Japanese whalers return 2 activists

A tense standoff in frigid Antarctic waters ended today when two activists who had jumped on board a Japanese whaling boat were returned to their ship by Australian officials.

Their exit paved the way for the Japanese fleet to resume hunting whales.

Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said the two crew members were safely back on the group’s ship, the Steve Irwin.

Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35, leaped from a rubber boat onto the deck of the Japanese ship Yushin Maru 2 on Tuesday.

Potts accused the whalers of trying to throw him overboard.

Japanese officials had acknowledged that the two intruders had briefly been tied up, but they denied that the activists had been mistreated.