Japanese whaler moves away from Antarctic coast

A Japanese whaling ship has begun moving away from the Antarctic coast under its own power, an official said today – 10 days after fire crippled the vessel and left it stricken near the world’s biggest Adelie penguin rookery.

“The Nisshin Maru is moving northward at the moment, away from the coast,” a spokesman for Japan’s Institute for Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood said.

“But they’re not leaving the Antarctic,” he added, despite mounting pressure from New Zealand and environmentalists for the vessel to quit the area.

Nisshin Maru, the 8,000-ton whale processing ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, has been stranded in the Ross Sea since a fire broke out on its lower decks on February 15, and has been drifting, lashed to two other whaling fleet boats.

Japan has been determined that the ship move under its own steam, while New Zealand and conservationists urged the ship to accept offers of a tow amid fears it could spill oil or other toxic chemicals near Antarctica’s largest penguin rookery.

The vessel is carrying 343,000 gallons of fuel oil. None has leaked from the ship. One sailor died in the blaze.

International environment protection group Greenpeace, whose anti-whaling ship Esperanza has been close to the Japanese whalers for several days, confirmed the vessel was moving under its own steam.

“Nisshin Maru disengaged from the two ships … and sailed for two miles at speeds of up to 12 knots. She then stopped,” said Karli Thomas, expedition leader on board Esperanza.

New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter said the crew had been “extremely lucky” the weather had not deteriorated while the ship was stranded off the Antarctic coast.

“I’m delighted that after 10 days of being dead in the water the ship is finally moving,” said Carter, a staunch anti-whaling advocate – who on Friday demanded the Japanese government move the whaler out of the pristine region.

Inwood said the crew would spend the next 2-3 days checking and testing that all systems on the whale processing ship including engines, steering and navigation, are functioning.

“By Wednesday they expect to make a decision to either stay or leave the Antarctic,” Inwood said.

“Ideally they can stay down there and spend the next 2-3 weeks completing the research (annual whale hunt),” he said.

Greenpeace said it hoped the six-vessel Japanese whaling fleet would leave the southern oceans whale sanctuary quickly.

“If they simply sail out of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, we will escort them and continue to offer assistance. However, if they attempt to start whaling again then we will take peaceful direct action to stop the hunt,” Thomas said.

Inwood said “Greenpeace won’t be escorting them anywhere.”

Japan says its annual whale hunts, this year for 945 whales, are for research, but environmental groups say they are a pretext to keep Japan’s tiny whaling industry alive. The whale meat is sold for food.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986.