Activists clash with whalers

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Anti-whaling activists hunted a Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean on Tuesday, intent on ramming its flagship, as pro-whaling nations met in Tokyo to push for a return to commercial fishing of the giant creatures.

A Japanese fisheries spokesman dubbed anti-whaling protesters as terrorists after one of their vessels collided with a whaling boat in the Southern Ocean late on Monday, while Australia called on the activists to back off before someone was killed.

The two sides blamed each other for the clash at sea, which holed a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship, the Robert Hunter, but not badly enough for it to abandon the chase.

The activists next planned to ram a vessel into the back of a Japanese factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru, to stop whales being hauled on board for processing, said Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd founder and the captain of the group's flagship, Farley Mowat.

"We're not going to sink their ship, we're just going to obstruct their activities. We'll probably have the Farley Mowat permanently stuck up their rear-end," he said.

Previous clashes saw some activists swept into the sea and almost lost in the fog and Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the protesters should halt their harassment of the Japanese fleet.

"This is not about whaling. It is simply unacceptable for any vessel to threaten or to use violence against other ships at sea. These are dangerous and irresponsible actions," said Turnbull.

DIPLOMATIC JOSTLING

In Tokyo, a special meeting of the International Whaling Commission began on Tuesday, with host Japan and like-minded countries trying to build momentum to resume commercial hunting.

Japanese officials say the meeting is a final attempt to save the commission but prospects for dialogue in the polarized organization appear slim.

Only 36 of the International Whaling Commission's 72 members are expected to attend the three-day meeting, with some 26 anti-whaling nations -- including Australia, New Zealand and the United States -- refusing to attend.

"One of our goals is to improve the atmosphere of the IWC, which has become one of confrontation, and to improve dialogue," Minoru Morimoto, the commissioner for Japan, told the meeting.

"It's a shame that most anti-whaling nations chose confrontation," he said, adding he hoped the commission would at its annual meeting in May seriously consider normalization, as Japanese term commercial whaling.

Outside the meeting, three anti-whaling protesters, including a man wearing a mask of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's face, carried a sign reading "Welcome to the commercialization meeting." One activist was dressed as a weeping whale.

Pasted to the sign were 10,000 yen ($82) notes and names of several countries, an allusion to charges by anti-whalers that Japan had bought pro-whaling votes at the IWC with foreign aid. Japan has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Anti-whaling nation Britain has set out to recruit more like-minded nations to join the commission and block Japan's drive to end a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

In the Southern Ocean, the whalers and the protesters blamed each other for the continued clashes.

The Kaiko Maru was rammed from both sides by the Robert Hunter and the Farley Mowat, leaving it temporarily disabled with a damaged propeller, Japanese fisheries spokesman Hideki Moronuki said.

WHALE "TERRORISTS"

"They are terrorists and their activities are piracy," Moronuki told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

But Watson said the Robert Hunter had been deliberately side-swiped by the Kaiko Maru, leaving gashes in the hull in two places and damaging the ship beneath the water line.

The gashes had been welded shut and the chase, using helicopters, had resumed, the activists said.

Japan, which says whaling is a cherished cultural tradition, began scientific research whaling in 1987. The meat, which under whaling commission rules must be sold for consumption, ends up in supermarkets and pricey restaurants.

Many Japanese ate whale in school lunches following its introduction by U.S. Occupation authorities after Japan's defeat in World War Two, when it was an important source of protein.

Appetites have waned, but Japan remains determined to keep on whaling despite both consumer indifference and international opposition, to which Tokyo is usually extremely sensitive.

(With additional reporting by Elaine Lies in Tokyo)