Asia-Pacific

Australian PM calls for calm in Japanese whaling

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-10 15:28

Anti-whaling protest group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's "Gojira" speedboat (L) pursues Japanese Antarctic whale research vessel Yushin Maru No 2 in Antarctic waters Jan 5, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

CANBERRA - Australian Prime Minister on Monday called for calm in the Southern Ocean in the wake of clashes between Japanese whalers and protesters.

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According to ABC News, the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research has released footage showing activists on boats belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation throwing objects onto the Yushin Maru Number Two.

The institute said at least two stun grenades and one smoke bomb were thrown.

However, Paul Watson from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society rejected claims they used illegal stun grenades on board a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean.

Watson told ABC News that the Japanese whaling crews shoot at them and tried to destroy their ships, and the activists only use smoke and stink bombs in their mission to prevent the killing of whales.

In respond to the arguments, Gillard said all ships need to act responsibly in the dangerous waters.

"This is a remote, inhospitable dangerous place," she told reporters in Canberra on Monday. "Everybody has to act responsibly. Any sense that somehow you can act irresponsibly and somehow someone miraculously turns up to save you. That is not the way the world works."

Last week, both the Greens and the Opposition called on the Australian Government to send a ship to monitor the hunt, as well as confrontations between the Japanese fleet and environmentalists.

However, Australian Federal Government said it was unlikely to send a Customs or Navy ship to the Southern Ocean to monitor Japan 's whaling fleet.