Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson on activist Peter Bethune: We would 'welcome him back'

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — An anti-whaling group banned one of its members for carrying a weapon onboard ship as a strategy to help him avoid prison in Japan, and he's free to rejoin its protests, the group's leader said Thursday.

A Tokyo court on Wednesday convicted New Zealander Peter Bethune of assault and obstructing Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean earlier this year, but suspended the two-year prison sentence.

Bethune, 45, climbed onto the whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 in February from a Jet Ski to confront its captain over a collision the previous month that sank the Sea Shepherd protest vessel Bethune skippered.

During the trial, Sea Shepherd announced it would not let Bethune join further protests because it found he had loaded a bow and arrows onto his vessel before it set sail -- even though he didn't intend to use them against the Japanese whaling ships.

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said Thursday that ban "was really just a legal strategy" as "the Japanese judges would [have been] hesitant to release Pete ... if they knew he was going to be [back] down in the southern ocean."

Activist who boarded Japanese whaling ship convicted in Tokyo court, receives suspended sentence

TOKYO — A Tokyo court on Wednesday convicted a New Zealand activist of assault and obstructing Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean, and sentenced him to a suspended prison term.

Peter Bethune was also found guilty on three other charges: trespassing, vandalism and possession of a knife. He had pleaded guilty to all but the assault charge when his trial started in late May.

The court sentenced Bethune to two years in prison, with the sentence suspended for five years -- meaning he will not be jailed.

The assault conviction was for throwing bottles of rancid butter at the whalers aboard their ship, including one that broke and gave several Japanese crew members chemical burns.

Bethune, 45, climbed onto the Shonan Maru 2 in February from a Jet Ski to confront its captain over the sinking of a protest vessel the previous month. He slashed a protective net with a knife, which the court said he possessed illegally, to enter the ship.

The former activist for Sea Shepherd, a U.S.-based conservation group, was held on board the ship and arrested when it returned to Japan in March.

Japanese theaters screen dolphin-hunting documentary 'The Cove' despite protests

TOKYO — "The Cove," an Oscar-winning film about a Japanese dolphin-hunting village, opened Saturday around Japan after protests by angry nationalists pressured theaters to cancel earlier showings.

Some of the six small cinemas sold out their initial shows and others were mostly empty. An additional 18 theaters are due to begin screening the film at later dates.

At Image Forum, an art theater in Tokyo, about 30 protesters waved Japanese flags and blasted slogans against the film. Police stopped shoving matches between the protesters and a handful of supporters of the showing.

Viewers were undeterred, and the first two showings at the theater were sold out.

"I didn't know about dolphin hunting. Whether it's TV or movies, Japanese have a right to know these things," Tomokazu Toshinai, 32, said as he entered the theater.

Last month, three other theaters canceled planned screenings of the film after noisy protests and a telephone campaign against the movie. Nationalist groups say the U.S.-produced film is anti-Japanese, distorts the truth and has deep connections with a militant anti-whaling organization.

Researchers look at Gulf oil spill's effects on marine mammals

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Tags, tissue samples and sound are among methods being used on a scientific cruise to study the Gulf of Mexico oil spill's effects on whales and other endangered animals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship Gordon Gunter returned to the waters Thursday after stopping in Pascagoula, its home port, for equipment and supplies.

As part of the study, listening buoys will remain on the sea floor for months, letting researchers track changes in what kinds of marine mammals show up and what they're doing as the amount of oil changes through the fall.

Cornell University scientists will lower a dozen units all around the Gulf to listen for sperm whale clicks and Bryde's (BRU-des) whale calls. Since whales use different clicks and calls while communicating, navigating and finding food, scientists can tell not only what species are around, but also what they are doing.

A new technology that can record all marine mammal species living in the Gulf, including beaked whales and a variety of dolphins, is being deployed by a group from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

June in animal news: Five questions with International Fund for Animal Welfare leader Fred O'Regan

We've invited a panel of experts on animal-protection issues to share their takes on the biggest animal-related news to happen in June and what issues animal lovers should keep an eye on in July. International Foundation for Animal Welfare (IFAW) president and CEO Fred O'Regan took our questionnaire; here's what he has to say about the recent International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting and other issues. O'Regan's answers represent his own views and not necessarily ours.

Unleashed: What do you view as the most important development in animal news to happen in June?

Fred O'Regan: It was a big victory for whales this month when a controversial proposal to legalize whaling failed at the IWC's annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco. Among the most hotly contested components of the proposal was a plan to overturn the worldwide ban on whaling, in place since 1986, by allowing legalized hunting of whales by Iceland, Norway, and Japan -- the last three countries still hunting whales commercially.

Unleashed: What were IFAW's biggest projects in June?

