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Japanese Whaling ship on fire after ‘blast’
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn’t Fit
NewsCom.au (Australia) – Feb 15, 2007
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21229816-5006301,00….
Whaling ship ‘ablaze after blast’
A JAPANESE whaling ship is on fire this morning after reports of an
on-board explosion.
The Nisshin Maru, part of a fleet of whaling ships operating in the Ross
Sea in Antarctica which has been fighting running battles with anti-whaling
protesters for the last week. The protest was called off yesterday.
One person is reported to be unaccounted for and 141 of the 161 crew have
been evacuated to three other ships in the fleet.
The remaining crew members are reported to have stayed on board to fight
the fire, believed to be in the ship’s engine room.
A Maritime New Zealand spokesman has said the missing crewman could still
be somewhere on the ship, or he could have been washed overboard.
A distress call was sent from the 8000-tonne ship at 3.15am (AEDT) and
since then the captain has been sending regular updates to the maritime
body.
"We are standing by, talking to the master," the spokesman was quoted by
NZPA as saying.
"At the moment he has got the situation under control so we are just seeing
if he wants any assistance, either with the fire or the missing crewman."
Two New Zealand Navy frigates, the HMAS Te Kaha and the HMAS Te Mana, which
could reach the whaling vessel quickly, are heading north and will not be
redirected to the area.
The whaling vessels have been shadowed by the anti-whaling activists’s
ships that form part of the Sea Shepherd fleet, who said yesterday they
were abandoning their protest.
One of the whalers was involved in a collision with one of the protest
ships earlier this week, but each side blamed the other for causing the
incident.
The protest ship, the Robert Hunter, sustained a 30cm gash to its hull in
the collision, after which the Japanese vessel sent out and then cancelled
a distress signal.
Shortly before that collision, the captain of another protest ship, the
Farley Mowat, said he was running out of fuel and threatened to ram a
whaling vessel rather than return to port, where the ship’s registration
status would potentially prevent it leaving dock.
That threat drew widespread condemnation, including from fellow
environmental protesters Greenpeace.
The captain of the ship later withdrew the threat and said yesterday that
he was returning to port to refuel, effectively ending the protest action.
Copyright 2007 News Limited. All times ACDT (GMT +10:30).
AP via International Herald Tribune – Feb 14, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/14/asia/AS-GEN-New-Zealand-Jap…
Japan whale ship reported on fire in Antarctic waters
The Associated Press
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A Japanese whaling ship is on fire in the Ross Sea
in Antarctica, and initial reports said one crew member is missing, New
Zealand officials said Thursday.
The Nisshin Maru sent out a distress call early Thursday and was evacuated
by most of its 161-member crew as others stayed on board to fight the fire,
Maritime New Zealand spokesman Steve Corbett said.
Corbett said one of the crew was reported to be missing, but it was not
clear if the crewman was missing in the ship or had gone overboard.
A Japanese Embassy spokesman in the New Zealand capital, Wellington,
confirmed the ship was on fire but said details were scarce.
"We understand it’s under control at the moment, but we’re seeking more
information," Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for the Japan Fisheries Agency and
the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, said from Tokyo.
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Four other Japanese whaling vessels are in the area of the Nisshin Maru.
The agencies controls Japan’s annual Antarctic whale hunt fleet.
The fire was believed to be in the engine room of the 8,000-ton
(7,280-metric ton) ship.
Maritime New Zealand received a distress call from the ship at 5:15 a.m.
Thursday (1615 GMT Wednesday) and since then had been in constant contact
with the captain.
"We are standing by, talking to the master. At the moment he has got the
situation under control so we are just seeing if he wants any assistance,
either with the fire or the missing crewman," Corbett said.
Corbett said 20 crew had stayed on the ship to fight the fire.
There was very little that could be done from New Zealand, he added.
The Royal New Zealand Navy said the navy frigates HMNZS Te Kaha and HMNZS
Te Mana could get to the scene quickly, but both were heading north and
would not be sent.
Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved
***
AP via San Diego Union-Tribune – Feb 14, 2007
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070214-0252-antarctica-wha…
Anti-whaling group quits pursuit of Japanese ships as fuel runs out
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – The anti-whaling activist group Sea Shepherd said
Wednesday its two protest ships were abandoning their pursuit of Japanese
whaling vessels because one of the group’s ships was running out of fuel.
Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said with just eight days’ fuel in its
tanks, its vessel Farley Mowat was heading for the Australian port of
Melbourne along with the group’s other ship, the Robert Hunter.
"We’re just physically not able to do any more at this stage," Watson told
The Associated Press by telephone from the Robert Hunter.
The anti-whaling group took several weeks to locate the five-vessel
Japanese fleet that is seeking to kill up to 945 whales this season in the
Southern Ocean. Watson said the group had "chased them off a couple of pods
of whales."
The environment ministers of both New Zealand and Australia warned Tuesday
that Sea Shepherd’s tactics could risk the loss of human life and severely
harm the anti-whaling cause.
On Monday, a hole was ripped above the Robert Hunter’s stern waterline in a
collision with Japan’s Kaiko Maru whale spotting ship during a second
confrontation. Each side blamed the other for two collisions between the
vessels.
Last Friday, two members of a Sea Shepherd crew involved in harassing the
Japanese whale processing vessel Nisshin Maru were lost for eight hours in
heavy fog and snow conditions before being located.
Watson said the two ships would return to the Southern Ocean unless they
are delayed in port by international registration requirements.
© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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