Indonesia did not receive any formal objections from Japan after the government rejected a Japanese whaling vessel's request to dock for repairs at a shipyard in Surabaya, East Java Province, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
"I can't comment on the details, but our position on the conservation of endangered species, including whales, is clear," said Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
The Yushin Maru 2, a registered Japanese harpoon whaling ship, was forced to leave Indonesian waters this week after failing to get approval from Indonesian authorities to dock at the state-owned PT PAL shipyard to repair a damaged propeller.
The Japanese Consulate General in Surabaya had guaranteed the vessel would not illegally fish in Indonesian waters.
Sumarto Suharno, head of the East Java Natural Resources Conservation Office, or KSDA, asked that the vessel be ordered to leave because the ship was used to hunt an endangered species......
A 1999 government regulation on endangered plants and animals formally protects blue whales, humpback whales and fin whales. The Japanese vessel was fishing for these species.
But Faizasyah said Indonesia welcomed cooperation with other countries on the whaling issue.
"It appears that our policies are similar to Australia's," he said.
Pramudya Harzani, an official with the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, said that the whaling vessel left the shipyard on Friday.
He acknowledged that Indonesia has its own whaling tradition, particularly on Lembata Island in East Nusa Tenggara Province. Villagers there have been known to hunt blue whales and sperm whales.
"It has never been a commercial operation, however," he said.
Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research has had little to say on the subject of this docking ban.
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It was earlier confirmed that the ship did receive repairs at an Indonesian port last week, contrary to reports that local authorities refused the Yushin Maru II permission to dock.
Indonesian correspondent Geoff Thompson reports that late last week conservationists in Indonesia and Australia were applauding a reported decision by port authorities in Surabaya to refuse the ship permission to dock.
The ship left dock last Thursday after protests earlier in the week.
A spokesman for the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta has also confirmed that a consular representative was at the dock last week to witness the repairs.
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