Sea Shepherd offers to stop harassing Japanese whalers

The Associated Press International Herald Tribune 20 Jan 09;

CANBERRA, Australia: A radical conservation group on Wednesday offered to abandon its dangerous campaign to disrupt Japanese whaling in Antarctica if Australia will agree to take legal action to save the whales.

The U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the only group tailing the Japanese fleet during the annual hunt this southern hemisphere summer.

Greenpeace and the Australian government sent ships to record the whaling a year ago as part of a public relations strategy, but both have decided this season to focus their anti-whaling campaigns on diplomatic efforts.

Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd ship that has been harassing the whalers in recent weeks, said the Australian government was rightly concerned about the risk to human life posed by the clashes of ships in the Antarctic Ocean.

The government could avert that danger by initiating court action.

"We agree with them that it is a dangerous intervention every year, but it is the only thing that is actually saving whales," Watson said in a statement.

"The society is open to other means ... and is even willing to back off for a season to allow the government to initiate legal action against the Japanese whaling industry," he added.

A government spokesman was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. But the government is unlikely to accept the offer despite coming to power at elections in 2007 on a promise to pursue legal options against Japanese whaling in the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

A panel of legal experts released a report on Tuesday that endorsed previous legal opinions that Australia could take Japan to either of those tribunals to challenge the legitimacy of Japan's so-called scientific whaling program.

The government sent a plane and a ship to tail the Japanese fleet in the Antarctic Ocean a year ago and to gather evidence for such a legal challenge.

But Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters Monday that his government would only consider legal action against Japan if diplomatic efforts failed.

The Japanese fleet plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season. Under International Whaling Commission rules, the mammals may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes.

Sea Shepherd has already clashed with the fleet this season and is due to renew its pursuit on Wednesday after refueling in the Australian port of Hobart.