Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a USA -based anti-whaling group, has reached a court-mediated settlement in which it is permanently prevented from “physically attacking” Japanese whaling vessels and crew, Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research said Tuesday.
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A spokesman for the ICR welcomed the ruling but admitted it had serious limitations.
“Sea Shepherd Global and all other entities around the world, other than the US, will continue to oppose the illegal Japanese whaling in the Antarctic”, it added.
Those operations are conducted by Sea Shepherd Australia, which said it was not affected by the court ruling.
“This decision does not impact Sea Shepherd Australia’s mission to protect the whales of the Southern Ocean”, said Jeff Hansen, Managing Director Sea Shepherd Australia. “We are not concerned about the USA court settlement as it does not have any effect on Australian law”, said Mr Hansen.
Last year, the group agreed to pay $2.55 million to Japanese whalers for breaching the earlier court order.
Sea Shepherd was established in 1977 by Paul Watson, a former member of Greenpeace.
Sea Shepherd, in turn, claims that they have had bamboo spears thrown at them, and were subject to long range acoustic riot devices and water cannons.
In December 2012, an appeals court also issued an injunction, but Sea Shepherd continued to obstruct Japan’s whaling fleets.
The IRC filed a motion with the Washington Federal District Court in 2011 seeking an injunction to stop Sea Shepherd’s activities, which it said included “ramming vessels, dragging ropes to damage propellers and throwing and firing glass projectiles”. The antiwhaling group paid the damages after a USA court in 2014 found the group to be in civil contempt of its preliminary injunction prohibiting it from further attacks against the whaling vessels.
The hard-line conservationist group and those acting in concert are “permanently enjoined from physically attacking the research vessels and crew and from navigating in a manner that is likely to endanger their safe navigation”, the government-affiliated whaling organization said in a statement.
To many people, Sea Shepherd crews are champions of the conservation movement.
While Japan halted commercial whaling in line with an worldwide moratorium, it has hunted whales since 1987 for what it calls scientific research purposes.
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A spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also applauded the ruling, with Yuki Morita, of the Whaling Division, saying, “If this agreement leads to greater safety for Japan’s research vessels, then we welcome it”.