O'Regan: The IFAW team pulled out all stops in the weeks prior to the IWC meeting on June 21, in urging IWC member countries to reject the proposed lifting of the moratorium on whaling. Pierce Brosnan joined us in writing a letter to President Obama, asking him to reject the proposed IWC plan. We also collaborated with Pierce and his wife Keely on public service announcements and played a leadership role in rallying the conservation communities together to help stop the deal -- and we are thrilled about any role our efforts may have played in the resulting victory for the whales.

Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson placed on Interpol wanted list, Japanese coast guard says

TOKYO — The leader of a U.S.-based anti-whaling organization is now on an international wanted list for allegedly masterminding the group's disruption of Japanese whale hunts in the Antarctic Ocean, Japan's coast guard said Friday.

The move -- done at Japan's request -- signals Tokyo's escalating anger against the Sea Shepherd group, which it accuses of putting whalers' lives at risk during the annual Antarctic hunt.

The Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul Watson, 59, has been on the Interpol list since Wednesday, Coast Guard spokesman Shinichiro Tanaka said. He said Watson's whereabouts are  unknown.

Sea Shepherd officials were not immediately available for comment.

Every year, Sea Shepherd attempts to obstruct Japan's whaling mission, which it carries out under an exception to a 1986 moratorium by the International Whaling Commission.

The Japanese Coast Guard already obtained a court-issued arrest warrant for Watson in April in connection with the trial of another activist accused of obstructing Japanese whaling in the Antarctic.

Japanese court orders nationalist protesters to stay away from theater that plans to screen 'The Cove'

TOKYO — A court Friday ordered protesters to keep away from a theater that plans to show the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," about a dolphin hunt in a Japanese village.

The movie shows scenes of the bloody but legal dolphin slaughter filmed using hidden cameras, and portrays local fisherman as rough goons. Nationalist groups say it shouldn't be shown because it is anti-Japanese, distorts the truth and has connections with an anti-whaling group labeled a terrorist organization by the government.

The dispute over the film developed into a debate over free speech after initial screenings were canceled by theaters to avoid noisy protests. After prominent publishers and directors voiced their concern, at least 22 theaters have now agreed to show it.

Yokohama New Theater, a small cinema in a city next to Tokyo that plans to show the film beginning July 3, has been targeted repeatedly by protesters with bullhorns and signs. There were no protests there Friday after the main group responsible received the court order.

International Whaling Commission puts decision on whaling moratorium on hold another year; native Greenlanders get extended whaling rights

AGADIR, Morocco — Native people of Greenland won a long battle Friday to extend their annual whale hunt to humpbacks, overriding objections from conservation-minded members of the International Whaling Commission.

The decision came at the end of a contentious five-day meeting that failed to resolve a larger dispute: a proposal to suspend a quarter-century ban on commercial whaling in exchange for a promise by the three whaling countries -- Japan, Norway and Iceland -- to reduce the numbers they kill in defiance of the ban.

The commission decided on a one-year "pause" in negotiations on the commercial moratorium.

Greenlanders, like indigenous people from three other countries, are granted the right to hunt for food and to maintain traditional cultures, but only under strict quotas that are reviewed every five years.

They have been allowed to kill more than 200 of the common minke whale, but also 19 of the endangered fin whale. About half of Greenland's 60,000 people are native to the icebound island.

Researchers find 'shocking' levels of metal contaminants in the bodies of sperm whales

AGADIR, Morocco — Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.

A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.

"These contaminants, I think, are threatening the human food supply. They certainly are threatening the whales and the other animals that live in the ocean," said biologist Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the research and conservation group that produced the report.

The researchers found mercury as high as 16 parts per million in the whales. Fish high in mercury such as shark and swordfish -- the types health experts warn children and pregnant women to avoid -- typically have levels of about 1 part per million.

The whales studied averaged 2.4 parts of mercury per million, but the report's authors said their internal organs probably had much higher levels than the skin samples contained.

Delegates fail to reach a compromise at International Whaling Commission meeting

AGADIR, Morocco — An international effort to truly limit whale hunting collapsed Wednesday, leaving Japan, Norway and Iceland free to keep killing hundreds of mammals a year, even raiding a marine sanctuary in Antarctic waters unchecked.

The breakdown put diplomatic efforts on ice for at least a year, raised the possibility that South Korea might join the whaling nations and raised questions about the global drive to prevent the extinction of the most endangered whale species.

It also revived doubts about the effectiveness and future of the International Whaling Commission. The agency was created after World War II to oversee the hunting of tens of thousands of whales a year but gradually evolved into a body at least partly dedicated to keeping whales from vanishing from the Earth's oceans.

"I think ultimately if we don't make some changes to this organization in the next few years it may be very serious, possibly fatal for the organization -- and the whales will be worse off," former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer told the hundreds of delegates.

"We need this organization to function," U.S. whaling commissioner Monica Medina told the Associated Press later. "It certainly is in need of repair."