Police confirm Japanese fisheries agency behind raid on Sea Shepherd+

SYDNEY, Feb. 23 Kyodo -Australian Federal Police confirmed Monday a complaint from Japan's Fisheries Agency prompted last week's raid on anti-whaling ship Steve Irwin.

Mick Keelty, head of the Australian Federal Police, told a Senate committee
inquiry that Japanese allegations concerned the Sea Shepherd society's use of a
propeller entanglement system against the Yushin Maru No. 3, the Australian
Associated Press reported.
This year also saw collisions between the Steve Irwin and the Japanese whaling
fleet, with the whalers accusing the militant conservationists of deliberately
ramming their vessels.
Keelty said the Australian Federal Police received a referral from the
Australian Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry on Feb. 17.
''But it was, when I say referral, it was simply on-forwarding to us the
allegations made in Japan by the director general of the Japanese fishing
agency,'' Keelty said.
According to local media reports, Japanese authorities complained to the
Australian Embassy in Tokyo as well as through the Japanese Embassy in
Canberra.
Australian Federal Police conducted a search of the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society's flagship vessel when it docked in the southern Australian port Hobart
on Feb. 20.
They confiscated videos, the ship's log books, global positioning system
records and other documents kept aboard the vessel.
Sea Shepherd activists, led by founder Paul Watson, conduct an annual campaign
to interrupt Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.
==Kyodo
2009-02-23 22:32:14