Rob Taylor

Two anti-whaling activists held on a Japanese whaling ship have been handed over to an Australian fisheries patrol ship in the Southern Ocean, their group said on Friday

CANBERRA, Australia; January 18, 2008.- “We received confirmation, and I’ve since spoken with one of the hostages who’s no longer being held hostage, on board the Oceanic Viking. He confirmed that they’re both completely safe,” Kim McCoy of the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society told Australian radio.

Australian Benjamin Potts and Briton Giles Lane were picked up from Japanese whale hunter Yushin Maru No.2 in the early hours of Friday and would be taken back to their protest ship the Steve Irwin later in the day.

Whaling was halted near Antarctica after the activists were detained two days ago when they scrambled aboard a Japanese whaling boat to deliver a protest letter.

Both sides accused the other of behaving like terrorists and Australia’s government offered on Wednesday to act as a neutral intermediary and pick the two men up in a fisheries patrol ship sent to the area to monitor the Japanese whaling fleet.

McCoy said protests against the Japanese whaling fleet would resume when the men were back on board the Steve Irwin.

“The moment we get them back on board we plan to resume what we came here to do, which is enforcing international conservation law,” she said.

(Reuters)

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