SYDNEY — Three crew members of a Japanese whaling vessel suffered face and eye injuries from acid fired by anti-whaling protesters during their latest clash in the Antarctic Ocean, their Japanese employers said Friday.
The Sea Shepherd protesters said they lobbed butyric acid, produced from stinking rancid butter, which they often aim at the whalers to try to disrupt the annual Japanese hunt. The activists maintain that butyric acid is nontoxic.
The injuries sustained Thursday were the first to Japanese whalers this year during confrontations with Sea Shepherd.
Glenn Inwood, spokesman for Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, said the injuries were not serious, but he cautioned that butyric acid can cause temporary blindness.
The injuries occurred during a confrontation of several hours between two Sea Shepherd boats — the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker — and four Japanese vessels.
Locky Maclean, first mate on the Steve Irwin, said the acidic substance thrown was rancid butter.
“It’s a harmless liquid,” he said. “You can handle it, and it’s not corrosive.”
Maclean said the Nisshin Maru, a factory ship, started the altercation when it turned its water cannons on the activists’ vessels. He said the ship’s military acoustic device was also aimed directly at the Sea Shepherd’s helicopter pilot.
The protesters targeted the Japanese ships Shonan Maru No. 2 and Nisshin Maru, dragging wire ropes across their bows in a bid to tangle and disable their rudders and propellers, the Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement.
The crew of the Shonan Maru No. 2 said they were targeted with a high-powered laser weapon, while smoke bombs and red dye projectiles were launched at the Nisshin Maru. The factory ship also exchanged close-range water cannon fire with the Sea Shepherd vessels.
“They’re using pretty high-tech systems to fire these missiles on board our ships,” Inwood said of the protesters.
The Institute said it strongly condemned the actions of the Sea Shepherd activists, noting that Japan’s whale research vessels are conducting legal research activities in the Antarctic.
Japan has a six-vessel whaling fleet in Antarctic waters as part of its scientific whaling program, an allowed exception to the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 ban on commercial whaling. It hunts hundreds of mostly minke whales, which are not an endangered species. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts.
Sea Shepherd, a U.S.-based activist group, sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, trying to block them from firing harpoons at the whales.
“It’s been a successful week,” Maclean said. “No whales have died for the last eight days we have been trailing the Nisshin Maru.”
The confrontations in the remote Antarctic seas have twice led to collisions this year.
Last week, the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided, causing minor damage to both vessels. On Jan. 6, a Japanese whaler struck Sea Shepherd’s high-tech speedboat Ady Gil, which sank a day later. No one was seriously injured in those incidents.
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