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Activists
will ram Japanese whalers - 20th November 2007
(Credit:
mX)
RADICAL
environmentalist group Sea Shepherd has again
vowed to ram Japanese vessels involved in the
hunting of whales, including humpback whales,
in the Antarctic Ocean.
Japan's
six-vessel whaling fleet took off from the western
port of Shimonoseki for its five-month voyage
on Sunday heading to the Antarctic Ocean for a
hunt that will include humpback whales for the
first time.
The
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says it will
physically stop the hunt by ramming whaling vessels
if necessary.
"Basically
we're going down there to stop them," Sea
Shepherd's Jonny Vasic told Channel 9 this morning.
"We're
not going down there to protest; we're going down
to directly intervene and put an end to this criminal
behaviour.
"We've
been known to ram a vessel that's engaged in illegal
activity as a last ditch effort to get them to
stop.
"We
have a reputation of direct action and we mean
business.
"We,
too, are a non-violent group, but we don't have
a problem with economic destruction when it's
engaged in illegal activity."
Karli
Thomas from the environmental group Greenpeace,
said they were determined to stop the hunt once
the fleet reached the Southern Ocean, but would
not go to the same lengths as Sea Shepherd.
"We
will do what we can in the bounds of non-violent
direct action to stop them hunting whales,"
Ms Thomas told Nine.
"So
that means putting ourselves between the harpoon
and the whales, preventing them from taking a
shot, and being able to save individual whales
from the harpoon.
"We
certainly have never rammed a vessel, and we don't
intend to."
During
the last expedition, Sea Shepherd activists threw
bottles of chemicals at the whalers in hopes of
disrupting them.
The
group was also involved in a ramming incident
with the Japanese whalers.
Humpback
whales have been protected under a 1966 worldwide
moratorium after years of overhunting.
Japan,
which argues that whale meat is part of its culture,
planned to kill 950 whales on the five-month mission
using a loophole in a global moratorium that allows
lethal research on the giant mammals.
Australia,
Britain and New Zealand have condemned the decision
to go ahead with the catch.
Profiles
The
Sea Shepherd
Captain
Paul Watson
The
Environment
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