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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A Japanese whaling ship that drifted powerless for nine days near the world's biggest penguin breeding ground had posed a huge risk to the pristine Antarctic environment, New Zealand's prime minister said Monday.
The Nisshin Maru began moving away from the Antarctic coast under its own power Sunday, 10 days after being crippled by fire. The 8,000-ton whale-meat processing ship, which is carrying 343,000 gallons of fuel oil, had been drifting in the Ross Sea lashed to two other whaling fleet boats.
"When you have a boat disabled like that, with a chance it could sink and go down with all that fuel on board — and there was a lot of it — that poses a huge risk to the Antarctic environment," New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Monday.
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