Sea Shepherd sues whalers in Dutch case.        

    From: AAP
    March 22, 2013
The Australian.

Sea Shepherd has sued the crew of a Japanese whaling ship for piracy and attempted manslaughter.

ENVIRONMENTAL group Sea Shepherd has filed a suit against the crew of Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru alleging piracy and attempted manslaughter after they clashed in the Antarctic Ocean in February, their lawyers say.    

"We hereby lodge a suit for piracy, violence and destruction and attempted manslaughter on February 20 and 25 by Captain Tomoyuki Ogawa and the rest of the crew," lawyers Liesbeth Zegveld and Tomasz Kodrzycki said in court documents obtained by AFP.

The suit was filed in a Netherlands court because the ships concerned, the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, are Dutch-flagged.

"On February 20 and 25, the Sea Shepherd boats were able to prevent an illegal refuelling operation by Nisshin Maru," the lawyers said in a statement on Thursday.

"The Nisshin Maru's captain then attacked these boats by repeatedly ramming them, by using water canon to flood the engine room and sabotage the engines and by throwing explosives," they said.


The latest legal broadside in the long-running conflict between Sea Shepherd and Japanese whalers comes after the anti-whaling fleet on Wednesday docked in Australia after another bitter campaign in the isolated Southern Ocean.

The ships Steve Irwin, Bob Barker and Sam Simon suffered an estimated $US1 million ($A968,500) damage bill after run-ins with Japanese whalers since leaving port in November.    

Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) has, in turn, accused Sea Shepherd boats of ramming the Nisshin Maru.

A US appeals court in February labelled Sea Shepherd as pirates, overturning a lower court's ruling against Japanese whalers.

The same court in December ordered Sea Shepherd to maintain a distance of 500 metres from Japanese whaling ships.

The ICR and others are pursuing legal action in the United States, seeking an injunction against their activities on the high seas.