Australia rejects 'special treatment' for Japanese whalers

Coastal Times: Australia rejects 'special treatment' for Japanese whalers
Environment Minister Tony Burke has bluntly rejected a Japanese demand at the International Whaling commission for greater action against anti-whaling protests in the Antarctic.

Mr Burke told the annual IWC meeting last night that, while Australia wanted full compliance with the laws of safety at sea, Japan was asking for its whalers to be treated as a special case.

"We cannot be in a situation where we are providing a higher level of support for a whaling vessel than we would provide to any other vessel," Mr Burke said. "That is effectively what is being asked."

He told the meeting in the English Channel Island of Jersey that a presentation on the conflict given by Japan was wrong to describe the whaling ships as legitimate research vessels.

"Those particular views are views Australia cannot hold," he said.

The Japanese whaling fleet retreated from the Antarctic last February under pressure from Sea Shepherd activists, for the first time since it began its controversial scientific whaling program.

In the presentation, Japanese commissioner Kenji Kagawa said the conservationists tried to entangle whaling ships propellers with ropes and threw projectiles on to their ships' decks.

Both Australia and the Netherlands came under attack for providing ship registration and port facilities to Sea Shepherd ships. But Mr Burke said the issue of safety at sea should instead go before the International Maritime Organisation.

A long-time Australian observer of IWC meetings, Mick McIntyre of the group Whales Alive, said the Japanese appeared to have stepped up demands for action against Sea Shepherd compared with previous years.

"The Japanese presentation was full of threats that, unless those issue is resolved, Japan's role at the IWC is being questioned," Mr McIntyre told Fairfax Media from Jersey.

"They also say they have arrest warrants out for five Sea Shepherd members."

Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson, who is also in Jersey, said none of the group had ever been notified of any outstanding arrest warrants by Japan.

"They know how to get in touch with me but I have not heard a thing about this," Mr Watson said.