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Activists clash with Japanese whalers in Southern Ocean

Greenpeace activists have made contact with a Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean and confronted the whalers in inflatable boats, the environmental group said yesterday.

The organization launched eight inflatables from two of its ships, the Esperanza and the Arctic Sunrise, carrying banners calling for an end to whaling and declaring the intention to block the hunt, Greenpeace said in a statement received in Sydney.

"While the Greenpeace ships were relaying their message, two `catcher ships' arrived on the scene with dead minke whales hung from their hulls, ready to be transferred to the fleet's factory ship, the Nisshin Maru," it said.

"However, the Esperanza was blocking access to the Nisshin Maru's stern ramp and one `catcher', the Kyo Maru Number One, twice tried to push the Esperanza out of the way. In the interest of safety the Esperanza pulled back," it said.

The confrontation took place off the coast of Antarctica and directly south of Tasmania, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

"Very shortly now our small inflatable boats will take off after the hunting boats and they will follow them until the hunting boats find a whale," expedition leader Shane Rattenbury said.

"Then they will move between the harpoon and the whale to try to enable the whale to escape. This is of course quite a dangerous process," he said.

Japan says it conducts whale hunts for scientific research, but "no one is fooled by the giant new `Research' sign which has been painted on the side of the fleet's factory ship, the Nisshin Maru," Rattenbury said.

"Once the whales have been measured and weighed by the `scientists' the onboard butchers get to work and the whales are cut up and boxed for market. This is all about money and not science," he added.

Despite international protests, Japan has this year more than doubled its planned catch of minke whales to 935 and added 10 endangered fin whales, Greenpeace said.
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