Three injured, Japan whalers use hooks

Three anti-whaling demonstrators have been injured after Japanese crew members used grappling iron hooks and bamboo poles against them in a high seas clash, activist group Sea Shepherd said yesterday.
The Yushin Maru No. 2 (YS2) is tailing the Steve Irwin anti-whaling ship in the Southern Ocean and the incident happened about 300 nautical miles north of Mawson Peninsula in Antarctica, according to Sea Shepherd.
“Our small boats were attempting to slow down the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2, which is aggressively tailing the Steve Irwin,” Captain Paul Watson said on the Sea Shepherd website that American Brian Race was jabbed twice in the face with a bamboo pole, receiving lacerations above his right eye and on his nose.
South African Russell Bergh, a cameraman for cable television channel Animal Planet, was struck in the right arm and shoulder with an iron grappling hook, resulting in deep bruising, and French photographer Guillaume Collet was also hit in the right arm and shoulder by a grappling hook and injured.
Japan’s Fisheries Agency disputed the account, accusing the activists of starting the conflict by using ropes to try to disable the ship’s rudder and propeller and hurling at least 30 bottles containing paint.
Watson said two of the three Japanese harpoon vessels in the area were tailing Sea Shepherd boats as they closed in on their hunting grounds, effectively preventing them from killing whales.
Three activists from the environmental group Forest Rescue Australia boarded the Shonan Maru as it followed the Steve Irwin back out of port off Australia’s west coast on January 7, sparking a diplomatic incident. They were later handed to Australia.