ANIMAL FORUM

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Japanese harpoon ship captures UK protester
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Last Updated: 11:01am GMT 15/01/2008



Japanese whalers have captured two environmental campaigners,
including a Briton, and are holding them on one of their harpoon
vessels in waters just off Antarctica.


Giles Lane and Benjamin Potts are seized by the crew of the Japanese
whaling ship Yushin Maru No 2

Giles Lane, 36, from Cuckfield in West Sussex, and Australian national
Benjamin Potts have been held by the crew of the Yushin Maru No 2
since 6.30pm Tuesday local time (7.30am UK time), according to the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society.

Sea Shepherd staff claim the men had been tied to the radar mast of
the Japanese ship but the Japanese Whaling Association denied this.

The environmental groups vessel M/Y Steve Irwin has been shadowing
the six-strong Japanese fleet for three days and, along with the
Greenpeace ship Esperanza, had forced the whalers to leave their
hunting grounds off Antarctica.

They have been out there for a couple of hours already and its
freezing, said Jonny Vasic, international director of Sea Shepherds
operations, based in Melbourne.

advertisementIt does not get really dark that far south at this time
of year, but the wind will be getting to them and it will be very
uncomfortable.

The two men are wearing one-piece luminous protective suits, but that
will only protect from the elements for so long, Mr Vasic said.

Their hands will be freezing and this is dangerous.

Mr Lane and Mr Potts took an inflatable craft from the Sea Shepherd to
board the vessel carrying a letter that informed the captain that he
was illegally killing whales in the Southern Whale Sanctuary, declared
by Australia. The two men were allowed on board and not allowed to
leave.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has informed the Australian
Federal Police, and contacted the British Consul General in Canberra
to inform officials that a UK national is being held against his will.


Giles Lane
In the Federal Court in Sydney earlier Tuesday, Judge James Allsop
banned Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd., the company that carries out the
whale hunting, from operating within an area of the southern Pacific
that Australia has declared to be a wildlife sanctuary.

Japan has stated that it will ignore any injunction against its
whalers. In Tokyo, Makoto Ito, a spokesman for the Japan Whaling
Association, confirmed that the two men were aboard the Yushin Maru
but denied that they had been tied to a mast.

It is a fact that none of the crew of the Sea Shepherd have been
bound to the radar mast, he said.

This is just propaganda by Sea Shepherd. I believe the two men are on
the boat but we cannot give further details at this time.

Sea Shepherd has been harassing our research vessels, but no-one is
bound to the mast of the Yushin Maru.



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