Canberra, Jan 22 (Prensa Latina) Activists from ecologist organization Greenpeace continue deterrent actions Tuesday against the Japanese whaling fleet operating in the Antarctica maritime reserve.
The ecologists tried to prevent the Japanese ship Nisshin Maru from fueling from oil ship Oriental Bluebird by situating an inflatable boat between them, said Greenpeace spokesman Dave Walsh.
“It was too dangerous for us to keep blocking the operation because they were maneuvering the ships closer,” Walsh said.
“Now they are filling up, but if they move again, we’ll be with them and if they try to hunt whales again, we will stop it,” he stated.
Dave Walsh and other activists denounced that the whaling operations are taking place south of 60 degrees in the Antarctic Ocean.
They said the Japanese fleet was violating the Antarctica Treaty with a 1998 protocol protecting the environment, and that the Oriental Bluebird had no authorization to be in the zone.
Norway is the only place in the world that allows whale hunting, but Japan and Iceland hunt more than 2,000 whales every year, denounced ecologist organizations.
In the case of Japan, the government of Tokyo said whale hunting has scientific objectives, and the consumption of whales is part of the Japanese culture.