“If Japanese Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu has any sense of honor and dignity he will apologize for the lies that the Institute of Cetacean Research have made in accusing Sea Shepherd of injuring three Japanese whalers on February 11^th,” said Paul Watson, the Captain of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin.

Japan's Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu publicly condemned Sea Shepherd and told reporters on Friday, "I am full of rage. I could not believe they did such a thing."

“Well, Mr. Alamatsu, we did not do such a thing, and we have the documentation to prove that the injuries suffered by the three crewmembers on the Shonan Maru 2 were self inflicted,” said Captain Watson.

The video taken by Sea Shepherd provides irrefutable evidence that the three Japanese crewmembers were overcome with pepper spray that they had sprayed into the wind in their attempt to fire the chemical irritant at Sea Shepherd crew in an inflatable boat.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has an unblemished record of never having caused a single injury and this video evidence absolves Sea Shepherd of any blame in this incident and will expose the fact that the Institute for Cetacean Research and the crew of the Shonan Maru 2deliberately fabricated the story that they were injured by the rotten butter bombs tossed on the deck by Sea Shepherd crew.

Rotten butter is butyric acid but it is less acidic than beer, is non-corrosive, non-toxic, organic, and biodegradable. It does not irritate skin or eyes but it does stink. The pepper spray being fired by the whalers is a painful eye and skin irritant. The Japanese whalers are now aware of just how irritating it is.

The Sea Shepherd crew is not protesting whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Sea Shepherd is intervening against illegal poaching operations by the Japanese whaling fleet.

“The whalers are targeting endangered Fin whales and protected Minke whales inside the borders of an internationally established Whale Sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling, and in violation of the Antarctic Treaty. These people are poachers and they are criminals and they are no different than elephant poachers in East Africa, except that the African poachers are black, poor, and are shot for their crimes. The Japanese poachers get hit with stink bombs and then whine about how unfair it is,” said Captain Watson.

“The government of Japan should be ashamed of the lies of the Institute of Cetacean Research and the stream of propaganda the ICR spews out everyday in their pathetic effort to justify their crimes in the Southern Ocean,” said Captain Chuck Swift of the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker.

Watch the video here