commission, as long as the mammals are caught for research, not commercial purposes.
This year the whalers plan to catch up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales but no humpbacks, Japanese fisheries officials said.
Sea Shepherd and the whalers blame each other for a collision in February last year that left the Robert Hunter _ since renamed the Steve Irwin for the late Australian conservationist _ with a 3-foot (1-meter) gash in its stern.
Two Sea Shepherd activists boarded a Japanese harpoon ship in January this year and were held onboard for several days until Australian Customs officers picked them up.
Japanese officials say the activists throw ropes and nets into the water to entangle propellers and lob smoke canisters and rancid butter onto the vessels.
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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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ROD McGUIRK | December 3, 2008 10:57 AM EST |
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