Japan turns down Greenpeace help on whaling ship
TOKYO, (Reuters)
Japan has turned down an offer from Greenpeace to tow a whaling ship
that caught fire off the Antarctic coast, recalling that activists of
the conservation group had boarded the same vessel almost a decade ago.
The fire broke out the Nisshin Maru, the 8,000 tonne flagship of the
Japan whaling fleet, on Thursday, sparking fears that it could spill oil
or chemicals.
Maritime authorities said anti-whaling protesters in the Southern
Ocean, which clashed with the whalers earlier in the week, were not
involved.
"The fire has almost been extinguished," Hideki Moronuki, a Japanese
Fisheries Agency official in Tokyo, told Reuters on Saturday. "But it
will take a while before we can go into the engine room and see whether
the engines are okay and the ship can sail on its own."
Greenpeace had offered on Friday to tow the stricken boat with its
converted salvage ship Esperanza as the Nisshin Maru wallowed without
power less than 100 nautical miles from the world's largest Adelie
penguin colony.
"We would appreciate their offer, but I don't think we will accept
such an offer," Moronuki said, recalling that the vessel had been
boarded by Greenpeace activists in New Caledonia in 1998 as it lay in
port after another fire.
He said that if the ship failed to set sail on its own, Japan would
ask for help from a Japanese tanker that happened to be sailing close by
the whaler.
Moronuki denied news reports that the ceiling of the engine room had
burned down and there was a threat of sea pollution.
"These are malevolent reports. The Nisshin Maru is not carrying
chemicals at all, except for fuel, and the ceiling of the engine room
was not burned down," he said.
"There has been no oil leak and there will be no oil leak."
The fire, fuelled in part by whale oil, burned in a factory area
above the engine room and below the ship's bridge. Maritime New Zealand
spokesman Lindsay Sturt said on Friday that fears were easing of an oil
or chemical leak spill after the crew managed to pump off excess water
and correct the list to the ship.
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