Thread: Sea Shepherd : Protester boards Japanese whaling vessel

Whaler ignores call to leave Australian waters
ANDREW DARBY
12 Jan, 2012

A JAPANESE whaling ship has defied high-level Australian complaints to stay in the waters of World Heritage-listed Macquarie Island.

The harpoon-equipped whale hunter Yushin Maru No.3 was still there late yesterday, hours after the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said the ship was leaving.

''I'm aware that there has been one vessel which I'm advised has been in Australian territorial waters and I'll advise that it will leave Australian territorial waters,'' Ms Gillard said.

The Australian embassy told the Japanese government on Tuesday that whaling vessels were not welcome in the country's waters, repeating earlier complaints.

But the Japanese ship was photographed yesterday within a few miles of the coast of Macquarie Island, which is part of the state of Tasmania.

The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group said the harpoon ship continued trailing its vessel, Bob Barker, inside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit all day.

''Things seem to be reaching a boiling point here,'' the Bob Barker's first mate, Peter Hammarstedt, said. ''It has followed us on circuits of the island, keeping right inside the 12-mile zone.''

The Bob Barker sought refuge at Macquarie Island to try to shake the ship off its stern. As long as some Japanese vessels are able to keep tabs on Sea Shepherd activists, the rest of the fleet can continue whaling.

ANU professor of international law Don Rothwell said if Yushin Maru No.3 was staying close to Macquarie Island it was violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea which would normally allow a ship to proceed though these waters.

''The actions of Yushin Maru No.3 are not consistent with the right of innocent passage,'' Professor Rothwell said.

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, said the ship's presence was illegal and called for a naval vessel to be sent there.

devonporttimes.com.au

Japanese whalers hurl stun grenades at Sea Shepherd
01/12/2012



TOKYO (majirox news) — Crewmen aboard the Japanese Fisheries Protection vessel Shonan Maru 2 on Jan. 11, raised the ante of violence by hurling stun grenades at Sea Shepherd crew members who were dogging the whalers in an inflatable boat. The incident happened in the frigid seas off Antarctica, where Sea Shepherd has been trying to to interfere with Japanese whalers who kill whales in the name of “scientific research.”

According to Slate magazine, “Stun grenades create an intense flash — as bright as 1 million candles burning at once, along with a boom that registers at upwards of 175 decibels.” Supposedly, victims of stun grenades are both blinded and deafened for five seconds, but the magazine says that some people report hearing and vision loss for days afterwards.

“Soldiers who use stun grenades are advised to wear earplugs and visors as well as taking cover once the device has been thrown,” the magazine noted. Though now a standard item in both military and police arsenals, particularly for use in hostage situations, stun grenades have already been responsible for the deaths of two people.

The Japanese Coast Guard reported that a Sea Shepherd inflatable boat was attempting to disrupt whaling and two members of the Guard threw stun grenades at them in an attempt to drive them off. Two Sea Shepherd boats approached the Japanese whalers at around 11 a.m. and continued their harassing action for more than an hour, including dragging a rope near the Shonan Maru 2 in what the Japanese Coast Guard saw as an attempt to foul the ship’s propellers.

After the Sea Shepherd boat refused to heed warnings issued over a bullhorn to veer off, the crewmen aboard the Shonan Maru 2 threw two stun grenades at the boats. The Japanese Coast Guard claims that though this was the first time on this particular research voyage that stun grenades had been thrown at Sea Shepherd boats, they have used them a number of times before.

The portion of the Southern Ocean where Japanese “research whaling” takes place is within the Australian-claimed exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and Australia currently has a case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague seeking a stop to whaling there. Although the Japanese are sensitive about any foreign economic operations in their own EEZ, such as by Chinese or Korean fishing boats, they appear to believe that they operate under a different standard when it comes to fishing within Australia’s EEZ.

The Southern Ocean bordering Antarctica, where Japanese “research whaling” takes place, is one of the most storm-driven and dangerous oceans in the world. Under these conditions, the use by the Japanese of potentially fatal weapons to drive off anti-whaling protestors marks what many would consider a dangerous and unnecessary escalation, in a dispute where there is little sympathy for their side.

majiroxnews.com

SAS Weapons - Stun Grenade



The blinding flash and deafening bang of stun grenades give an SAS entry team a few vital seconds advantage when clearing a room.

When the Special Air Service set up its Counter Terrorist unit, the CRW wing, it sent a specification for a stun device to Royal Ordnance Enfield. The result was the G60 stun grenade, or 'flash-bang'.

The aim of the flashbang is to disorientate and distract hostiles in a room, giving the entry team a few precious moments in which to enter and neutralise any threats. Since its development in the late 70s, the flashbang concept has been adopted by many militaries and police forces around the world.

The stun grenade contains a mercury and magnesium powder which upon detonation creates a blinding flash, equivalent to 300,000 candlepower. The 160 decibels of sound produced by the grenade not only shocks and stuns but is also loud enough to disrupt the balance function of anyone in range, causing severe dizziness. Modern stun grenades have evolved to detonate multiple times and can contain irritants such as CS or CN tear gas. SAS assaulters become gradually conditioned to the effects of flash-bangs during training. Their equipment also protects them : tinted eye pieces in SF-100 respirators protect against the flash and the respirator itself guards against the effects of the smoke and gas released by the grenades, whilst ear-plugs protect the trooper's hearing.

The SAS used their flash-bangs when they assisted German special forces (GSG-9) as they stormed a hi-jacked airliner at Mogadishu airport in 1977. As the GSG-9 team assaulted the plane, 2 SAS men hurled flash-bangs towards the cockpit, causing confusion within. The Regiment used stun-grenades during its breaking of the Iranian Embassy Siege in 1980 and again at Peterhead Prison.

The SBS also use the flash-bang in the maritime counter-terrorist role. Like much of their gear, SBS flash-bang's are water-proof.

Undercover operators in the SRR and their predecessors, the Det, carry/carried flash-bangs, mostly as a method of breaking contact when ambushed.



Stun Grenades come in a range of models featuring single or multiple detonations and those that release micronised CS or CN tear gas particles.

eliteukforces.info

so now we have Japanese using weapons of war in Australia’s EEZ .