Greenpeace boats clash with Japanese whaling boat

Environmental group Greenpeace today said that Japanese whalers used high-powered water cannons against its chase boats in a confrontation in Antarctic waters.

It said two inflatables from the Greenpeace ship, MV Arctic Sunrise, were trying to stop the loading of a dead minke whale from a whale catcher to the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru.

The whalers responded by targeting the boat drivers with water cannons which placed them in danger of being knocked out of the inflatables into the icy waters, Greenpeace said in a statement.

It said the whalers’ ship also trailed wooden blocks with the message ‘‘Danger - Keep Away’’ - a danger to the propellers of the inflatables.

Phil Robinson, a New Zealand helicopter pilot with Greenpeace, said he got rare film footage of a vessel harpooning a whale after a 40-minute chase.

Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research has called Greenpeace ‘‘no more than eco-terrorists’’ and the environmental group’s attempts to disrupt the research whaling programme ‘‘a publicity stunt’’.

‘‘This is a malicious and reckless threat to the lives and safety of the vessel’s crew and scientists,’’ Institute director General Seiji Ohsumi said in a statement today.

He claimed the research programme, which will take some 440 minke whales this southern summer, poses no threat to Antarctic whale stock.

Greenpeace oceans campaigner Yuko Hirono urged Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to stop the agency from misrepresenting its ‘‘commercial whaling as legitimate research’’.

‘‘The world knows that this is not science. It is purely the Fisheries Agency’s way to continue whaling against the wishes of the international community,’’ Hirono said