Japan outraged by clash with anti-whalers [View All]

[Barrett808]

TOKYO: Japan expressed outrage after anti-whaling activists poured acid on the decks of a whaling ship in the Southern Ocean and slightly injured two crew members, terming their activities "piratical, terrorist acts".

After the clash, two protesters from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an environmental group chasing the Japanese whalers, tied their boat to an iceberg for protection from icy winds as they drifted in fog after the inflatable was damaged.

The Japanese whaling boat, the Nisshin Maru, joined the search for the men, who were rescued safely eight hours later.

The group then resumed its pursuit of Japan's whaling fleet, a senior official at Japan's Fisheries Agency said.

"These are completely piratical, dangerous acts," said the official, Hideki Moronuki. "They are also very dangerous, and we want them to stop this immediately."

Sea Shepherd said on its website that it had "successfully delivered" six litres of butyric acid to the ship's flensing deck, where whales are cut up, halting the crew's work.

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