Australia to help resolve whaling standoff

Australia offered to help resolve a two-day standoff between Japanese whalers and protesters who climbed aboard a harpoon boat in frigid Antarctic waters by sending an Australian vessel to pick the activists up.

The proposed assistance — which would allow a resumption of Japan’s interrupted whale hunt as well as the harassment activities of its staunchest opponents — underscores the high stakes contest fought each year in the remote and dangerous seas at the far south of the world. Australia would send a ship to pick up the two activists from the anti-whaling group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who have been on the Japanese harpoon boat Yushin Maru 2 since they leaped aboard uninvited. The Australian boat would then return the activists to a Sea Shepherd ship, the Steve Irwin. Japan put its hunt on hold after Australian Benjamin Potts (28) and Giles Lane (35) of Britain jumped from a rubber boat onto the Japanese ship’s deck after a high-speed chase.

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