Tokyo - - A crew member on Japan's controversial whaling mission is believed to have fallen overboard in icy Antarctic Ocean waters, the fleet's operator said on Tuesday.
A 30-year-old oiler, Hajime Shirasaki, did not report on Monday to his assignment in the engine room of the Kyoshin Maru No. 2, the fleet's vessel in charge of sighting whales.
"We are searching for him as he is thought to have fallen overboard," said Hirohisa Shigemune, an official at the whaling fleet's operator Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd.
He said four whaling ships were looking for him. However, it is difficult to survive for long in the Antarctic Ocean due to the low temperature.
Authorities in Tokyo said they reported the incident to the coast guard in New Zealand, which along with Australia strongly opposes Japan's whaling.
The whaling operator was researching the cause of the incident but there was no apparent link to environmentalists who have been disrupting the annual hunt.
Japan kills hundreds of whales a year in the name of research despite an international moratorium on commercial whaling.
Tokyo makes no secret that the meat ends up on dinner tables and accuses Westerners of insensitivity to its whaling culture. - AFP