- SYDNEY (AP) -- An animal
rights group claimed Tuesday Japan has illegally killed hundreds of whales
in an Australian whale sanctuary and launched legal action aimed at
stopping
the hunt.
-
- Humane Society International spokeswoman Nicole Beynon
said Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku had killed more than 400 minke
whales in Antarctic waters that make up part of Australia's economic zone
and have been declared a whale sanctuary by Australia's government.
-
- Mr. Beynon said evidence backing her group's case was
taken from reports filed by the whaling company at the end of each year's
hunt in Antarctic waters.
-
- The Australian-based group filed papers with the Federal
Court on Tuesday seeking a hearing in the case mid-November.
-
- Mr. Beynon said the group was taking legal action because
the Australian government - which campaigns forcefully against whaling
at international meetings - had failed to do so.
-
- In Japan, Kyodo Senpaku official Makoto Ito said
"Japan's
research whaling is a legitimate activity allowed under the international
agreement, and we are quite puzzled by the lawsuit."
-
- Ito said he could not comment further because the company
was still trying to get more details on the court case.
-
- The Australian Whale Sanctuary was created in 2000 under
the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, Mr. Beynon
said.
-
- "If the application is successful, HSI plans to
seek a declaration that the hunt in the Australian Whale Sanctuary is
illegal
and ask for it to be restrained," the group said in a
statement.
-
- "We hope HSI's case in the Federal Court will
embarrass
the whaling company and the Japanese government, and push the Australian
government into prosecuting the whaling themselves," she said.
-
- Linus Grant, an environment Department spokesman, said
the government was pressuring Japan to abandon whaling through diplomatic
channels.
-
- "The government ... believes that its interests
are far better served by continuing its very active efforts through the
international whaling commission - diplomatically putting pressure
on,"
he said.
-
- The maximum sentence for illegally killing whales is
two years' imprisonment or a fine of $79,600.
-
- Japan is the world's prime consumer of whale meat. Like
Iceland, it hunts whales for research, which is permitted by international
whaling authorities. Environmentalists say those programs amount to
commercial
whaling.
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