まゆの部屋

Sea Shepherd member held / Intruding antiwhaling activist handed over to JCG in Tokyo
The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Japan Coast Guard arrested an activist of the antiwhaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Friday in Tokyo on suspicion of trespassing on a security ship belonging to the Japanese research whaling fleet.

Peter Bethune, a New Zealand national, had been detained on the Shonan Maru No. 2 for allegedly boarding it while the vessel was in Antarctic waters last month. The ship, which provided security to the fleet, entered Tokyo Port on Friday morning and Bethune, 44, was handed over to the JCG.

It is the first time Japanese authorities have arrested a member of Sea Shepherd, which has repeatedly obstructed Japanese whaling research ships. The JCG plans to question Bethune over allegations including having a small vessel collide with the Shonan Maru No. 2.

Bethune was the skipper of the Sea Shepherd's high-tech powerboat, the Ady Gil. The JCG served him with an arrest warrant while he was still on the Shonan Maru No. 2 at about 11:15 a.m.

According to the JCG, Bethune approached the ship on a personal watercraft in the Antarctic Ocean on Feb. 15, and climbed aboard by using a knife to cut through a net on the ship that was set up to prevent people from accessing the deck illegally.

Bethune was detained on the ship as the Mariners Law allows a ship's captain to take necessary measures to avoid harm if a person performs an action that could cause danger on the ship. The Shonan Maru No. 2 suspended its mission to surveil vessels trying to obstruct Japanese research whaling ships and sailed more than 10,000 kilometers to Japan on its own.

According to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, which has jurisdiction over research whaling, the Ady Gil was crippled after it collided with the Shonan Maru No. 2 on Jan. 6. After Bethune climbed onto the ship, he reportedly told the ship's crew that he sought compensation for the Ady Gil. He also reportedly admitted that he had lobbed bottles filled with butyric acid, which emits a strong odor, at the ship.

The JCG plans to question Bethune over these allegations on suspicion of assault or forcible obstruction of business.

The Criminal Code stipulates penalties for trespassing on a vessel in the same section that causes unlawful entry into a building. Under the Criminal Code, if a person makes an unlawful entry onto a vessel that is capable of accommodating a person, the intruder will face up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of 100,000 yen.

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Arrest message to intl community


By Mikoto Hata

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

The arrest of an activist from the antiwhaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was prompted by the necessity for Japan to emphasize the validity of whaling to the international community.

After the activist Peter Bethune, allegedly trespassed onto a security ship belonging to the Japanese research whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean on Feb. 15, the Fisheries Agency quickly announced that it planned to hand over Bethune to the Japan Coast Guard, with the intention to punish the New Zealand national in Japan.

Such a quick response resulted from a bitter lesson from an incident two years ago.

In January 2008, two Sea Shepherd activists were held after they boarded a Japanese research whaling vessel. However, Japan soon handed them over to the Australian government, where the Sea Shepherd has a base.

However, antiwhaling activities against Japanese vessels by the group have intensified, while the experience of two years ago has led the agency to rethink its position: That if Japan did not take a resolute attitude toward such incidents, the nation would not be able to claim the validity of whaling to the international community, according to a senior official at the agency.

The agency also has in mind the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission to be held in Morocco in June.

Last month, the chairman of the IWC made a proposal to allow Japan to resume coastal whaling in exchange for reducing the scale of the nation's research whaling.

The Fisheries Agency hopes to expose the radical activities of the antiwhaling group to the international community at the upcoming meeting, and to realize Japan's long-held intention of resuming coastal whaling.

However, the antiwhaling group likely will claim in court that Japan's research whaling has provided the nation with a cover to disguise commercial whaling. The development of the investigation into the suspect should be monitored carefully.

(Mar. 13, 2010)