NZ won't quickly rescue hurt whalers, protesters

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – New Zealand will not be able to quickly rescue anyone who gets lost or hurt if clashes erupt between animal rights activists and Japanese whalers off the north Antarctic coast, the foreign minister said Saturday.

                        

The whaling fleet left Japan
earlier this month and is expected to focus its hunt for about 1,000
whales in the Ross Sea, where New Zealand is responsible for
search-and-rescue missions under international law. Animal rights group Sea Shepherd has vowed to disrupt the hunt.

                        

Last
year, a Japanese crewman died in a fire on a ship, an anti-whaling
vessel twice collided with a whaling ship, and two protesters spent
several hours lost at sea in freezing conditions. New Zealand airlifted
a Japanese whaler who fell gravely ill in its territorial waters.

                        

If
someone is hurt in a confrontation between whalers and protesters, they
will have to depend on other ships in the area for help because New
Zealand does not have the capacity to deploy vessels to the Ross Sea in
anticipation of trouble, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.

                        

"New Zealand will not be able to deal quickly with incidents where someone is required to be rescued," McCully said.  LINK