Feb 25, 2007
Japanese whale processing ship, the Nisshin Maru, is steaming north out of Antarctic waters under its own power.
The vessel successfully restarted its engines on Sunday morning, after repairs to wiring caused by a fatal fire.
A spokesman for the Japanese whaling industry says restoring power was always likely and that Greenpeace and the Conservation Minister hyped up the environmental risk to gain media exposure.
"I am delighted the Japanese have got the ship going. It's been dead in the water for almost two weeks and the Japanese have been extraordinary lucky with the weather," Chris Carter says.
The ship caught fire 10 days ago, claiming the life of a crewman.
Listing badly, it was then lashed to other Japanese boats while repairs were carried out.
A spokesman for the whalers says fears of an environmental disaster have been exaggerated.
"It certainly wasn't helpful, claims that toxins were going to leak and there was going to be some huge environmental disaster," Glenn Inwood of the Institute for Cetacean Research says.
But with 1,100 tonnes of fuel onboard in a hostile environment the government says its fears were grounded.
"The Japanese naturally want to play down the incident - they are acutely embarrassed by what happened. There could have been a real disaster. As it is they lost a seaman, they could have lost a lot more if the weather hadn't have stayed so good for so long," Carter says.
The Japanese say the situation was well under control last week and Greenpeace's repeated offer of a tow was irrelevant.
But those aboard the Espernaza now following the whaling fleet out of the area disagree.
"While she was in distress and while she was disabled in the Ross Sea, we didn't consider her a whaling vessel, we considered her a vessel that we could possibly assist and offered to do so," Karli Thomas says.
Greenpeace's Melanie Duchen says the Esperanza is about 10 kilometres behind the Japanese fleet.
She says they will bid farewell to the whaling fleet at the border of the sanctuary, hopefully for the last time.
Duchen says Greenpeace will give the Japanese any assistance needed to get them out of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary. She says it is likely the fleet will find the trip tough going and was surprised the Nisshin Maru could even start its engines, although a statement from the Japanese says crew members worked around the clock to get the vessel repaired.
It is acknowledged by both sides that coming out of Japan conflicted with that from New Zealand. Now the Japanese say the Nisshin Maru will conduct further tests in open ocean to decided whether to head home or not.
Carter says he spoke with the Japanese Ambassador last week on the matter and was told the fleet would not resume whaling. He says he can only accept the ambassador's word.
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