Australia warns Japan to stop whaling or face court if whaling not stopped by November 2010

Australia's prime minister has set a November deadline for Japan to stop its research whaling programme that kills hundreds of the creatures every year in Antarctic waters, or face legal action.

Australia, a staunch anti-whaling nation, has long threatened international legal action.

Two years ago, it sent a ship to Antarctic waters to follow the Japanese whaling fleet and collect videos and photographs it said might be used as evidence in an international forum.

Prime minister Kevin Rudd said Australia would prefer to use diplomatic means to persuade Japan to end its hunt.

"If that fails, then we will initiate court action before the commencement of the whaling season in November 2010. That's the bottom line and we're very clear to the Japanese, that's what we intend to do."

In the meanwhile Sea Shepherd Captain Peter Bethune, Peter Bethune, who climbed onto the Japanese ship Shonan Maru II on Monday in Antarctic waters, is happy to stay onboard and be taken to Japan, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Friday. Bethune, a New Zealander, boarded the boat at night from a jetski, claiming he wanted to make a citizen's arrest of the captain and give the skipper a bill for the destruction of the high-speed trimaran Ady Gil, which sank after a collision with the Japanese vessel.
The Japanese took him a prisoner in their crusade to plunder the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and have accused Bethune of piracy in boarding the Shonan Maru at sea and indicated he would face a criminal charge for intervening in Japan's poaching industry .

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sees this as an opportunity to rally support for Captain Peter Bethune in New Zealand and Australia. These Japanese poachers plunder the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with impunity and now they are hauling a courageous Kiwi hero to the Land of the Rising Sun to crucify him for defending the whales.

McCully said that a diplomat from the New Zealand embassy in Tokyo spoke with Bethune on Thursday evening in a telephone call arranged through the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry.

He said Bethune described himself in good physical and mental condition.

"He said he is being accommodated in his own cabin and has freedom of movement, and that he has regular meals and is being cared for well by the crew," McCully said.

"For privacy reasons we cannot reveal further details of the conversation, but Mr Bethune indicated he was happy to remain on board the Shonan Maru II and return to Japan with the vessel."

The Ady Gil was part of a three-ship protest organized by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic.

Japan uses a loophole in the 1986 whaling moratorium to continue whaling under the premise of scientific research and, according to conservation organization Greenpeace, has killed more than 9,000 minke whales over the last 22 years.

Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said earlier that the Shonan Maru II had left the Japanese fleet and was heading north. The Japanese have not said where it was going.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Sea Shepherd
• Australia
• stop whaling
• deadline
• Japan

[hyuiolre]

The sea shepherd is not normal

[TheExoticAnimal]

@BankruptGM oh and usually England says *mum* go back to school.

[TheExoticAnimal]

@BankruptGM good for them and that's when American history comes into play, because we were *Originally* An English colony so yeah i think i know my own country's history. Just shut up, your mad because your last comment really mad you look like an idiot.

[BankruptGM]

@TheExoticAnimal you do realise england invented english hence the "eng" in english

[TheExoticAnimal]

@BankruptGM wow you made my day number one you spell it. fahrenheit. number two its spelled *Color* and you say *Mom*

[BankruptGM]

@TheExoticAnimal your countrys fucked up more then 10,000 people get shot dead every year. you measure temperature with farenheit spell words wrong like colour and mum. i saw doco on american whaling yanks killed thousands of whales just for oil plus most racist words were created by yanks.

[TheExoticAnimal]

@BankruptGM your a stupid ass. *BOYCOTT USA* you really need to get a life because if the united states wasn't here then most countries would be hell. Thats beside the point BOYCOTT JAPAN they are disgusting ignorant people and there actually killing there own people by feeding them mercury( if you didn't know that's poison. ) Japan is also a fucked up country because there paying more attention to whaling and profit rather than cleaning up the mess they made.

[92359hg]

Was the Nanking Massacre and Unit 731 part of Japanese Culture too? They have carried on the same but now instead of innocent Chinese Civilians they take their culture out on dolphins and whales .... I think Mother has warned them and they still are ignoring her warnings God have mercy on these people for they not know what they have done - give them a chance to prove themselves worthy of Mother Earth's blessings

[littlefishkid]

They stopped whaling

[outletspark]

@livvy1au

oh yeah...and im fucking sure you Australians aren't fucking MURDERERS yourselves. Pretty well known for your kangoroo massacres. Heck, your right next to us Americans as the country with the worst animal extinction record. & seriously, don't be mad cause the Japs & Chinese ppl got what it takes to get jobs in your home country. So fuck off ignorant bastard!