Japan whalers reject enviros' search help

SYDNEY, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A Japanese whaling fleet says it will not accept the help of anti-whaling protesters in searching for a crewman believed to have fallen overboard.

A statement issued by Japanese government's whaling fleet operator, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, and Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research said they have rejected help from the environmentalist group Sea Shepherd in the search for missing crewman Hajime Shirasaki in freezing Antarctic waters off Australia, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported Wednesday.

Shirasaki, 30, an engine room oiler, is thought to have fallen overboard from the Kyoshin Maru No. 2 early Monday and is now presumed dead, Kyodo said. Japan considers Sea Shepard to be an "eco-terrorist" group and accuses it of harassing the Japanese whaling fleet, including during the search for Shirasaki.

"There is a distinctly uncaring nature about Sea Shepherd people in that they are prepared to disrupt the search for a missing seaman for their own ends," Kyodo Senpaku President Kazuo Yamamura told the news agency.

But the U.S. environmentalists say on their Web site they made no effort to disrupt the search.