Environmental Impact study required for Sea Shepard Drone

Andrew Darby, Hobart

SEA Shepherd activists have received what they say is a reprimand from the Australian government over their use of aerial drones to track the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Australian Antarctic Division has told the group the drones must have an urgent environmental impact assessment if they are to be used in Antarctic Treaty waters.

The drones, with a two-metre wingspan, were used by the group last month to find the factory ship Nisshin Maru before it made Antarctic waters.

The federal government requires anyone going to the far south from an Australian port to fill in an environmental assessment under the strict environment protection rules of the Antarctic Treaty.

The group completed assessments before leaving Hobart and Fremantle last month, but an Australian Antarctic Division manager, Gillian Slocum, emailed them after the drones’ existence became public. ”I do not recall drones being included in your EIA,” she wrote.

Full story http://www.smh.com.au/world/sea-shepherd-ticked-off-over-drones-20120103-1pjjg.html