Activists held aboard whaler

Three Australian environmental activists were detained on board a Japanese whaling ship yesterday after boarding it in protest at Japan’s annual whale cull in the Antarctic, anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said.

The three activists from Forest Rescue, an Australian group specialising in direct action to prevent logging, boarded the ship early on yesterday with help from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the body said.

Sea Shepherd is tailing Japan’s whaling fleet as it heads towards the Southern Ocean.

The statement described the activists as “prisoners now detained on a Japanese whaler”.