First clash of the whaling season

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The anti-whaling ship the Steve Irwin has clashed with the Japanese in the Southern Ocean for the first time in the current whaling season.

Captain Paul Watson said the Japanese security ship, the Shonan Maru 2, who has been tailing them since December 9, opened fire with two water cannon in international waters at on Monday.

The Steve Irwin crew, wet but reportedly in good spirits after the confrontation, returned fire.

The vessel, intent on shaking off the Shonan Maru 2, is heading for icy waters, hoping to outmanoeuvre the Japanese.

The Shonan Maru 2 has been deployed by the Japanese to track the Steve Irwin throughout the whaling season and try to keep it away from the whaling fleet.

Meanwhile, former round the world racing boat Earthrace, in Hobart after repairs, is awaiting clearance from New Zealand authorities before it can rejoin The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group in the Southern Ocean.

The New Zealand-flagged trimaran, which now sails as the Ady Gil, is owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The vessel has returned to Tasmania twice, once to repair its satellite communications and most recently, radar damage caused by a big wave.

Skipper and former owner Pete Bethune, of Auckland, said the boat could not travel into New Zealand waters without permission and he is waiting to get word from the Sea Shepherd's captain, Paul Watson.

"I was given assurances that it was imminent but I believe there's still nothing come through from the New Zealand Government so legally we're not allowed to go beneath the 60th parallel and I think that's what Paul Watson is waiting on before he gives us instructions to leave," he said.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully's office, which is handling the issue, said the Ady Gil only applied for permission last week.

All NZ vessels - and foreign vessels leaving NZ ports - travelling that far south were checked for their potential environmental impact and skippers were advised to allow 90 days for processing of the permission.

A spokesman for the minister said there was no intention to withhold permission, and efforts to were being made to process the application promptly.

The futuristic-looking powerboat left Hobart last Friday, on its the second attempt to depart on its Sea Shepherd whale defence campaign, but returned just eight hours later, after a wave smashed its A$6000 radar, the Hobart Mercury newspaper reported.

The wave that did the damage was more than five metres high, while the wind speed was 40 knots.

Mr Bethune hopes the Ady Gil will be in Antarctic waters this time next week.

He sailed the trimaran around the world last year in 61 days to set a new record.

During their five-month hunt last season, the Japanese fleet caught 679 minke whales and one fin whale - below the planned haul of between 765 and 935 whales, after activists threw rancid butter at the whalers, who allegedly deployed ear-piercing sonic weapons against them.

The Japanese this season have permission to kill 935 minke whales, 20 fin whales and 50 humpbacks.

- AAP and NZPA