New Zealand summons Japan envoy in row over whaling ship

New Zealand has sharply criticized Japan for allowing a whaling ship to enter New Zealand’s economic waters. New Zealand said Monday that Japan ignored requests that the Shonan Maru 2 steer clear of New Zealand’s 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as the whaler pursued an anti-whaling vessel operated by protest group Sea Shepherd. The incident comes during heightened tensions over whaling. Last week, a different Japanese whaling ship and a second Sea Shepherd boat collided in the icy seas off Antarctica, with both sides blaming each other for the crash. [caption id=“attachment_1381701” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Japanese vessel Yushin Maru No. 2, center, sails alongside Sea Shepherds’ The Bob Barker, left, in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica: Associated Press[/caption] New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Japan’s latest actions were “unhelpful, disrespectful and short-sighted” and on Monday summoned Japan’s ambassador Yasuaki Nogawa to meet with a senior official, who McCully said expressed New Zealand’s “deep disappointment.” McCully said New Zealand officials in Tokyo were told by their Japanese counterparts Thursday that the whaler might enter New Zealand’s economic waters. “The New Zealand Embassy in Tokyo last week made it very clear we did not want members of the Japanese whaling fleet entering our EEZ,” McCully said, adding that “New Zealand’s strong opposition to Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean is well known and further action may be taken.” The Japanese Embassy declined immediate comment. Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, which is funded by the Japanese government, said every vessel has a right to enter another country’s economic waters and New Zealand’s request for the boat to stay away was not legally enforceable. He said the Shonan Maru 2 was monitoring the Sea Shepherd protest boat Steve Irwin following harassment near Antarctica. “It’s important for their own safety to know exactly where the Sea Shepherd pirate vessels are at all times,” Inwood said. “Despite the fact that everyone knows they try to ram the Japanese vessels and sink them, this group still has access to New Zealand and Australian ports.” Under the provisions of a United Nations treaty that has been signed by more than 160 countries including New Zealand and Japan, each country has certain sovereign rights over their economic zone. Those rights are not as strong as the rights for territorial waters, which extend 12 nautical miles from the shore. Associated Press