SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called on Saturday for anti-whaling activists and Japanese whalers to show restraint, a day after an activist said he had been shot during a clash in Antarctic waters. Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd group's protest ship Steve Irwin, said on Friday he was shot, but survived because he was wearing a Kevlar vest.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called on Saturday for anti-whaling activists and Japanese whalers to show restraint, a day after an activist said he had been shot during a clash in Antarctic waters.
Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd group's protest ship Steve Irwin, said on Friday he was shot, but survived because he was wearing a Kevlar vest.
Japan's fisheries agency said coastguard officials had only thrown "flash grenades," which are used for crowd control and are not regarded as weapons, after activists threw stink bombs on to the Japanese factory ship the Nisshin Maru.
"The Australian government absolutely condemns any conduct or activity on the high seas which either causes injury or has the potential to cause injury or risk to the safety of people at sea," Smith told reporters in the western city of Perth.
!ADVERTISEMENT!"We have consistently, and I again, call on all parties to show restraint. What is required here, even in the face of great provocation, is calm and restraint."
Watson's ship has been harassing the Japanese whaling fleet for weeks. In an earlier confrontation, two activists boarded a Japanese ship in January and were held until an Australian fisheries patrol vessel intervened.
Japan, which considers whaling to be a cultural tradition, abandoned commercial whaling after agreeing to an international moratorium in 1986, but began what it calls a scientific research whaling program the following year.
It plans to kill nearly 1,000 whales during the Antarctic summer.
Australia has promised to try to stop Japan's whaling program but the two countries have agreed not to let the issue hurt bilateral ties.
Smith said the Japanese government had said no guns were fired, but he said the use of flash grenades was an unwelcome development, though he acknowledged the Japanese were under heavy provocation.
He added that the Australian Federal Police and Japanese authorities are cooperating in evaluating the reported incidents.
(Reporting by Jonathan Standing; Editing by David Fogarty)
