Taylor, R. (2007, December 20). Australia Sends Patrols to Shadow Japan Whalers. Reuters. [Online]. Available: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46126/story.htm [2008, May 15].
Australia; patrol; Japan; whaling; humpbacks
Australia will send a fisheries patrol ship to shadow Japan's whaling fleet near Antarctica and gather evidence for a possible international court challenge to halt the yearly slaughter, the government said on Wednesday.
The icebreaker Oceanic Viking, used for customs and fisheries policing, would leave for the Southern Ocean in days to follow the Japanese fleet, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Environment Minister Peter Garrett told journalists.
But to avoid a high-seas incident and ease concern in Tokyo, heavy machine guns on the ship and sidearms used by boarding crews would be locked in storage below decks, they said.
Separately, Greenpeace sent a ship on Wednesday to try and stop the Japanese fleet hunting whales.
Japan's whaling fleet plans to hunt 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and, for the first time in 40 years, 50 humpback whales for research over the Antarctic summer.
Humpbacks were hunted to near extinction until the International Whaling Commiss...