The battle of wills between protesters and Japanese whalers in the Antarctic took a turn for the worse today when two activists form Sea Shepherd, were captured by the crew of a harpoon ship. Their detention occurred hours after a federal court in Sydney ordered Japan to end this year's kill of approximately 1,000 whales, ruling the hunt illegal because it is being conducted in Australia's exclusive economic zone. Giles Lane, who is British, and Benjamin Potts, an Australian, were held after boarding the Yushin Maru No. 2 ship to deliver a letter calling the voyage an "illegal" hunt. The two sides debated conflicting views' of the incident, with Sea Shepherd claiming that the crew had tried to throw Lane overboard before strapping him and Potts, 28, to a radar mast with plastic cord. "The Japanese vessel is not responding to our messages and doesn't seem to be making any attempt to return the men," said Jonny Vasic, Sea Shepherd's international director. "They are basically being held captive."
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