Whaling protestor held on Japanese boat

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.

Diplomats in New Zealand and Tokyo have been meeting to discuss what to do with Peter Bethune, who jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a jet-ski yesterday with the stated goal of making a citizen’s arrest of the ship’s captain and handing over a €2.3m bill for the destruction of his protest ship last month.

The brazen boarding was the latest escalation by the US-based Sea Shepherd activist group meant to hamper the whaling activities of the Japanese.

Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, which sponsors the whale hunt, called Mr Bethune’s actions “a form of piracy” and said the activist was being restrained and may have to stay aboard the ship until it returned to Japan.

It said Mr Bethune used a knife to cut the vessel’s protective net and told whalers he then threw the knife into the sea. The crew treated him for a cut on his thumb he received while boarding, the institute said.

“It’s a crime under maritime law to board another country’s flagged vessel on the high seas illegally,” institute spokesman Glenn Inwood told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. “If he is taken back to Japan, it would be my personal view that ... he should face charges in Japan.”

Japanese fisheries minister Hirotaka Akamatsu says he wants the activist handed over to Japan’s coastguard for investigation. Under Japanese law, intruding on a vessel without legitimate reasons can bring a prison term up to three years or a fine of up to €736.

New Zealand’s foreign minister Murray McClully said it seemed Mr Bethune’s intention to be detained aboard the whaling ship, but that the country nevertheless had an obligation to try to help him and was seeking co-operation from Japanese diplomats.

Mr McCully met Japan’s ambassador today and New Zealand’s top diplomat in Japan met senior officials there yesterday.

Sea Shepherd said Mr Bethune wanted to demand the cost of replacing the Ady Gil, an activist ship he captained that was destroyed in a collision with the Shonan Maru 2 last month, and demand the surrender of the whaling ship’s captain on attempted murder charges.

The Ady Gil sank after the collision, though there were only minor injuries.

Japan has six whaling ships in Antarctic waters under its scientific whaling programme, an allowed exception to the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

It hunts hundreds of mostly minke whales, which are not an endangered species. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts.

The Sea Shepherd sends vessels to confront the fleet each year, trying to block the whalers from firing harpoons and dangling ropes in the water to try to tangle the Japanese ships’ propellers.

The whalers have responded by firing water cannons and sonar devices meant to disorient the activists.