News Service from House Harris

Vic: Japan whalers scared of arrest in Aust, activists say

MELBOURNE, Jan 12 AAP - Japanese whalers sent a damaged vessel thousands of kilometres to be repaired in Indonesia because they feared arrest if they landed in Australia, an anti-whaling group says.

Captain Paul Watson, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said one of Japan's three main harpoon vessels, the Yushin Maru No.2, had become damaged around December 20 last year.

Since then the vessel had avoided docking at relatively close ports in Australia or New Zealand, and travelled all the way to Surabaya in Indonesia for repairs, Cpt Watson said.

"They can be served with a warrant if they go into Australia. There is a Federal Court order banning them from whaling in Australian territorial waters and they are in contempt of that order," Mr Watson told AAP via satellite phone from the Southern Ocean.

"They could be detained. They won't go into an Australian or New Zealand port."

The Yushin Maru No.2 has been operating in waters off the Australian Antarctic territory in contravention of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade regulations.

A DFAT spokeswoman said only the Japanese research vessel the Shonan Maru No.2 had permission to operate in Australian waters.

Cpt Watson said the damage to the Yushin Maru No.2 probably occurred when the harpoon ship headed into thick ice last year while pursued by his protest ship, the Steve Irwin.

The Yushin Maru No.2 was the ship that Sea Shepherd activists Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane boarded last year to deliver a letter of protest.

The damaged Japanese ship was not expected to be fixed until Thursday, and Mr Watson said its loss would be a blow to whalers' plans to kill 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season.

Greenpeace said Australia regularly denied access to Japanese whalers except in cases of genuine distress.

"The Federal Court ruled on 15 January 2008 that Japanese whaling fleets operations in Australian Antarctic waters are illegal," Greenpeace said in a statement.

"Australia's claim over these waters is not accepted by Japan and some other nations."

A spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research did not immediately return calls.

The Sea Shepherd ship in the Southern Ocean is expected to reach Hobart on Friday or Saturday to refuel before heading back to face the Japanese whalers early next week.