'Steve Irwin' boarded, police seize 'kill' video

By Anne Mather

Home ... the Steve Irwin is welcomed to Hobart shortly before police boarded / Picture: Sam Rosewarne

• Log book, video confiscated by police
• Video shows whale "being shot seven times"
• Activists hope they end up in court

POLICE boarded the anti-whaling ship Steve Irwin when it arrived in Hobart last night and confiscated the ship's log book and video footage.

The film depicts some of the most dramatic whale-killing scenes ever seen, crew on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship told Hobart's Mercury.

Tasmanian crew member Andrew Perry said the video footage was harrowing because the Japanese whalers had become more brazen by the end of the hunting season and for the first time slaughtered a whale in full view of the Steve Irwin.

Mr Perry said the footage, taken from the ship's helicopter, showed a whaler's explosive-tipped harpoon piercing a whale. "The whale was then pulled alongside the (Japanese) boat and it was shot seven times with a shotgun."

He said the helicopter crew, filming for TV documentary show Animal Planet, then saw the whale thrashing and could hear it screaming.

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