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Activists board Japanese whaling ship

08 January 2012 01:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group said three Australian activists were being held as "prisoners" by the Japanese harpoon fleet Sunday after sneaking aboard one of their vessels overnight to protest, APA reports quoting AFP.

Sea Shepherd said they had helped the three men from the Forest Rescue Australia environmental group to board the Shonan Maru No.2 16 miles (26 kilometres) off Australia’s west coast.

"We are taking this action to remind the Australian government of their obligation to enforce existing laws pertaining to the prohibition of whaling ships in our waters," the group added.

"Forest Rescue are insulted and disappointed in our government for allowing the transit of whale poaching vessels in Australian waters."

The group has demanded that the Japanese return the three men -- Simon Peterffy, 44, Geoffrey Tuxworth, 47 and Glen Pendlebury, 27 -- to shore and leave Australian waters.

Commercial whaling is banned under an international treaty but Japan has since 1987 used a loophole to carry out "lethal research" in the name of science -- a practice condemned by environmentalists and anti-whaling nations.

Australia has taken Japan to the International Court of Justice seeking an end to its annual hunts but one of the men who boarded the Shonan Maru, Simon Peterffy, said enough had not been done.

"We are on board this ship because our government has failed to uphold its pre-election promise to end whaling in the Southern Ocean," he said, according to the Forest Rescue statement.