Whale activists end showdown

2009-02-09 14:19

Tokyo - Animal rights activists said on Monday they were ending their harassment of Japanese whalers in the Antarctic for the season, warning that a person could get killed if the confrontation escalated.

Japan has been stepping up international pressure to try to rein in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has vowed to physically stop the slaughter of the ocean giants.

Sea Shepherd said that its Steve Irwin ship, which engaged in a clash with the whalers last week, was heading back to Australia with only four days of fuel reserves left.

"Another four days is simply not worth getting someone killed," said Paul Watson, the Canadian captain of the ship.

"We have done everything we could with the resources available to us this year," he said in a statement.

"We have cost them money and we have saved the lives of a good many whales."

He vowed to return next season - and hoped to come with a faster ship to evade the whaling fleet.

'On-going nightmare'

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

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, hunts up to 850 whales each year in the Antarctic Ocean despite strong objections from political allies Australia and New Zealand.

But for the past two seasons, Japan's catch was curbed largely because of harassment by environmentalists.

Japan kills whales using a loophole in a 1986 international whaling moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the mammals, with the meat then served as food.

Only Norway and Iceland defy the whaling moratorium altogether.

- AFP