JAPANESE whalers have sent spy flights from Australian airports to track protest ships targeting their hunt in the Antarctic.
A series of flights from Western Australia pinned down Sea Shepherd’s vessel, Steve Irwin, but flights out of Tasmania on New Year’s Day failed to locate the ship again.
Coalition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said yesterday it was an outrageous use of Australian airports and should be banned, while Greens leader Bob Brown called it an embarrassing reversal for the Rudd Government.
”Instead of Australia sending a surveillance vessel to watch the whalers, the Japanese are using Australian soil to watch the whale defenders,” Senator Brown said. ”It’s totally back to front.”
The Hobart flights were paid for by Wellington-based Omeka Communications, air industry sources told The Age.
Omeka is a public relations firm retained by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research. The Hobart flights carried Omeka’s principal, Glenn Inwood, who is an institute spokesman, and another man, the sources said.
The operation started in December when the Steve Irwin left Fremantle to intercept the whaling fleet, which this year is targeting 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.
WA pilots said surveillance flights continued out of Albany for some days, costing a ”truckload” of money. Two men aboard the flights told locals they were ”looking for people who were looking for whales”.
On December 9, Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said his ship was circled by an aircraft just outside the Australian 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone south of Albany. Six hours later, the Japanese whale chaser ship Shonan Maru No. 2 latched onto the Steve Irwin’s tail.
This meant the Japanese ship could report the Steve Irwin’s position to the rest of the fleet, enabling the whalers to stay clear.
Shonan Maru No. 2’s pursuit ran all the way to Antarctica and back, resulting in clashes between the two crews. It only ended when the Steve Irwin re-entered the Australian zone south of Tasmania on December 29.
The Steve Irwin refuelled in Hobart and then departed on New Year’s Eve under cover of a thunderstorm.
Third ship joins fight
David Killick, Mercury
ANTI-WHALING crusaders have secretly launched a third ship in their fight against Japanese whalers.
Crusaders from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society revealed the new vessel, a former harpoon ship amid controversy over ‘spy flights’ conducted from Australian airports on behalf of the Institute of Cetacean Research.
MV Steve Irwin Captain Paul Watson said protest vessels currently had the whaling fleet on the run.
The 1200-tonne Norwegian built Antarctic harpoon vessel MV Bob Barker (Pictured) arrived off Commonwealth Bay at 3am today with 30 crew aboard.
The ship was bought in Ghana with a $5 million donation by US television celebrity Bob Barker and sailed from Mauritius on December 18. It joined the MV Steve Irwin and the Ady Gil.
“I’m surprised we kept it a secret as long as we did, considering how many people we had involved,” Captain Watson said.
“It has the speed and it’s ice strengthened and it’s the perfect vessel to go after the whaling fleet.
“We kept it quiet until this morning at 3 o’clock when they found the Japanese fleet.
“The security vessels were so busy chasing up 500 miles north of the fleet that they had no idea the Bob Barker was moving in on them.”
“They haven’t killed any whales today and hopefully they won’t be killing any whales in the near future. They’re on the run at full speed.
