A Greenpeace ship found the Japanese whaling fleet off Antarctica yesterday, the environmental group said -- setting off this year's round of a cat-and-mouse contest that has become a sometimes dangerous feature of the hunting debate.
Greenpeace's Esperanza confronted the whalers in the Antarctic Ocean early yesterday after a 10-day search and the hunting ships immediately steamed off with the activists in pursuit, the environmentalists said in a statement.
They warned they would take non-violent action to try to stop the ships from killing whales -- a promise that in the past has led to activists in speedboats trying to put themselves between whales and Japanese harpoons, once leading to a collision of ships.
Japanese whaling officials were not immediately available to confirm Greenpeace's claims or provide details.
In November, Japan dispatched its whaling fleet to the icy waters of Antarctica to kill about 1,000 whales under a program that Tokyo says is for scientific purposes, a claim anti-whaling nations and activists scoff at as a joke.
Under worldwide pressure, Japan last month abandoned its plan to include 50 humpback whales in this season's hunt, which would have been the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s. But it still plans to kill 935 Minke whales and 50 fin whales.
Greenpeace and the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd sent ships after the whalers to try to prevent the hunt by harassing the Japanese vessels. Their first task was to find the Japanese ships, the next to keep up with them.
In previous years, the whalers have been able to avoid the environmentalists for weeks and sometimes to evade them with their faster ships. In 2006, Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise collided with a Japanese whaler during a tense standoff over whales, causing minor damage but no injuries.
Karli Thomas, a Greenpeace spokeswoman aboard Esperanza, said the ship spotted six Japanese whalers early yesterday.
"The first thing they did when we approached them was to scatter and run," Thomas said. "We stayed with the factory ship the Nisshin Maru, which is always the major target."
Australia urged both sides not to do anything dangerous.
"The people actually at the site, on the high seas, need to be very careful," Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen told reporters in Sydney. "They need to exercise restraint because their own personal safety is at risk and the personal safety of others is at risk."
Australia for the first time this season sent a government-hired ship to collect photo and video evidence for a possible legal challenge to Japan's whaling program.
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