Whalers, activists clash in frigid waters

Japanese whalers blasted water from a cannon at conservationists who hurled bottles of rancid butter and paint during a clash yesterday in frigid Antarctic waters, officials said.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society also accused the whalers of throwing hunks of metal and golf balls at its members, lightly injuring two activists in the fracas. Japanese officials said only a water cannon was used.

The group - which routinely harasses the Japanese whaling fleet during its annual hunt in the Antarctic Ocean - sent a helicopter and two inflatable boats toward a Japanese harpoon ship early yesterday in heavy seas about 3,200 km southeast of the Australian state of Tasmania, said Paul Watson, the group's leader.