New Zealand demanded Friday that Japan explain why a whaling ship drifting off the Antarctic has not been moved eight days after being crippled by fire.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter said New Zealand urgently wants the whale processing vessel Nisshin Maru moved out of the area to avoid an environmental disaster if the weather deteriorates and the ship founders 135 miles north of the pristine coastline.
"That ship is still stationary in the water. It has got 1,100 tons of toxic oil in it and we want it out of there," Carter said.
Japan appears determined that the ship will leave the region under its own steam, while New Zealand and conservationists say offers of help to tow the ship away should be accepted to ease fears it could spill oil or other toxic chemicals near Antarctica's largest penguin rookery.
A spokesman for Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood, said Friday, "There is no reason to move the vessel it isn't posing any threat to the Antarctic environment and the best thing to do for the safety of the crew is to complete … getting the vessel seaworthy."
Asked to respond to Carter's demands that Japan move the ship, he said, "Look, everyone wants the Nisshin Maru moved as soon as possible, no one more than Japan."
"The sooner they can get the girl (vessel) moving, the sooner they can leave that area of the Antarctic," he told The Associated Press.
The ship's main engine was restarted but the crew turned it off while they repaired the vessel's safety systems, he said.
Crew are checking the radar, autopilot and rudder controls, as well as rewiring electrical circuitry damaged in the fire, he added.
Weather in the Ross Sea, where the vessel is drifting lashed between two other whalers, is still calm and the ship is not in any danger from pack ice, Inwood said.
An international environmental coalition said Friday it has asked countries with stakes in the Antarctic to act to prevent environmental damage from the ship.
source news : abcnews.go.com
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