The crew of a Japanese whaling ship stranded in Antarctic waters by a fatal fire were attempting yesterday to repair its engines so that they can reach safety by their own power rather than accept a tow from Greenpeace, an official said.
Peter Williams, deputy director of the rescue agency Maritime New Zealand, said the threat of an environmental disaster from the 1,000 tonnes of fuel aboard the 8,000-tonne Nisshin Maru was not immediate because the weather forecast was good for the next three days.
"But our concern is that conditions can change very quickly in the Southern Ocean," Williams said.
The crew had established that the ship had not suffered structural damage, he said.
The Nisshin Maru is the only ship in a Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean able to process whale carcasses and the season may have to be abandoned if the ship is inoperable.
New Zealand officials and environmentalists have expressed concern that the stricken factory ship -- left without engine power by the fire on Thursday and carrying 500,000 liters of heavy oil and 800,000 liters of furnace oil -- could threaten the Antarctic's biggest penguin rookery at Cape Adare, about 175km away.
Williams said he did not know what the crew had done with the body of a 27-year-old crewman killed in the blaze that was found below deck on Saturday. A cause of the blaze has not been announced.
The Nisshin Maru was being assisted by three ships of the Japanese whaling fleet, the largest a 9,000 tonne tanker, he said.
But the Greenpeace ship at the scene, Esperanza -- a converted Russian tug -- was the most suitable to provide a tow, he said. The whalers have refused Greenpeace's offers of assistance.
Any commercial tug was at least a week away and one with icebreaking capability might not be available, he said.
The US Coastguard icebreaker Polar Sea had left the scene and was headed to the southern Australian port of Hobart, Williams said.
Japan's Fisheries Agency said on Saturday officials had not given up hope of reviving the vessel, though they were not sure if the expedition could go on.
The fleet planned to hunt up to 945 whales from mid-December to the middle of next month. It was not immediately known how many whales have been killed so far.
Japan says its annual whale hunts, begun after the International Whaling Commission imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986, are for research. The meat from the whales they catch is sold as food.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was