Anti-whalers call for cash

0

SYDNEY: Militant anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd urged supporters to dig deep yesterday as it launched its 10th harassment campaign against the Japanese fleet, saying US legal action was hitting fundraising.

Sea Shepherd director Bob Brown said the group needed US$4 million to run its annual Southern Ocean pursuit of the Japanese at the end of this year, with lawsuits filed in the US slowing donations.

“Japan is doing everything it can to put the US operation under, effectively, complete diversion by legal action,” Brown told reporters.

“An operation that in past years was funded by the US with its big philanthropic organisations has to be funded from outside the US now,” he added.

“That responsibility is on us. We depend upon the largesse of a global public that supports what we’re doing.”

Sea Shepherd was forced to shift the headquarters of its whaling campaign to Australia from the US earlier this year due to a raft of legal issues centred on fugitive founder Paul Watson and complaints from Japan. — AFP