New Delhi: Two Australian anti-whaling activists detained on a Japanese whaling ship have been handed over to an Australian ship near Antarctica.
The two activists Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane were detained two days ago after they scrambled aboard the Japanese whaling ship to deliver a protest letter.
Japan's whaling fleet was preparing to resume hunting in Antarctic waters after the activists who stormed a harpoon ship were removed.
Meanwhile conservationists vowed to do almost anything to stop them.
Both sides were ready to resume their fight after the latest round in their annual skirmish ended safely when Australian customs officials stepped in to defuse a stand-off.
The customs ship Oceanic Viking shuttled the two activists between Japanese harpoon boat Yushin Maru 2 and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessel Steve Irwin.
They triggered the standoff when they leaped from a rubber boat onto the deck of the Japanese ship on Tuesday, and were grabbed by whalers, briefly tied up and then locked in a cabin.
Sea Shepherd had said the pair wanted to deliver an anti-whaling letter and then leave, and accused the whalers of taking their members hostage. Japanese officials said the activists were acting like pirates.
Potts accused the whalers of trying to throw him overboard in the minutes immediately after he and his colleague boarded the Yushin Maru.
"Two guys picked me up by the shoulders, and the gunner, the guy that shoots the whales, picked my legs up and they attempted to tip me over," he said.
Spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, Gabriel Gomez that organises Japan's hunts, said it was "absolutely untrue that the Japanese crew assaulted the two, or tried to throw them overboard."
He said the crew briefly tied up the two intruders because they had no idea of their intentions when they jumped aboard.
At issue is Japan's programme that allows the killing of whales for scientific research, despite an international ban on commercial whaling.
Opponents say Japan has used the loophole to kill nearly 10,000 whales over the past two decades and sell their meat on the commercial market.
Gomez said whaling was expected to resume within days, and that the fleet had completed about one-third of its mission already.
Despite an international moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual hunt. Japan argues that whaling is a cherished cultural tradition and the hunt is necessary to study whales.
(With agency inputs)
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