Sydney: A tense standoff in frigid Antarctic waters ended today when two activists who had jumped on board a Japanese whaling boat were returned to their ship by Australian officials.

The transfer paved the way for the Japanese fleet to resume killing whales, and for their staunchest opponents to restart their campaign of harassment to stop them. The Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking shuttled the two activists, Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35, between Japanese harpoon boat Yushin Maru 2 and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessel Steve Irwin, officials said.

Potts and Lane triggered the standoff when they leaped from a rubber boat onto the deck of the Japanese ship on Tuesday, and were grabbed by whalers, briefly tied up and then locked in a cabin.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australian Federal Police were investigating complaints in connection to the incident to determine if any laws had been broken. Sea Shepherd had said the pair wanted to deliver an anti-whaling letter and then leave, and accused the whalers of taking their members hostage.

Japanese officials said the activists were acting like pirates. The dispute underscored the high-stakes nature of the contest fought each year in the remote and dangerous seas at the far south of the world, thousands of kilometers from the possibility of regular emergency or rescue services.

Potts today accused the whalers of trying to throw him overboard in the minutes immediately after he and his colleague boarded the Yushin Maru.

Source : PTI