Japanese whalers were accused yesterday of injuring two activists in a high seas clash in the Antarctic and of deploying a new “military grade” acoustic weapon against protesters.
One activist was cut and bruised after being knocked over by a high pressure blast of water and the other was hit in the face by a metal ball thrown by the whalers, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said.
Both men had been on small inflatable boats launched from the group’s ship, the Steve Irwin, to “harass the [Japanese whaling] fleet and to hurry them along,” Sea Shepherd said in a statement.
PHOTO: AP
The environmental group, which has been accused by Japan of “eco-terrorism” for its attempts to disrupt the annual whale hunt, said the whalers had used a new “acoustic weapon” against protesters.
“The factory ship the Nisshin Maru [No. 1] and the two harpoon vessels in the fleet are equipped with long range acoustical devices,” it said. “This is a military grade weapon system that sends out mid to high frequency sound waves designed to disorient and possibly incapacitate personnel. It is basically an anti-personnel weapons system.”
The Steve Irwin retreated when within range of the acoustic weapon but generally had “a very successful day,” captain Paul Watson said.
“All we need to do is to keep them running and to keep them from whaling and that is exactly what we are doing,” he said.
A spokesman for Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research would not confirm that the fleet was using sound waves against the activists.
“We can neither confirm nor deny the strategies employed by the Japanese research vessels to protect themselves from the criminal actions committed by the Dutch vessel,” Glenn Inwood told Australia’s national AAP news agency. “We can say, however, that all legal means available will be used to ensure these pirates do not board Japanese ships or threaten the lives of the crews or the safety of the vessels.”
An international moratorium on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986 but Japan kills hundreds each year in the name of “research.”
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
Another tanker carrying liquefied natural gas from Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG (liquefied natural gas) 2 project has docked in a Chinese port, ship-tracking data showed, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) tracking data indicated the Russian Voskhod LNG tanker was anchored at an LNG terminal in the port of Tieshan in Guangxi, China. The Russian flagged tanker, with a cargo of 150,000 cubic meters of LNG, was loaded up at the Arctic LNG 2 facility in Gydan in northern Siberia on July 19, LSEG data showed.
RSS