Japan to release 3 activists who boarded whaler

[ellisonz]

ADDS DROPPED WORD - In this Jan. 8, 2012 image made from video which was released by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, activists of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society head toward the Shonan Maru No. 2, background, in Antarctic waters early morning. The three anti-whaling activists boarded the Japanese vessel in early Sunday morning darkness as part of a campaign to stop whale hunting in Antarctic waters. (AP Photo/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

By ROD McGUIRK | AP – 2 hrs 45 mins ago

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian customs ship was steaming full speed toward a Japanese whaling vessel to pick up three activists after Tokyo decided Tuesday to release them without charges over their surprise boarding off southwest Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the customs ship would likely take several days of traveling at top speed to rendezvous with the security ship the Shonan Maru No. 2 to pick up the three Australians — Geoffrey Owen Tuxworth, 47, Simon Peterffy, 44, and Glen Pendlebury, 27 — in the Antarctic Ocean. All are from Western Australia state.

The three anti-whaling activists boarded the Shonan Maru No. 2 on Sunday as it tailed the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's flagship, the Steve Irwin.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-release-3-activists-boarded-whaler-210600970.html

[MADem]

1. The Aussies made a deal, apparently.

Gillard thanked Japan for its cooperation and said the boarding tactic was "unacceptable and will ultimately be costly to the Australian taxpayer."
"No one should assume that because an agreement has been reached with the Japanese government in this instance that individuals will not be charged and convicted in the future," she said. "The best way to stop whaling once and for all is through our court action."

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Only the mother ship has room for prisioners

Otherwise they could have enjoyed Japanese hospitality for quite some time.

[MADem]

3. They did make a deal, nonetheless--at least according to the quote.

The Aussies are even sending a (water) taxi for them!

They might be enjoying their homeland's hospitality, from the sound of it.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. The lack of facilities may have been one of the reasons to make the "deal"

The cited source is also sufficiently vague that there really is no telling what such a "deal" might be. It could have been: Come get them or they will get a sea trial for piracy and hanged.

"sarcasm"

[MADem]

5. Could be, but it certainly doesn't read that way. nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. The article was indeed weak in many ways

[vminfla]

7. Will these Australians reimburse their government for their folly?

It probably wasn’t how certain members of the Australian government pictured spending their week. But since three Australian activists traveling with the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society illegally boarded a Japanese ship over the weekend, the government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard has spent the last few days trying to secure their freedom.

It worked, but Canberra isn’t pleased. On Tuesday, after days of trying to make contact with the Shonan Maru 2, Attorney General Nicola Roxon said Japan had agreed to release the three men, aged 47, 44, and 27. By Wednesday, an Australian government vessel was reportedly on its way to pick them up in a mission Roxon said could cost Australian taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. “I would very much like these three men to consider what contribution they would make, or the Sea Shepherd for that matter,” Roxon was quoted as saying in the Herald Sun. But, she added, “I’m not going to be holding my breath.”

The episode is the latest in a high-stakes eco-drama that has been playing out in Antarctic waters for the better part of the last decade. Each winter, Japan sends its whaling fleet deep into the southern hemisphere to hunt whales under its scientific whaling program, and each winter, a varying configuration of Sea Shepherd boats is right behind them, using sundry tactics – stink bombs, drones, bad press – to pressure Japan to call off the hunt. Sea Shepherd’s 2010-2011 campaign (Operation “No Compromise”) claimed a big success: After several run-ins with Sea Shepherd boats, Japan turned its vessels around early with a fraction of its intended catch. Though there has been a global moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986, Japan continues to hunt whales in a loophole in the laws that permits whaling for scientific purposes.

This isn’t the first time that an anti-whaling activist has been detained aboard the Shonan Maru 2, currently a support vessel to the Japanese whaling activities. In 2010, New Zealander Peter Bethune was held on the same ship after illegally boarding the vessel. He was brought back to Japan, where he was tried and given a suspended sentence. The three Australians on the ship now, all members of an Australian environmental group that was working with the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd, illegally boarded the ship before dawn on Sunday, reportedly to try to prevent it from following a Sea Shepherd vessel.



Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/01/11/a-peeved-australia-sends-boat-to-fetch-anti-whaling-activists/#ixzz1jFm1aCXy