By Celsias
Posted on Jan. 10, 2012. Listed in:
The Japanese decision to release without charges the three members of the Forest Rescue group means that Japan and Australia have acted quickly to avoid a diplomatic row.
The three Australian citizens boarded the Shonan Maru 2, which is part of Japan's whaling fleet, to demand an end to this year's hunt in the Antarctic.
Concern that the men - Geoffrey Tuxworth, Simon Peterffy and Glen Pendlebury - would be held aboard the ship and taken back to Tokyo to face possible criminal charges faded after Japan agreed to release them without charge.
Forest Rescue trio Geoffrey Tuxworth (47) of Perth, Simon Peterffy (44) of Bunbury and Glen Pendlebury (27) of Fremantle said that they wanted to prevent the Shonan Maru from tailing the Steve Irwin , a ship owned by the Sea Shepherd group.
The Australian action is better than the fate that Pete Bethune suffered when he boarded the Japanese whaling ship and spent 5 months in a Japanese jail for doing so. Yesterday the Australian government had been very diplomatic in their statements , warning that it was tricky because the incident was not in Australia's territorial waters, but in its exclusive economic zone.
So what should we take from this. Choose a country bigger and bolder than New Zealand for your passport if you are going to board one of the whaling ships? or choose whose waters you are in very carefully ?
