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Freed activists vow to continue to harass Japanese whalers

Militant anti-whaling activists speed past the Japanese whaling boat Yushin Maru in the Southern Ocean on Tuesday. Activists Benjamin Potts, 28, and Giles Lane, 35, were handed over to the Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking yesterday after being held for two days on the Yushin Maru, which they had boarded on the high seas. PHOTO: AFP

A militant anti-whaling group vowed yesterday to immediately resume harassing Japanese whalers as two of its activists were returned to their protest ship after being detained on board a harpoon vessel.

The two protesters, held aboard the Japanese whaler in Antarctic waters for two days, were handed over to an Australian customs vessel early yesterday and later returned to their Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship.

The pair were released to the Australian customs ship, Oceanic Viking, after a direct handover between the Japanese ship and that of the conservationists proved impossible to negotiate.

Australian Benjamin Potts said the Japanese crew had tried to throw him overboard when he and fellow activist, Briton Giles Lane, 35, clambered onto the harpoon ship to protest Japan's whaling program during a high seas chase.

"Yeah they picked me up, two guys picked me up by the shoulders, and the gunner, the guy that shoots the whales, picked my legs up and they attempted to tip me over," Potts told Fairfax Radio Network back on the protest ship.

Potts, 28, pledged to resume action against the whalers.

"Well hopefully we'll continue with the chase, until such time as we have to head back," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). "We'll continue to harass the Japanese fleet and prevent them from whaling."

Other Sea Shepherd activists also said the incident would not stop them from attempting to save the whales.

"The moment we get them back on board we plan to resume what we came here to do, which is enforcing international conservation law," executive director Kim McCoy told ABC ahead of the pair's release.

The Japanese whaling fleet is on its annual whale hunt in the icy Antarctic waters, with a target this year of killing about 1,000 of the giant mammals.

Japan exploits a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling to kill the animals for what it calls scientific research, while admitting the meat from the hunt ends up on dinner plates.
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