Sea Shepherd claims Japan whalers rammed protest ships
Sea Shepherd campaigners claim two of their vessels were damaged during confrontation
Environmental campaigners from the Sea Shepherd group say a Japanese whaling ship had rammed their vessels in the worst confrontation in the Southern Ocean in three years.
Sea Shepherd said the Japanese factory boat the Nisshin Maru had deliberately collided with the vessels Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, which were crewed by anti-whaling campaigners.
The incident came as the Australian-flagged Sea Shepherd ships tried to block the Nisshin Maru from reaching the whaling fleet's tanker ship, the Sun Laurel, for refuelling. Sea Shepherd's co-campaign leader Bob Brown described the collisions as "the most outrageous attack on the Sea Shepherd Australia ships today; multiple rammings of those ships by the giant factory whaling ship from Japan".
"Water cannon laid on the ships and concussion grenades lobbed on the ships from the Japanese government escort vessel," Brown said. "Japan through its loud hailers... ordered Australian ships out of Australian territorial waters while they wanted to proceed with their illegal refuelling of the Nisshin Maru ... to allow them to continue their illegal whaling in this international and Australian whale sanctuary."
Brown said the incident had destroyed a lifeboat on the South Korean tanker the Sun Laurel.