http://www.stuff.co.nz/3966286a11.html Whale meat cargo must come to NZ By GREG MEYLAN - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 18 February 2007
A Japanese whaling ship disabled near Antarctica is obliged to head for a New Zealand port despite carrying a banned cargo of whale meat, an international law expert says. The Nisshin Maru factory ship continues to smoulder below decks after a fire broke out on Thursday, killing a sailor whose body was recovered yesterday. Both Greenpeace and Conservation Minister Chris Carter are concerned the ship could break up in bad weather and spill 1000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, sparking an environmental catastrophe. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza arrived at the scene yesterday and offered to tow the Nisshin Maru away from Antarctica but the Japanese government has instructed the captain to refuse help. Carter said he would not like to see "a toxic vessel full of oil and whale meat" in New Zealand. But maritime law expert Duncan Currie said international conventions meant it should be towed as soon as possible to the nearest port, either Bluff or Lyttelton, to mitigate the pollution risk. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, once the ship has docked, the whale meat would not be permitted to leave again. Carter said he believed the Japanese government would do what it could to avoid the ship coming to New Zealand and was likely to send a tug south from Japan and attempt to tow the boat home. He said the first issue was to get the ship away from the coast in case it broke up. Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which conducts the annual whale hunt in Antarctica, yesterday announced the body of 27-year-old Kazutaka Makita had been found. He had been missing since a fire broke out below decks, disabling the ship's electronics and leaving it without power or propulsion. All but 20 of the ship's crew have been evacuated. Esperanza's captain Karli Thomas said her vessel had been told to stand by. "While the whaling season might be over, this is certainly not a good situation. As far as we are concerned the Nisshin Maru is not a whaling ship now, it is a vessel in distress," she said. Carter said the whaling fleets' insurance company had instructed the ICR to accept Greenpeace's offer to tow the Nisshin Maru but instead they were planning to tow the vessel away from the coast with two of the smaller harpoon boats. He said Maritime NZ informed him the tow was technically feasible only if the weather remained good, but forecasts indicated that it was expected to worsen within the next few days. Currie said Japan was signatory to an international agreement concerning Antarctica that meant they must take all steps to avoid damaging the marine environment and if they did not, other parties could. Whalers' spokesman Glenn Inwood said there was no immediate environmental danger and an attempt would be made to transfer the whale meat onto a larger resupply ship, the Oriental Bluebird. --------------------------------- Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games.
