A government official says Japan has temporarily suspended its Antarctic whaling operations after repeated disruptions by a conservation group.

The skipper of a Sea Shepherd protest boat damaged in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship said today that the head of the conservation group ordered him to let the vessel sink because it would help win public support.

Japanese prosecutors have indicted an anti-whaling activist for illegally boarding a harpoon boat as part of a protest against the ship’s whale hunting expedition in Antarctic seas in February.

An anti-whaling activist from New Zealand is in custody on a Japanese vessel and will be taken to Japan to face charges after secretly boarding the ship as part of a protest, officials said today.

An anti-whaling activist from New Zealand was being held in custody on a Japanese whaling boat today after secretly boarding it in a protest, the whalers said.