Japan faces whaling ban in Australian-claimed waters

An Australian judge today banned the company that conducts Japan’s whale hunt from killing the animals in a large part of its regular hunting grounds off Antarctica.

The ruling applied to an Australian-claimed wildlife sanctuary that Japan does not recognise, so it was unlikely to bring an immediate end to Japan’s whale kill.

However, it could strain ties between Tokyo and Canberra if Japanese whalers ignore the ban and Australia is compelled to try to enforce it.

Japan has said previously it would ignore an injunction in the case if it were granted.

Meanwhile, the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said its ship in southern waters had found the Japanese whaling fleet and was chasing them in the hope it could force an end to the hunt.

“We will hound these poachers for as long as we can,” Captain Paul Watson of the ship Steve Irwin said in a statement.

“When we catch up with them we will disable their equipment and do everything physically possible short of inflicting injury on the crew in order to stop their illegal activities.”

The Humane Society International sought an injunction in Australia’s Federal Court against Japanese company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd. to stop it whaling inside Australia’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from Australian-declared territory in Antarctica and in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Ending a three-year legal battle, Judge James Allsop ruled Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha had “killed, injured, taken and interfered” with minke, fin and humpback whales inside the zone – which is designated as a whale sanctuary under Australian law – and ordered the company “be restrained” from future hunts.

The ruling raises tricky diplomatic questions for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who promised voters last year that his government would crack down on Japanese whaling inside Australian-declared waters.

But Japan, like most countries, does not recognise Australia’s territorial claim on Antarctica or its surrounding waters, and says Canberra has no authority to enforce its domestic laws on the high seas.

Japan’s Fisheries Agency, the Institute of Cetacean Research and Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha all refused to comment on the decision on the grounds that the Australian sanctuary has not been internationally recognised.

Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha operates the ships used by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research to conduct its annual hunts, under a program the organisation insists is for scientific purposes, but that critics say is an excuse to kill whales.

Japan dispatched its whaling fleet to Antarctica in November to kill about 1,000 whales, including 50 humpback whales – the first major cull of the endangered species since the 1960s. Japan later bowed to international pressure and abandoned plans to kill the humpbacks.

The Australian government is a strong opponent of whaling, and this month sent a ship to Antarctic waters to collect video and photo evidence that might be used in international forums to challenge Japan’s hunt.

Nicola Beynon, a spokeswoman for Humane Society International, said the ship should now be used to intercept the Japanese whalers and uphold the court order. Killing a whale is punishable by up to two years in prison under Australian law.

“The government can intercept the ship and stop this hunt,” she told reporters in Sydney. “It would be controversial with the Japanese government, but they’re the ones who are being extremely provocative in killing whales in Australian territorial waters.”

A Greenpeace ship was the first to find the fleet, last weekend, and says it is pursuing the factory ship Nisshin Maru.

Sea Shepherd’s Watson said he was pursuing the rest of the fleet, and released its map co-ordinates in his statement. The Australian ship is yet to make contact with the Japanese fleet.

Australia’s Environment Minister Peter Garrett also declined to comment on the ruling until he had read it himself, but said Australia would continue to pursue an “overall, holistic” approach to stopping whaling.

The Australian government was not a party to the court case. Allsop had previously rejected the Humane Society’s case on the grounds that it would disrupt ties between Australia and its Asian ally, but was overturned on appeal.

In his ruling, he noted the difficulty of enforcing the injunction, saying Japan would regard any action by Australia as a “breach of international law” and would place the court “at the centre of an international dispute ... between Australia and a friendly foreign power.”