Activists Clash With Japanese Whalers in Antarctic Seas

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) has released video they claim shows an anti-whaling conservation group attacking their ship on the high seas of Antarctica. The video appears to show Sea Shepherd activists aboard an inflatable boat launching flares and smoke bombs at Japanese whalers.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Fisheries, this is the fourth such attack on a whaling vessel this year. The UK's Telegraph reports:

Hostilities between Sea Shepherd activists and Japanese whalers are common. Last year a Sea Shepherd vessel sank after colliding with a Japanese whaling vessel, and the captain Pete Bethune, was brought to trial in Japan after he was arrested when he boarded one of the Japanese ships to ask the whalers to pay for damages to his ship.

Despite a 1986 moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual scientific hunt, arguing that whaling is a cultural tradition and the hunt is necessary to study whales.