Brigitte Bardot Animal Right

Australian Activists Board Japanese Whaling Spy Ship

Published on January 8, 2012

Activists have boarded a Japanese boat

Three West Australian environmental activists have boarded a Japanese boat that has been monitoring an anti-whaling ship off the WA coast. The anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd says three men from the group Forest Rescue boarded the Japanese vessel Shonan Maru 2 in the middle of the night in waters off Bunbury in WA’s southwest.

It says the protesters went on board carrying the message “Return us to shore in Australia and then remove yourself from our waters.” It says they are now being held on board the Shonan Maru 2. Sea Shepherd says the Japanese boat had been tailing its flagship vessel the Steve Irwin while it towed another of the society’s boats, the Brigitte Bardot, to safety in Fremantle. The Brigitte Bardot was damaged by a 10-metre wave in the Southern Ocean. Michael Montgomery from Forest Rescue says the men boarded the vessel because the Federal Government is not doing enough to prevent the killing of whales.

Japan annually hunts whales despite a worldwide moratorium, utilizing a loophole in the law that allows for killing the mammals for scientific research.

Each year, environmental groups like Sea Shepherd face off with Japan’s hunters in a high seas drama that has led to collisions of ships, the detaining of activists and smoke bombs fired back and forth between the groups.