BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Whalers battle protesters

Greenpeace says the whaling is for profit, not science

The whalers then aimed water cannons at the boat drivers, placing them in danger of being knocked overboard into the icy waters, Greenpeace said in a statement.

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said the Greenpeace activists were "no more than eco-terrorists". It called the environmental group's attempts to disrupt the research whaling program "a publicity stunt."

'No threat'

"This is a malicious and reckless threat to the lives and safety of the vessel's crew and scientists," General Seiji Ohsumi, Institute director, said in a statement.

He said the research program, which plans to capture some 440 minke whales, did not threaten the Antarctic whale stock.

A helicopter pilot with Greenpeace said he had rare film footage of a vessel harpooning a whale after a 40-minute chase.

"We watched the whalers chase the whale for more than 40 minutes, repeatedly firing its harpoon and missing up to five times," said helicopter pilot Phil Robinson.

"Finally, they hit it with the sixth harpoon."

'Purely for profit'

A Greenpeace crew member, Japanese campaigner Yuko Hirono, rejected the government's claim that the minkes were being hunted for scientific purposes.

"There is nothing scientific about this whaling," she told the environmental group's Sydney offices from the Arctic Sunrise.

"Once the whalers found open water they set to with a determination to catch every whale in the area. This is commercial whaling, purely for profit."

Ms Hirono called on Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to stop the government pretending that it was allowing whaling for legitimate research.

"The world knows this is not science," she said. "It is purely the Fisheries Agency's way to continue whaling against the wishes of the international community," she said.