Ice threatens to trap stranded Japanese whaler

CANBERRA, Feb 19 (Reuters) Ice threatened to trap a damaged Japanese whaling ship stranded off Antarctica, anti-whaling activists said today, raising fears of an environmental disaster close to a major penguin colony.

The Nisshin Maru, an 8,000 tonne Japan whaling fleet flagship, has been disabled since a fire last Thursday that killed a crewman, sparking concern oil or chemicals could spill into one of the world's last pristine seas.

The Japanese have rejected offers from environment watchdog Greenpeace to tow the stricken vessel to port in favour of attempting repairs, but activists monitoring fast-moving ice floes on behalf of the ship warned time was running out.

''There is a big finger of ice to the east of us, which is moving up and across, and there is a concern that if the wind changes and pushes that towards us, then we'll all get pinned in along the continent,'' Greenpeace spokeswoman Sarah Holden told Reuters by satellite phone from the area.

Greenpeace has become a temporary ally of the Japanese amid concerns more than 1,000 tonnes of oil on board the ship could be blown by heavy Antarctic seas onto the world's largest Adelie penguin breeding ground, 177 kilometres away.

Scout helicopters from the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza said ice packs were closing in by 5 km a day, while the Nisshin Maru drifted 48 kilometres north overnight.

''The only thing we can predict is that the ice will continue to increase and expand, because we're coming to winter,'' Holden said.

Crew on the Nisshin Maru had re-started one generator on the ship to restore power and heating, but the engines were still dead and the ship lay lashed between two other whaling vessels, Maritime New Zealand spokesman Steve Corbett said.

''Our concern and our wish is that they move north as quickly as possible,'' he said.

As the Japanese continued their efforts to move the ship, a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship involved in a collision with the whaling fleet was expected in Melbourne, where the anti-whaling crew face questions from Australian police.

Sea Shepherd was asking the public to greet the ''whale-saving crew'' as the Robert Hunter docked.

It said the ship, along with the Farley Mowat, the group's other ship expected to dock in two days, had saved two pods of whales from a planned research cull of 954 by the Japanese.

Japan has denied news reports and accusations by New Zealand's government that there is a threat of pollution from the Nisshin Maru, calling them malevolent.

Japan says its yearly whale hunts are for research and rejects accusations they are to outflank a 1986 ban on commercial whaling imposed by the International Whaling Commission.

REUTERS SP KN1124